<p>To extend HeliMom’s thread: How many countries have you resided in before reaching legal adulthood (I’ll use 21)</p>
<p>I have had the privilege of seven (including the U.S.) in eleven cities/towns/locations. Along the way I studied, picked up and used seven languages. </p>
<p>Somehow I feel responsible in my own little way for ushering in the “Global Age”, yet I detest the term as much as I do referring to Earth as “the planet” – as if it were dispensable – that as soon as we can practicably locate and inhabit a new one (which is, by the way, just dying to be exploited), we will do so – but do not hold your breath, lol (think 100,000 years or so, IF we get lucky)! </p>
<p>And, to those who feel otherwise, that this earth of ours is somehow so transient that within perhaps the next few generations we will be rid of it, I say “Good luck with that!”. </p>
<p>Earth has never felt more like “home” than it does now, despite technology that enables us to transmit messages like this one for all the world to see (literally) at something near the speed of light…</p>
<p>Gee whiz, Opie, did ya have to go and change the subject? </p>
<p>But, yes, if you mean those poor, young, fellow citizens in Iraq, they are seeing it the hard way. In their case the “privilege” may be in serving their country…</p>
<p>No, not where they have been, but how many countries they have lived in before their 21st birthday. So far no takers. I am rather suprised. Someone help me out here…</p>
<p>oops… only three. I sure am a loser here…hehe</p>
<p>somewhere on here I read about “depth of travel” or “of experience”… now that’s important.</p>
<p>I know many American “global citizens” who lived, woked and/or studied in many other counries, but in most times (not always) they are obliged to be confined somehow and for reasons we all know to an all-american community even abroad, which waters down the experience…alot!</p>
<p>“Learning” the visted country’s heritage and even pop-culture is a significant plus.</p>
<p>USA, Thailand, Japan, Somalia, Tanzania, France before 21. All except France at least two years. However I’d agree that attending international schools is not the same as living with the locals. I got to know France in a very different way living with a French family. And later living and working in Germany was another order of magnitude deeper.</p>
<p>England, Scotland, Wales (er, so three or one depending on your views on the United Kingdom!), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India. And I will live in the US by the time I’m sixteen, so I guess that’s seven or five depending on your point of view. :D</p>
<p>Wow, not many responses! We are a small club aren’t we?!</p>
<p>I should have thought that a number of the “grand posters” on CC, who are continually offering their “worldly” opinions, had been born and raised on the global scale.</p>
<p>to those whe resided in Oman, KSA, UAE, and other “Muslim” countries, I suppose you were heaviely sperated from the local culture? Did you go to indian schools there?</p>