The Bittersweet Life

How many of your life decisions were entirely your own, and how many were influenced by what the people around you wanted, hoped, or expected you to be doing? And what happens when you decide to go off script and live life on your own terms? Today we delve into questions of "should."

We discuss whether or not we are living our family's or society's version of how our lives "should" be, Katy's experiences as a preacher's kid and how having a moral spotlight on her while she was growing up influenced her behavior, and how, as a parent, you can avoid imprinting your desires and expectations on your kids and let them live their own lives. --------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

It's time for our first full Bittersweet Moment!

Inspired by Monday's episode, Katy wonders how many people have lived in places they didn't like, and what they did about it. Be sure to listen to Episode 250 {SPOUSE} first, where we chat wtih author Beth Howard about her experiences as a trailing spouse expat while living in Germany...a place she never felt at home.

Today, Katy takes to the streets of San Francisco to ask the city's denizens if they've ever lived in a place they didn't like, and if so, what was it they didn't like? Why did they move there? How did they escape?

Join us for this "vox pop" mini-episode, and don't forget to subscribe to the show so you make sure you never miss an episode, long or short.

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

We often chat with expats on The Bittersweet Life, whether they are corporate expats off to a new country every other year, passion expats who follow their dream of living in a foreign land, or anything in between. But what about the expat spouse? What about the person who never signed up for the expat life but finds themselves living it anyway?

This week we talk with Beth M. Howard, author of the new memoir, Hausfrau Honeymoon: Love, Language, and Other Misadventures in Germany. She tells the story of her challenging years as a "trailing spouse" in Germany, how despite her best efforts, she just couldn't seem to find happiness there.

But when you're a trailing spouse expat, you can't just pick up and leave whenever you like. What happens when the success of your marriage hangs on whether or not you can tough it out in a country you don't like living in? What happens when, try as you might, you can't manage to learn your new husband's (and new country's) native tongue? What happens when the man who seemed so evolved in your country turns out to be a bit of a chauvinist in his?

Well, if you're a writer, you curl up in a cozy coffee house and write a book about it, of course! In this interview, Beth reveals the power of admitting that a place just isn't right for you, accepting that the glamorous expat existence you imagined is actually quite lonely, and discovering that sometimes the biggest adventure of all is moving back home.

You can find Beth on Facebook, on her author website, on her pie website (she makes pie!!!), or on her blog, The World Needs More Pie.

Order her book here.

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

On occasion of the fifth anniversary of The Bittersweet Life, we're launching Bittersweet Moments, mid-week mini-episodes to bring a little extra (bitter) sweetness to your week. We'll be regaling you with a different nugget every week, from bite-sized art or history tidbits to street interviews, follow-ups on previous episodes, listener messages, travel tips, random thoughts, and everything in between.

We hope you enjoy these mini-episodes, and we'd love to hear your feedback!

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

This week's episode is inspired by a letter from one of our long-time listeners. Giovanna wonders what to do after hitting an expat "plateau," when the rapid learning and expanding period of being a new expat inevitably slows down. After a little over a year living on the idyllic Italian island of Ischia (by way of New York, London, and Rome), Giovanna ponders what to do when the novelty of expat life wears off and you're left with just...life. She also asks the question: does moving to the tiny Italian town where her mom was born somehow nullify the life her parents strived to create as immigrants in the States?

We explore these and other topics on our latest episode {PLATEAU}.

Be sure to listen to the end to hear our exciting new announcement!

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

This week, we chat with Lori-Lee Elliott, many-time expat, world traveler, and techie girlboss. Lori-Lee's first appearance on The Bittersweet Life was back in July of 2017 in Episode 166: TIPS, when she pulls from her sizable expat experience to share tips with wannabe or newbie expats. This time, she joins us to talk about a big new venture in her own life. While working full time for an international corporation that moves her around the world every year or less (she's lived in 13 countries so far, and has moved 24 times in her 28-year life), she has decided to open her own Augmented Reality software company.

Lori-Lee talks about what it takes to open a company in a foreign country, why it's important to her to work with other expats, and why she decided to leave a secure, stable, and profitable job to create something that is completely hers.

