Meet Sefrah, a lovely high energy young woman with whom I have a lot in common actually! She double majored in Global Studies and East Asian Languages, Literature and Cultures, which opened her options to come to this side of the world and create a life here. She shares her experience with getting a job in China during the pandemic time, which was not easy, but it was meant to be and totally worth it!

Sefrah believes knowing how to speak the language is the key point for her to live a normal and comfortable life. From mundane daily activities to kick boxing classes, her ability to speak mandarin fluently allows her to have a deeper experience than many foreigners that come. She is able to engage with both parts of society, the local Chinese people and the expat community.

At first, Sefrah was unsure that this was the place for her. But with time, it felt like home. This was a very insightful and fun conversation about all little aspects of life in China. We expand to many different topics from community building challenges, to foods to try out, to finding yourself as a person, and learning how to let go.

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Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠⁠

Guest medias:

Instagram:  ⁠@Sefuchan_ichiban⁠

What’s up guys! Are you used to having a “coffee to go” any time you want? Would you be open to try duck blood? How long you spend sitting on the toilet?

From weird eating habits, clothing styles, public transportation and local rules on chewing gums, there is a lot to expand on how countries go about life. Even something as mundane as turning on the lights in your apartment can become a challenge if you are not familiar with the local switches on the wall!

I go through the different stages we all experience by being exposed to another culture, without us even knowing it and that are worth discussing:

1) The loneliness after the excitement fades

2) Personality shift

3) The grief of your old life

4) Going back home feels strange

5) You feel In Between

Please share your insights and views on this topic and all the topics to come! I love having feedback and to know if you are enjoying the content I’m putting out there. Also, please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't done yet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Intercultural dating can go both ways, it can be amazing and life changing as well as scary and tricky to navigate if you don’t have the right mindset. I sit with Francis another time to chat all things related to having a partner from the other side of the world!

We chat cultural habits, language, holiday traditions, food and even love languages! It doesn’t matter where you come from in the world, we are all human beings relating to each other in some way. Sometimes you will have yourself eating chicken salad while your partner eats noodle soup!

At the end of the day, we all want to find love and connection, no matter where we come from. And if it happens to be with someone on the other side of the planet, let it be it! In the words of Francis, “One world, one earth”.

Please share your insights and views on this topic and all the topics to come! I love having feedback and to know if you are enjoying the content I’m putting out there. Also, please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't done yet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

 Guest medias:

Instagram: @francis_duu

LinkedIn: Francis Du

What’s up guys! Today’s solo episode is all about what makes the East and West countries so unique and distinct from each other.

There are way too many differences to mention that would not all fit in one single episode, so I just chat about a few of the ones that stood out to me throughout the years and which I believe to be the most obvious ones and a lot of people can relate to.

In this episode you will hear me share my perspectives and points of view on many matters that may be biased to me as being born in Latin America and having more of a Western influence. From food and exercise habits to the singular way people greet and become friends throughout the world, if you are a person who previously had contact with other cultures, you will most definitely relate to some of these topics.

Please share your insights and views on this topic and all the topics to come! I love having feedback and to know if you are enjoying the content I’m putting out there. Also, please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't done yet, please subscribe to the podcast on ⁠Spotify⁠ or ⁠Apple Podcast

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Happy 2026 everyone!

We are not done with the podcast! I just decided to take a bit of a break while I was enjoying some much needed quality time at home with my family in Brazil! Sometimes we need to reset, change the environment and most importantly, focus on what is right in front of us, which is, the present moment.

It is the start of a new year, new beginnings, new goals, new accomplishments! But nothing we plan for the future will matter as much as what we do today. And what we do today is an inevitable consequence of our choices in the past. We learn from or mistakes, we grow, and we succeed.

I have a lot to be thankful in 2025, but starting this podcast taught me more about myself than I could imagine. Because of this podcast I found out other parts of myself that needed improvement, development and adaptation.

Here are a few things I’ve learned with this podcast, not only about me, but about all of us:

1) Communication skills

2) Everyone craves connection

3) The magic of listening

4) The importance of community

5) Everyone has a good side

6) We are not here in spite of each other, we are here BECAUSE of each other

Please share your insights and views on this topic and all the topics to come! I love having feedback and to know if you are enjoying the content I’m putting out there. Also, please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't done yet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika ZV

Meet Francis, my partner in life and who introduced me to the Eastern world 7 years ago. Now I brought him to the podcast to chat about his views, perceptions and opinions about Brazil!

Francis has a very international background, having lived in the United States since a young child and traveling to many countries throughout the years. It is his second time in Brazil and Latin America. We chat many different topics about Brazilian culture, stereotypes, society traits, cities infrastructure andregulations, local food drinks and much more. We go deep and beyond the topics people usually discuss about Brazil, that only if you’ve been to the south of Brazil you would know about.

In this episode you will hear from an outsider perspective how it is to visit Brazil and how it can be compared to other places in the world, such as Asia, Europe and North America. This was a very fun and easy conversation that made me think further about my native country and its impact on the outside.

Please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't doneyet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Guest medias:

Instagram: @francis_duu

LinkedIn: Francis Du

What’s up guys!

