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Expat Alien
This book is out of print. New updated version to come!
270 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 2012
50 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen Gamble
4 books20 followersKathleen Gamble Pilugin was born and raised overseas and has lived in Burma, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Russia and around the USA. She has a BA in Spanish and has worked in publishing, printing, desktop publishing, translating, and purchasing.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 8, 2013
Kathleen Gamble is a true gobal nomad and Third Culture Kid. Born in Burma, she takes readers through her years of growing up in several different countries around the world, while finally moving back to the U.S as an adult. Kathleen chronicles her many experiences, both good and bad, which she and her family endured while living overseas, and during the years when there were no cellphones or computers. Her life of travel ultimately turned her into the worldly and independent person that she is today.
There were so many things in Expat Alien that I could relate to myself. As an overseas educator, I visited some of the same countries and lived through some of the same experiences as Kathleen. It is always great to come across a person, and an author, who is a kindred spirit. That is what I imagined of Kathleen while reading about her life. Some time I would love to sit and chat with her about her experiences in Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, and Europe, all places that I have also visited or lived in.
I still live the life of an expat and my children, like Kathleen and her son, are TCK's (Third Culture Kids). My children spent their youth moving around the world and also learned to call home "wherever they may be." They also made lifelong friends with the kids that they went to school with in Ghana and Mexico. Like Kathleen, they learned other languages and to look beyond skin color. As a result of living abroad, I believe that my children have also become more adaptable, independent, wordly, and patient adults.
Expat Alien is an informative and entertaining read, which is filled with descriptive and honest language about Kathleen's family and her unconventional life. While reading Expat Alien, one gets the opportunity to visit several amazing countries without ever leaving their house. After reading about Kathleen's adventures in such exotic places, it will either make you want to move abroad, or begin your own exciting life of travel!
Jill Dobbe, Author
HERE WE ARE & THERE WE GO: Teaching and Traveling With Kids in Tow
There were so many things in Expat Alien that I could relate to myself. As an overseas educator, I visited some of the same countries and lived through some of the same experiences as Kathleen. It is always great to come across a person, and an author, who is a kindred spirit. That is what I imagined of Kathleen while reading about her life. Some time I would love to sit and chat with her about her experiences in Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, and Europe, all places that I have also visited or lived in.
I still live the life of an expat and my children, like Kathleen and her son, are TCK's (Third Culture Kids). My children spent their youth moving around the world and also learned to call home "wherever they may be." They also made lifelong friends with the kids that they went to school with in Ghana and Mexico. Like Kathleen, they learned other languages and to look beyond skin color. As a result of living abroad, I believe that my children have also become more adaptable, independent, wordly, and patient adults.
Expat Alien is an informative and entertaining read, which is filled with descriptive and honest language about Kathleen's family and her unconventional life. While reading Expat Alien, one gets the opportunity to visit several amazing countries without ever leaving their house. After reading about Kathleen's adventures in such exotic places, it will either make you want to move abroad, or begin your own exciting life of travel!
Jill Dobbe, Author
HERE WE ARE & THERE WE GO: Teaching and Traveling With Kids in Tow
September 9, 2012
If you’ve ever lived or simply dream of living in a foreign country, then Kathleen Gamble’s book Expat Alien: My Global Adventure, is for you. I was first introduced to Kathy and her well told stories of travel and adventure through her blog, also known as the Expat Alien. Kathy and I are two American girls who were both born in the fifties, but while I grew up on the steady shores of our homeland, she grew up wandering the world.
Her parents and two brothers started their great expat adventure in 1952, when they first moved to Burma, where Kathy was later born. Throughout most of the years the family lived abroad her father worked with the Ford Foundation, in Third World Agriculture.
The story moves along at a fast and exciting pace as we follow the family to Mexico, Nigeria and Columbia. They travel across Europe and Kathy attends boarding school in Switzerland. If it’s excitement your looking for, there’s also a plane crash, a military coup and an earthquake.
Having barely spent anytime at all in America before starting college there, Kathy has just as much trouble relating to her peers as they do to her. Feeling different and isolated she spirals into a case of severe reverse culture shock.
Later she marries a Russian American and when he takes a job in Moscow, she follows. Here we get an inside look at what its like to live, work and raise a family in Moscow. Nine years later they are forced out under unfortunate circumstances and return to the States to start again. After losing everything, she is forced into making tough decisions for both herself and her son.