She also offers invaluable advice on opening a business—whether you're an expat or not—including the importance of having a partner, how to get good at being a salesperson even if that's not your "thing," and how to push through what seems like endless rejection from potential investors.

Find Lori-Lee Elliott on Instagram, Twitter, on your YouTube travel channel, or her YouTube business channel.

The travel article referenced in this episode can be found here.

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

In this long-awaited epsiode, Tiffany finally reveals how she moved to Rome. It wasn't all a bed of roses (and frankly, it wasn't all legal), but after innumerable requests from listeners, who regularly write to us saying, "I want to move to Italy. How did you do it?" Tiffany is breaking her silence at last to describe what she went through to make her dream of living in Rome a reality.

Friendly disclaimer: Despite the catchy title of this episode, it's not meant as a suggestion of how you should go about attempting a move of your own. Italian rules and regulations (as well as how they are inforced) have changed. Follow in her footsteps at your own risk!

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Whether due to poor planning, penny pinching, or simply laziness, we've all got regrets when it comes to our past travels.

You know what we're talking about: the time you didn't cough up the extra 5 bucks to climb the church tower and missed out on the amazing view. The time you missed the museum you most wanted to see because you didn't check the opening times. The time you opted not to visit gorgeous and fascinating Porto because some stupid book convinced you it was more important to wander around the Bussaco Forest (or was that just me?).

In this week's episode, we share and commiserate about our travel regrets, and discuss ways to make sure we don't create any new ones.

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Have you ever thumbed through a cookbook only to roll your eyes and wonder, who has the time? And who has all these ingredients laying around? Italian food expert and cookbook author Francesca Montillo joins us for a conversation about her new cookbook. For anyone who loves cooking Italian food but doesn't have the time or the inclination to concoct elaborate meals, The 5-Ingredient Italian Cookbook takes authentic regional Italian recipes and ever-so-slightly simplifies them to make them accessible to busy cooks.

We chat with Francesca about the differences between northern and southern Italian cuisine, why Italian food is so universally loved, what key ingredients and tools you need in your kitchen, what Americans get wrong about Italian cooking, and when to let yourself bend the rules a little.

Buy a copy of the cookbook on Amazon!

Follow Francesca Montillo on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, or find her on her website, Lazy Italian Culinary Travels.

Check out two earlier episodes we taped with Francesca a few years ago, Episode 151 {COOKING} and Episode 152 {COOKING, Part 2}.

***Scroll down for a sample recipe from the book! And remember, you we're giving away one copy of The 5-Ingredient Italian Cookbook—visit our recent post on Instagram for details.***

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

--------------------------------------------

** NORCINA-STYLE PASTA**

Excerpt from The 5-Ingredient Italian Cookbook by Francesca Montillo.

Copied here with permission.

Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, 6 pork sausages with casings removed, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 3/4 cup heavy cream, 3/4 pound pasta like rigatoni or ziti or penne, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Directions: 1) In a large sauté pan over medium heat, combine the oil, garlic and sausage. With a wooden spoon, crumble the sausage until it resembles ground meat. Add the wine and cook for about 10 minutes. 2) Add the cream, reduce heat to low, and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 2 minutes less than directed on the package. Drain and reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water. 3) Add the pasta to the sauce, stirring well to coat the pasta. Continue cooking until the pasta is fully cooked and all the flavors are well incorporated. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water if a thinner sauce is desired. 4) Remove from the heat and add the cheese, stirring well to incorporate. Serve immediately.

Substitution: While pork sausages are traditionally used, you can substitute chicken ones for a milder flavor.

© The Bittersweet Life – Web and show content can only be used with written permission

Do I deserve to live a bigger life? If you're asking that question, it's a gift to have parent (or friend) who answers- why not? Sarah McColl, author of Joy Enough, joins us to talk about the beautiful life she discovered while living alongside her dying mother. We also explore how fear, loss and the expectations of others can limit our potentially terrific lives and how to get beyond that.

Additional links:

• Sarah McColl discussing Joy Enough on NPR
• Sarah on Twitter and Instagram

--------------------------------------------

SPONSOR THE SHOW: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

DONATE: Click here to send financial support to The Bittersweet Life via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email at [email protected].

You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram – Better yet, tag #thebittersweetlife with your story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

© The Bittersweet Life – Web and show content can only be used with written permission