A few months ago, I gave a speech at a local university here in the Portland area. If you’re interested, you can listen to the full speech here. In short though, the goal was to talk to design students about who I am, a little bit about my history and… Read more
The Most Frequently Asked Questions I Get
I’m answering the questions I get asked a lot, both in my daily life and online. And if you have any more, feel free to leave them in the comments. Ok, here we go! Why was I born and raised on Saudi Arabia? Were my parents in the military? So… Read more
All the Best Parts of Growing Up an Expat Kid
I’ve written quite a bit on Land of Marvels about my experiences growing up as an expat kid in Saudi Arabia and while truthfully, it took me a long time to come to terms about what that exactly meant in my life, especially as an adult, I can say now… Read more
Fly Away With Me : Saudi Arabia
For my first installment of my newest series, Fly Away With Me, I figured that I should begin with a country that is often very misunderstood and one that means a great deal to me personally – my birthplace and childhood home: Saudi Arabia. I was born in Dammam, Saudi… Read more
20 Years on from Repatriation
20 years ago this Summer, my family left our home in Saudi Arabia. We packed up everything we owned in shipping containers, sent our furniture across the ocean on a boat that took months. We spent our final week in our home on the Persian Gulf saying goodbye to everyone… Read more
To the Parents of Expat Kids
I’ve often talked here on Land of Marvels about my childhood growing up in the Middle East as an expat kid. And in the time I’ve written about my experiences here on my blog as an expat and then as a Third Culture Kid, moving back to the States, to… Read more
How the Middle East Changed My Life
With so much in the news lately about the Middle East and with what’s happening in that part of the world these days, I find myself continuously drawn back to my memories of growing up there. If you’re new here, I’ve written a lot about my birthplace and subsequent childhood… Read more
10 Realities that Third Culture Kid’s Live With
If you’re new here or not aware, I grew up in Saudi Arabia. I was born in an Arab hospital in Dammam, Saudi Arabia and lived there all throughout my childhood. It was home. It wasn’t until years later as a teenager in small town USA that I came across… Read more
You Know You’re a Third Culture Kid When…
I haven’t written anything for a while on my childhood in the Middle East, though for numerous reasons as of late it’s been on my mind a lot. Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been different had I not been born in Saudi Arabia and every time… Read more
5 Places That Will Change Your Perspective
The world is full of places that change you as you travel, places that you remember for different things or that move you, but certain places change how you see the world entirely, how you look at things in your own life or those around you. Certain places in the… Read more
How Saudi Arabia Shaped Me
Happy Labor Day to all the Americans! I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend, I know I am enjoying the 3 day holiday with a lazy weekend at home in Portland. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know somewhat of my background. I… Read more
I Never Felt Like an Expat
It’s the end of the week and it’s been a while since I’ve posted on my childhood growing up as an expat kid in the Middle East and in the last few days, a few different things have come up that have made me look back at how I grew… Read more
Embracing My Passport
For many years after moving back to the States from Saudi, I felt sort of ashamed of being American, and maybe ashamed isn’t the right word, but I felt just wrong calling myself truly American, wrong carrying a blue American passport because I didn’t really feel “American.” Growing up overseas,… Read more
A Little Bit About Me : Part I
It’s October, my favorite month of the year! Partially due to the fact that my birthday is this month, but also because I love this time of the year, the colors are changing, the rain is falling and my coats are out in full swing. So for a number of… Read more
Coming Home as a TCK
Happy Monday!I’ve talked before about my background and growing up in Middle East, my heritage as a third culture kid (TCK) and a bit about what my childhood was like abroad. But in the span of the last few weeks, I’ve been reading so many posts from other bloggers on… Read more