Bucket list of places I want to go to in my lifetime

I asked my friends on facebook where are some of the places they'd like to go to. The answers are as varied and different yet also a reflection of the person as well. Here are some of their answers:
"Machu Picchu
Giza
Angor Wat
Athens, Greek ruins
Murmansk
Rio during Carnival
Congan plateau
Great Barrier Reef"

"Japan, Singapore."

"Australia!!!!"

"Africa!"

"Istambul"

"Mars."

"Morocco, please!"

"Scotland, Ireland, & Wales."

"Maldives, Madagascar, Galapagos, Peru, India, various places in Africa, Jordan... Frankly, if I've never been, I wouldn't turn a lot of places down!"    

"Cappadocia, Myanmaar, Machu Picchu, Turkey" 

"I want to visit all the countries where all my friends live. That might take a while"

"London"

"Devils pool, Victoria falls!"   

"Oh god, too many to count....Madagascar, Turkey, Iran, Thailand, Australia, Machu Picchu, Brazil...." 

"Japan. And not just the cities, I want to see the mountains and the countryside. Preferably when the cherry blossoms are in bloom."

"Niʻihau!"

In front of Kensington Palace in London, July 2013

I think bucket lists are really personal at times because it reflects what the persons' interests are and who they are as a person. I have an entire Pinterest board that I've pinned places I want to see.  




Here's my top 50 bucket list (which I'm constantly adding so its more like 100):

1) New York City - check. I loved living in the city from the moment I first set foot there, I fell deeply in love with the city.

2) London - check. Beautiful architecture, vibrant cultural city, and polite English hospitality. Yes, I know that Londoners are the "rude" side compared to their English and Scottish counterparts but coming from New York...

3) Hokkaido, Japan

4) Bali, Indonesia - check. I had my 29th birthday celebration last year in Bali. Ubud was really magical. The Balinese are gracious, calming, and polite people.

5) Stockholm & Göteborg, Sweden

6) Phuket, Thailand

7)  Reykjavik, Iceland

8) Copenhagen, Denmark

9) Amsterdam, The Netherlands

10) Zermatt-Matterhorn, Switzerland

11) Shanghai, China

12) Vancouver, Canada

13) Lake Tahoe, NV/CA. - check. One of the most beautiful places I've skied. The views of Lake Tahoe are breathtaking. The ski resort I was at allowed us to ski from CA to NV.

14) Aspen, CO.

15) Lake Placid, NY

16) Nice, France

17) Milan, Italy

18) Venice, Italy

19) Paris, France

20) San Francisco, CA. - check. I have been there a few times to visit friends and family. Each time is a different experience. It is one of my favorite cities in the world. The people, food, cultural vibrancy, and beautiful CA views.

21) Disney World, Orlando, FL - check. Spent a whirlwind impromptu weekend traveling to Disney World and zipped through Epcot, Disney world, Disney Safari. I grew up going to Tokyo Disneyland and for a long time during my childhood, I thought it was Mickey & Minnie Mouse were Japanese. When I went to Disneyland for the first time in Anaheim, my brain was so confused as to why everything was in American-English! After the age of 10, I realized that the Disney characters were from Cali but it still confused my brain. I wasn't used to hearing Mickey speaking in English! hahaha. What a treat to go to the largest Disney theme park(s) in the world and have my childhood dream come true.

22) Washington D.C. - check. We traveled to DC for Memorial Day weekend in 2009 and Chameleon toured there in 2010 a couple times. It was really exciting to see the White House, Washington Monument, Abraham Lincoln's statue, Capitol building, etc. All of the major US Government institutions are there.

23) Rome, Italy

24) Pyramids in Egypt

25) Berlin, Germany

26) Brussels, Belgium

27) Taipei, Taiwan

28) Boracay, Philippines

29) Montreal, Canada - check. Beautiful city, a mix of French/Canadian/North American. Culturally vibrant. I'd only spent a weekend there and I'd love to go back there and explore it more.

30) Seoul, Korea.

31) Los Angeles, CA. - check. I spent summers in LA as a teen and then ended up going to college in LA. Beautiful weather & beautiful beaches. There is a part of me that remains that cool California girl vibe despite my type-A New York tendencies.

32) Mount Fuji, Japan

33) Hawaii

34) Geneva, Switzerland

35) Seville, Spain

36) Madrid, Spain

37) Vienna, Austria

38) Prague, Czech Republic

39) St. Mortiz, Switzerland

40) Tuscany, Italy

41) Naples, Italy

42) Edinburgh, Scotland. - check. Toured here this summer for the festival. Great atmosphere, nice people, a lot of history, decent food, walking friendly. I had a great time!

43) Okinawa, Japan

44) Ibiza, Spain

45) Melbourne, Australia

46) Gold Coast, Australia

47) Great wall of China.

48) New Orleans, LA

49) Cape Town, South Africa

50) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

TCKs are like family

TCK Meetup during the Annual Dumpling Festival 2011

I've been co-event organizer for the New York City Third Culture Kids Meetup group for a couple years now and loving how I've forged really good friendships through the group especially the other organizers (Hi Aradhana & Eddie!).

I haven't written much about the group because I've been busy organizing events and coming up with ideas for the next meetups as they have been varied from formal discussions to picnic in Central Park (we just had our 2nd annual picnic!) to also promoting Chameleon to TCKs and booking performance gigs for A.H. Dance Company to perform Chameleon in different cities (and my other jobs as well!)... time seems to be limited.

I'm a member of several organizations and meetup groups but the one that has seemed to make it onto my social calendar is a TCK meetup. The biggest reason is that I really like meeting TCKs and connecting with them on the level that my non-TCK friends (I have plenty of non-TCK friends) seem to overlook or just don't understand.

TCK Picnic in Central Park 2011

TCK Picnic in Central Park 2012; Photo Credit: Aradhana Hinds

These meetups are super fun and sometimes we have a HUGE turnout and other times, its not as big. Most important of all, we create a warm environment to include TCKs and non-TCKs alike.

TCK Picnic in Central Park 2012; Photo Credit: Eddie Nwabuoku

I meet a lot of TCKs and especially the past few years since performing and touring Chameleon to different cities. I always try to meet up with the local based TCKs. I think its because I need to find my grounding and get the inside scoop on what the city has to offer from the TCK standpoint of view. I'm friends with a lot of TCK/Expat folks in the research world and the online communities so its always nice to put a face to the online persona. In TCK terminology, I'm what you would call a "screamer" but I didn't use to be this way.

We are setting up a TCK Summer book club and our first book is Ruth Van Reken's "Letters Never Sent". I am reminded by her letters the private journals I kept chronicling my very frustration for not "fitting in" or that "no one understood me" and that I would always be alone, etc. It came from a deep dark place of depression and anxiety that left me extremely troubled. Finding out that there are others similar to me, I sought out to find TCKs through Livejournal (before all the social media we use today) and through my universities' online message boards to find local TCKs. I then used my artistic creative talents to make a production based on my story and other TCKs stories using dance and film as my senior project. Years after that, TCKid, Facebook, Denizen, highly visible famous TCKs, and more publications on TCKs surfaced and I went back to the ideas, literature, and production elements to create Chameleon.

It has been a cathartic process for me. I'm also helping a lot of TCKs through the project and making lots of TCK friends. I am very grateful for all of those who I've met through Chameleon and through the Meetup group. My family is many thousands of miles away and to have a TCK family here is just priceless.

- Alaine