Kathy’s story gives superb insight as to what its like growing up globally and as exciting as that is, there were times I felt sad for her. This is an honest and riveting account of her journey.
Her parents and two brothers started their great expat adventure in 1952, when they first moved to Burma, where Kathy was later born. Throughout most of the years the family lived abroad her father worked with the Ford Foundation, in Third World Agriculture.
The story moves along at a fast and exciting pace as we follow the family to Mexico, Nigeria and Columbia. They travel across Europe and Kathy attends boarding school in Switzerland. If it’s excitement your looking for, there’s also a plane crash, a military coup and an earthquake.
Having barely spent anytime at all in America before starting college there, Kathy has just as much trouble relating to her peers as they do to her. Feeling different and isolated she spirals into a case of severe reverse culture shock.
Later she marries a Russian American and when he takes a job in Moscow, she follows. Here we get an inside look at what its like to live, work and raise a family in Moscow. Nine years later they are forced out under unfortunate circumstances and return to the States to start again. After losing everything, she is forced into making tough decisions for both herself and her son.
Kathy’s story gives superb insight as to what its like growing up globally and as exciting as that is, there were times I felt sad for her. This is an honest and riveting account of her journey.
June 12, 2013
I had been lucky to have been raised overseas for half of my childhood, only being 20 as I write, which was why I recently found myself dwelling over how my own experiences have shaped me into the person I am today, just as Gamble reveals herself through 'Expat Alien'.
It was refreshing to be able to read a simple memoir that continuously engaged with me as I followed her journey from childhood to the time of writing the book. Gamble delivers a clear account of her personal experiences in being a Third Culture Kid, without the need of any over-the-top, profound reflections about her experiences - she tells it just how it is, and it works superbly.
I began assessing my own experiences under my expatriate childhood very recently, opting to compose my University dissertation around the subject. Kathleen's book is the first of many books I aim to read about travel and identity, in being a 'Global Nomad'. Gamble has evidenced just how effective a simple memoir can be, especially to those who can relate to the words on her pages.
Her novel is more than merely an account of her own life in reaching out to those just like herself who have been born outside their passport country, just as she intended it to be. In wishing to connect with other Third Culture Kids, Gamble reassures just how rewarding this way of life can be simply through her own personal travels.
It was refreshing to be able to read a simple memoir that continuously engaged with me as I followed her journey from childhood to the time of writing the book. Gamble delivers a clear account of her personal experiences in being a Third Culture Kid, without the need of any over-the-top, profound reflections about her experiences - she tells it just how it is, and it works superbly.
I began assessing my own experiences under my expatriate childhood very recently, opting to compose my University dissertation around the subject. Kathleen's book is the first of many books I aim to read about travel and identity, in being a 'Global Nomad'. Gamble has evidenced just how effective a simple memoir can be, especially to those who can relate to the words on her pages.
Her novel is more than merely an account of her own life in reaching out to those just like herself who have been born outside their passport country, just as she intended it to be. In wishing to connect with other Third Culture Kids, Gamble reassures just how rewarding this way of life can be simply through her own personal travels.
October 27, 2013
All who live a life of constant transfers,even if not overseas will be able to relate
My career Air Force father was only stationed overseas once to England when I was a kid,but he was constantly getting transferred and we would have to move again.I thought how different our life was when I married and my husband's family was still living in the same house as when he was born,and the lifelong friends they had.
Just as our government refuses to acknowlege the evil of war and the effects of it on every soldier,they also ignore what constant uprooting and change,without constants does to each person.
This book addresses many of those experiences we have had.Far overdue.
My career Air Force father was only stationed overseas once to England when I was a kid,but he was constantly getting transferred and we would have to move again.I thought how different our life was when I married and my husband's family was still living in the same house as when he was born,and the lifelong friends they had.
Just as our government refuses to acknowlege the evil of war and the effects of it on every soldier,they also ignore what constant uprooting and change,without constants does to each person.
This book addresses many of those experiences we have had.Far overdue.
Want to read
February 25, 2016kindle 272 (travel stories)
September 14, 2013
I found this book disappointing and somewhat disjointed.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews