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Today, I have the great pleasure of talking to Expat Empire founder David McNeill.  Originally from the United States, David has lived in Beijing, Tokyo and Berlin, and is currently based in Porto, Portugal.He started Expat Empire because he has a genuine passion for living abroad, and wants to inspire people to move and show them how to do it. He has produced books, podcasts and blog posts, organizes meetup events and offers personalized consulting services to give everyone the opportunity to achieve their international dreams. In our chat, we cover a whole range of topics, from the importance of having a dream and the willingness to take risks, to learning patience and trusting (and honing) your intuition in order to move forward.If you're planning a move abroad, or if you're an expat who feels stuck in your current situation and are looking for change or an improvement of your circumstances, make sure you take a look at David's website, Expat Empire. You can contact him directly by email at david@expatempire.com, and follow him on Instagram.And if you're thinking of moving to Japan, check out his book "Passport to working in Japan".

My very special guest today is Feli from Munich, aka German Girl in America (that's her YouTube channel). I love talking to people with a similar background, and in typical German fashion, we jumped right into all the dicey topics you avoid in polite conversation in America: ignorance when it comes to world matters, sex, politics, religion, and many more. We had a blast!Feli explains how she ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and what prompted her to launch her YouTube channel, and more recently, her podcast, Understanding Train Station.  (Listen to this episode if you want to find out what the title means!)Find Feli on Instagram: @german_girl_in_america , and @understandingtrainstation. Feli - German Girl in America

My guest today is Etienne, whom I met through my husband's work, and who I knew within five minutes of meeting absolutely had to be a guest on my podcast. Originally from South Africa, Etienne has lived in Germany and then moved to the US in 2000 with his South African wife. They now live in San Diego, CA, with their three children.Our conversation topics span the full US expat spectrum, and include gems such as: accents, especially German and South African Afrikaaner and English differences in South African culturethe intricacies of bringing up your children with multiple languagesmusings and insights into the American psyche the pros and cons of reinventing yourself & the price you pay for leaving your home comfortssausages in all shapes and formsAmerican chocolateWe also seem to dedicate an inordinate amount of time talking about Starbucks.The Netflix show I mention but couldn't remember the title of, starring German comedian Anke Engelke, is called The Last Word. It is a brilliant example of German humour.Etienne de Bruin

Here's my take on a traditional but not entirely typical German Christmas (is there such a thing?).After my intro, I'm reading two of last year's blog posts I wrote about Christmas traditions in the US, UK and Germany, and the mix my family has created. If you've already read them, feel free to skip ahead to minute 19.If you'd like to check out the posts on my website, click here for Part 1, and here for Part 2.  One of my favourite German (or rather Bavarian/Austrian) Christmas carols is "Es wird scho glei dumpa" (It will soon be dark). You can check out the lyrics with a literal English translation. If you'd like to hear the carol, listen to this amazing A Capella version, or Hubert von Goisern's version (it’s not a great recording, but you’ll get the idea, and he's a wonderful artist). You can watch “Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel“ (three wishes for Cinderella) with English subtitles on YouTube!Please don't forget you can donate to Refugees International through my donation portal right here.Guten Rutsch!!

Today's guest is Rachel from YouTube channel "Meet the Germans"! I always love talking to people with a connection to Germany, and Rachel being a Brit in Germany was a double whammy of fun for me. Apart from comparing notes on German and British culture, we also discuss what it's like to move in stages, and the importance of moving on your own terms, especially when it comes to your career, so you don't end up being a trailing spouse.Other topics include the German obsession with asparagus, bad internet infrastructure, carnival hysteria, and the crime that is the dubbing of TV series and films.Please go and find Rachel's show on YouTube! You can find her on the Deutsche Welle Euromaxx YouTube Channel, and of course, check out her Instagram.Episodes of Meet the Germans that we talk about in particular are:Small TalkAsparagusFilm dubbing And please don't forget to consider a donation to Refugees International. You can do this by visiting my website and scrolling down to the Psst! Section to find the "Buy me a Coffee" button, or go straight to my Ko-Fi page. Thank you so much!!!Rachel Stewart

Today's guest is Oscar, a software engineer from Uruguay. At the age of 17, he ventured away from his home country to achieve his career dreams, but eventually decided to put family first and return to Uruguay, after living in the US, the UK and Portugal. We discuss what it's like to find your place in the world when your sense of belonging is askew, and you constantly question your identity, and how certain life events make our minds up for us.  Other conversation topics range from navigating British social norms and sense of humour, to craft beer and international hand gestures, as well as raising multilingual children and trying to establish English customs in a Latin American country.I found Oscar's story really inspiring: belonging everywhere and nowhere, loving your family and the countries that become part of you, while keeping your sense of humour - a perfect recipe for years like this one!  Oscar Mariani

Today, I'm joined by Dr. Laura Anderson, child and family psychologist with her own multicultural background.  Dr. Anderson specializes in global families, adoptive families and those raising gender expansive children and adolescents, as well as treating children and teens suffering from anxiety and depression. The range of topics we cover in our conversations are so valuable and interesting to all parents, not only global families, and if you are the parent of a teenager, or a pre-teen, I'd highly recommend listening!A big topic we talk about is parental guilt, as added mobility and options always lead to a rise in feelings of guilt and fear. We discuss how you can avoid falling into that trap, and a "recipe" (27:50) for more successful transitions, using the following ingredients:child inputpreparation / preparednessacceptance of discomfort / grief, loss, fearsense of being in this togethermaintaining boundaries: no decisions out of guilt or fearThe book we mention is Raising Global Teens, by Dr. Anisha Abraham, a practical handbook for parenting in the 21st century.If you'd like to find out more about Dr. Anderson, visit her website, or find her Common Chord Psychology page on Facebook.   Laura Anderson

My guest today is Sophie, whom I met at work here in Austin. She was in total disguise when we met; to me, she sounded just like any other American girl in her twenties, and I had no idea she was a TCK with a very varied international background, until I heard her speak Italian on the phone. I'm so happy she wanted to be interviewed for my podcast, and it was fascinating to hear her family's story and her perspective as a TCK. We talk about the difficulties of being thrown into a new country with a new language at a young age, what it's like to maintain friendships over time and distance, and how tough it can be to reveal, and be proud of your full self when you're surrounded by people who don't necessarily want to hear the whole story. And if you want to check out today's sponsor: https://roomsteals.com/Sophie Durre

It's been just over 6 months since I launched the podcast! As I don't have a new guest this week, I thought I'd use myself as a substitute. And as a special touch to celebrate this half-anniversary, I decided to do this not only in English, BUT ALSO IN GERMAN. So if you'd rather listen to my ramblings in German, or if you just want to know what I sound like speaking my mother tongue, just download the next episode, 15 b. Or better still, download both, anyway. You know you want to!!The content is pretty much the same, of course, I veer off track from time to time, couldn't help myself. The Medium article I read from can be found here.  

Here's the German version of the last episode!Und hier das Ganze auf Deutsch! Ich hatte ein wenig Zeit und Lust, mal wieder meine Muttersprache zu benutzen.Wer Interesse an dem Artikel bei Medium hat, hier ist der Link.  

My guest today is Terry Anne Wilson, a Canadian-born expat of 30 years, who has spent the last two years back in her passport country. She is the author of Monday Morning Emails, which she co-wrote with fellow expat Jo Parfitt, and we talk about this wonderful memoir at length. I can't recommend it enough, it's a lyrical, honest and heartbreaking account of two families' expat lives, and has so much to offer (not only to expat families). Terry Anne is working on other writing projects and workshops, and you can find out more about her life on her website (including her blog).Topics that come up through talking about her book are mental health and expat parent guilt, the importance of roots and how to make peace with your life once your nomadic days are over. Terry Anne shares what helped her get there, including her "Wonder Room", "Serendipity Fridays", and how the COVID19 crisis has forced her to really arrive "home".We also mention the wonderful global expat organisation FIGT, Families in Global Transition, which I absolutely urge you to check out, and we bring up another author and expert in the area of third culture and cross cultural kids and global families, Ruth Van Reken.Please don't forget to subscribe to my podcast. I so enjoy being part of the expat AND the podcast community!Terry Anne Wilson

Today I'm talking to Nate Ritter, an American travel enthusiast who, after a somewhat aborted attempt at living in France, describes himself as a "failed expat". We're talking about his adventures trying to live in France with his wife, why no failure is really a failure, and how his experiences have contributed to him setting up his hotel room savings business, Room Steals. We talk about the big topic of learning a new language and some tricky pronunciations (if you're listening to this with young children around, be warned: we do mention a certain male body part...). And of course, we also throw in quite a few French stereotypes for good measure! Nate's message: keep trying, learn from your mistakes, and don't settle for just one country when there's a whole world to explore.The book I mention is Lynne Murphy's The Prodigal Tongue. Lynne Murphy also has a blog, Separated by a common language.Nate Ritter

My guest today is Jacqueline, and old friend of mine from the good old California days. This episode was recorded in early March, before Coronavirus changed everything. Jacqueline is originally from the UK, has lived in France, California, back in the UK, and now lives in Connecticut with her husband and the youngest of their three children - the older two are attending university in the UK (although currently, due to the pandemic, staying with the family in CT). We discuss her multiple moves and what it's like to create stability and roots for your family when you don't have that permanent physical family home. We also talk about friends, and how hard it is to make new ones as you get older. And of course we compare notes on all the things we miss from the UK!Here's a link to the American school in Thorpe, England, that we talk about:https://www.tasisengland.org/Jacqueline Jeffries

In this episode, I talk to Micah, an American transplant in England. After several hops back and forth across the pond over several years, he currently lives in London. Our topics are British vs. US work culture, the importance of making tea the right way, the surprising differences in British and American English, and the loveliness of British quirks, accents and culture.We also discuss the horrendous toll expat life can take on your family, especially when your experience doesn't match up with your partner's or your children's, and how important it is to have a solid support system in place that starts with more awareness from the side of your employer, and also school.The book I mention is "Watching the English", by Kate Fox. If you are anthropologically inclined, I absolutely recommend it!To avoid confusion, we recorded this interview a month ago in Austin, however, I edited it while on holiday/vacation in Colorado (please excuse the sound quality at the beginning and end, I was not in my studio), and both locations are mentioned. Enjoy!!Micah Willbrand

In this episode, I talk to fellow German and nomad Luise Gutsche about the importance of a global (online?) support system, managing family life on various continents, the benefits of boarding school, and what it's like to be stranded in your home country when you didn't expect to be there that long. Luise is a passionate photographer, you can find her here. Her blog, Shanghai Calling (it's in German), is a treasure trove of topics. I highly recommend it! She's happy to connect with you, if you have any questions on expat life, boarding schools, etc., or just want to make contact. Of course, she's on Instagram too. Enjoy!Luise Gutsche

In this episode, I catch up with Maija, a Finnish expat in California. We met as volunteer art docents, teaching art in our elementary school district, and bonded over our love of art and of course our European roots. Topics are what it's like to raise cross-culture, multilingual children (Maija has four), the importance of roots and how to keep your children connected to them, and how to use art as a way to stay true to our expat duality - and make the most of Californian can-do attitude. You can find Maija and her inspiring photography on instagram: @onblueplate/, and of course on her beautiful ceramics website: https://www.onblueplate.com/Maija Lähdesmäki

Today's guest is Stephanie, an American who has been living overseas for the majority of the past 15 years, covering Argentina, Colombia, UAE, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan and China. She moved to Berlin, Germany in January 2020, just before the Coronavirus lockdown.  Steph talks about her various stints in Asia, reverse culture shock when she returned to the US, and what it feels like to change countries so often. And, of course, a major subject is food.....Her podcast and other projects can be found here:https://www.stephfuccio.com/She's on Facebook and Twitter @stephfuccioHer podcast, "Geopats - for the globally curious" covers 7 different themes, including language, coffee, books, podcasting, and more: https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopats-podcastSteph mentions the travel writer Pico Iyer, full name Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer, a British born essayist and novelist. For more inspiration, here's his wonderful website:  https://picoiyerjourneys.com/If you want to hear her me being interviewed by Steph (we recorded just after this interview, as we simply couldn't stop talking), check it out here:https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopatslanguageSteph Fuccio

In this episode, I talk to expat Shaun from South Africa about my home country, covering the intricacies of the German language, some well-known German stereotypes and a few surprising facts! Shaun has lived in Germany for 13 years and has set up his own podcast, "The Germany Experience": https://thegermanyexperience.de/Make sure you check it out!If you're interested in what I had to say when I was a guest on Shaun's podcast (Episode 34), take a look here:https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/finding-yourself-in-second-language-language-identity/id1464633448?i=1000467213659&l=enAnd if you've become curious about "Dinner for One" and want to know what all the fuss is about, watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVd_VLO9xccShaun Behrens

In this episode, I'm talking to Claire Hauxwell, an American expat in Zug, Switzerland. Claire is a serial expat, having moved from Michigan to Geneva, followed by Brussels, Mexico City, to Johannesburg, and back to Switzerland. The conversation was recorded before the Coronavirus crisis led to us all being in lockdown, and Claire has added on to her blog in the meantime. Make sure you check it out. Claire's blog:https://mytheoryonblooming.comHer post about "trailing spouses": https://mytheoryonblooming.com/?s=trailerClaire's latest, Coronavirus-related blog post: https://mytheoryonblooming.com/2020/03/21/at-least-we-all-have-plenty-of-toilet-paper/Claire Stelma Hauxwell

Kim's website:https://resilientexpats.com/Kim is referencing this podcast:Talking with Kids about War, Violence & Politicshttps://preemptivelove.org/podcast/season-2-episode-4/Kim Adams