Today’s solo episode is about me, and all it means for me to be a foreigner in the world and in Asia. After having interviewed many guests in regard to living abroad and specifically on this side of the world, I thought it would be interesting to ask myself the same type of questions I have been asking others these past few months.

If you are curious about my life, my background, my thoughts, views and ideas of being a foreigner and also my perceptions of Asia, you will enjoy this episode. You will hear about my life story and how I ended up in China. From the beginning of everything; how society and traffic moves around cities, overwhelmingtechnology advancements, my progress in mandarin, cultural aspects that I disagree and agree with, and my views on life here.

Please share your insights and views on this topic and all the topics to come! I love having feedback and to know if you are enjoying the content I’m putting out there. Also, please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't done yet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Meet Sandro, another Brazilian brother that I was fortunate to have been put in contact with though another fellow Brazilian who came on the podcast a few weeks ago. This is another proof that “word of mouth” really works! Sandro is originally from Presidente Venceslau, in São Paulo state, but he moved quite a bit, not only in Brazil but also in the United States. He eventually had the opportunity of coming to China because of his international job with logistics back in Brazil.

Even though this was his first experience in Asia, Sandro always wanted to live abroad, me and him share the same mindset of two things being true at the same time, we love our family/friends but we don’t need to live at the same city asthem.

As the majority of people I have interviewed, the main aspect people notice the most when they just arrive in China is how safe this country is, and that is no different for Sandro. Specially coming from Brazil, the safety feeling of living in China really impressed him. I also ask him about any stereotypes hemight have had about the country before coming, and he makes a very good point saying that he had no expectations or thoughts of China before, which really helped him to get used to the country easier.

We chat the struggles and frustrations it can be learning Mandarin, and what is the one sentence he relies on! We also expand on the subject of loneliness as a foreigner in the country and the challenges we all face when trying to create more deep and meaningful connections, especially with the locals. Sandronoticed some peculiarities about the Asian culture and how it is translated into the society and it is translated on how people relate to each other.

Sandro tells me his struggles with Chinese food, the adventure of traveling to Beijing by train, the things he misses the most about his home country, the feeling of not belonging to this fast-pace city, and his plans of maybe moving to Thailand! I hope you enjoy this fun conversation as much as I did recording it.

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Guest medias:

Instagram: @sandroserratine

Meet Pierre, an adventurous and risk taker mechanical engineer with a distinctly unique background. Half French, half Polish, Pierre grew up in an international environment since the age of three years old when his family moved to Japan, then Poland, then Cyprus. That was the beginning of his journey living abroad and that eventually led to him moving full time to Asia.

Pierre speaks fluently three languages and is pushing on his fourth, mandarin, which he started studying at the age of 14 with the help of his father in a very unique way, but it wasn’t until he actually moved to Shenzhen that he saw exponentialimprovements on his skills.

Because of his “itchy legs” for adventure and desire to move to another country after graduating university, he decided he wanted to move to Asia. Although his three top places of choices did not happen, he was enlightened by two books he read about Hong Kong, and was later fortunate enough to get a job there as a mechanical engineer for a high-end home medical device company. Some years later, he was in charge of opening a new branch of the company here in Shenzhen.

We discuss pandemic times in this area, making friends as a foreigner, long term views and goals and how his mindset and “always up for a challenge” personality fueled his drive to be in Shenzhen. Pierre also makes very good comparisons between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, from which anyone thinking about coming to this side of the world should listen to.

Pierre feels like Asia is his comfort zone, having experienced a lot of different cultures growing up and being exposed to Asia at such a young age kind of prepared him for what was coming. This is a conversation you will not want to miss, from every day mundane things to deep topics about life and politics, it will make you expand your horizon to other ways of living life.

Please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't doneyet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Guest medias:

Instagram: @pierrearnaud_

Meet Rafa, a fellow Southern Brazilian who I had the pleasure to meet through one of the many expat groups here in China. Like many of us foreigners here, China was not in her plans, but life opportunities opened to her the doors to Asia. Her journey of living abroad started when she did an exchange program in Canada, which broadened her horizons to what could be out there.

Before coming to Shenzhen, Rafa lived in another province here in China, in the city of Yiwu (义乌市), which is more “Chinese China” than Shenzhen! She opens about about her experience trying to learn Chinese there and how at some point she gave up! Until she started trying again here in Shenzhen with my teacher, who has a different method of teaching, which allowed Rafa to have a breakthrough and is finally picking up the language. We have a very nice discussion of how much speaking the language of the country makes you better relate and understand the culture. 

Rafa points out a few common habits in society which used to bother her when she first arrived, but now she realized how it helped her to learn more about the culture and understand that society expectations are different here. We also expand onsome misconceptions about China people from outside, such as religion and eating habits.

From drinking room temperature sodas in restaurants to the ups and downs of the everyday life, we chat everything that comes along with the cultural shock of coming from the West to the East.

Please share this episode with a friend, and if you haven't doneyet, please subscribe to the podcast on

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Instagram: ⁠⁠@inbetweenwithvzv⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Veronika Z.V.⁠⁠

Guest medias:

Instagram: @rafaelaarebello

LinkedIn : Rafaela Rebello