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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!

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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.

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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/

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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!!

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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!

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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/

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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 @stephfuccio
Her podcast, "Geopats - for the globally curious" covers 7 different themes, including language, coffee, books, podcasting, and more: https://www.stephfuccio.com/geopats-podcast

Steph 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/geopatslanguage

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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=en
And 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_VLO9xcc

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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.com
Her post about "trailing spouses":
https://mytheoryonblooming.com/?s=trailer
Claire's latest, Coronavirus-related blog post: https://mytheoryonblooming.com/2020/03/21/at-least-we-all-have-plenty-of-toilet-paper/

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