You know you are in Northern Sweden when it is already snowing on October 22^nd. It didn’t stick to the ground, but I built a mini-snowman. I had a wonderful time with my friends, and had a lab meeting via Skype. Now I am back in Stockholm, where we celebrated Diwali yesterday.

I have learned what it means to be a TCK – Third Culture Kid. When I was in Namibia visiting my sister over the summer, I met a family at Sossus Dune Lodge. (The photo that is at the top of this blog is actually from Sossusvlei, in Namibia. This is one of the most beautiful places I have been, with the dead trees over a dehydrated pan of a lake, and the huge sand dunes at sunrise). The mother was from Sri Lanka, and the father was from Netherlands, and they told me the definition of a third culture kid. As I am a mix of Indian and Lithuanian, but grew up in the USA and spent significant time in Sweden and elsewhere, I am a classic TCK. This means I have relatives all over the world, several passports, and holidays that include Diwali and Easter. There are strong ties to my parents’ homelands, yet no single “home”. I will be in Vilnius soon, and hopefully in India sometime next year. The shoes and jacket I am wearing are from Sweden, my shirt and belt from India, and my t-shirt from San Francisco. I am equally comfortable and at home in Stockholm as I am in San Francisco. Here is a website describing typical characteristics of TCK kids. I think there are a lot of TCKs now, but I don’t meet too many who are my age.

I will write next from Vilnius.