The Expat Cast

Season 2, Episode 16. Guess who this week's guests are? My parents! I power my Brene Brown and get vulnerable by asking my parents how they feel about my choice to live abroad.

When my dad was a young adult and moved into an apartment 20 minutes from his childhood home, his mom was outraged he'd move so far away. My mom's extended family numbers around 40 people - of whom, only a handful live more than a 2 hour drive away. So what do they REALLY think about the fact that their daughter lives thousands of miles and several time zones away?

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Season 2, Episode 15. You last heard from friend of the show, Ashley, when she was pregnant with her son, and now she's back to share what it's like with her young son.

Ashley is now 7 months into motherhood, and she shares with us what it's been like adjusting to her new role. What was it like for her to give birth in Germany? How has she handled being an ocean apart from her family in the US? And how is she planning on keeping her American identity alive with her son?

Ashley's go-to book recommendation for new parents-to-be is:

The Shit No One Tells You: A Guide to Surviving Your Baby's First Year by Don Dais

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Season 2, Episode 14. Initially, moving abroad is insanely exciting. New scenery! New people! New language! New groceries! New new new! Wow wow wow!

And thennnnn reality comes crashing down, in the form of paperwork, financial pressure, a language barrier, or social isolation. While some part of you might still be excited about the newness, another part of you starts to wonder how the heck this will all work out. Was this whole move the right choice?

This week's guest is fresh out of that challenging phase, and she sits down with your host to chat about what it felt like, what pressures got to her, and what helped her keep going.

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Season 2, Episode 13. Expats don't always stay expats forever. We sit down with Aurora, a Mexican-American living in Germany, to hear what made her decide to move back to the States.

Aurora will move back to the US this summer, but where exactly will she move? Cue: A Very Well Built Excel Spreadsheet! 

DUNCAN & AURORA'S DECISION MAKING SPREADSHEET

Aurora and Duncan's formula as a Google Spreadsheet is here

Listen to Duncan talk about voting rights

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Season 2, Episode 12. When Nic moved to Germany from England to be with his girlfriend, he committed himself mentally to the move. It would have taken something really huge and dramatic to make him consider moving back. But how does he manage keeping in touch with family, especially negotiating visits? And how does he still show up for his partner's family?

We use the topic of family as a launching point for a fun conversation about British Christmas, cultural judgement, and way more.

FIND NIC

Twitter @40PercentGerman

Blog 40% German

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Season 2, Episode 11. In this episode, we learn what it's been like for our guest, Jeremy, to be unemployed in Germany. Jeremy moved here for a two- to three-year work contract that recently ended. He tells us how he's been navigating the immigration and unemployment offices. Plus, we discuss how the social support he's been given in Germany has altered his approach to the job hunt in general.

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Season 2, Episode 10. When you moved abroad, did you find yourself suddenly caring an awful lot about dumb things from your home culture you never bothered with before? Likkkeeeee, I don't know, say, ABC's The Bachelor? 

In fact, getting way too into the latest season of The Bachelor is what inspired this week's episode. It got us thinking about all the weird things we find ourselves interested in, especially those things we previously wanted nothing to do with, like football, touristy clothing, and chain restaurants. 

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Season 2, Episode 9. Gordon is half-German, half-American and grew up moving back and forth between both countries. He never stayed anywhere longer than 2 years since he was a little kid. Now, as an adult who is putting down roots of his own, Gordon shares with us how his bi-cultural identity as well has his frequent moving shaped him as a person.

He tells us the good, the bad, and the ugly about being that weird German kid whenever he was in America and being that weird American kid whenever he was in Germany.

Note: In the introduction, Nicole mentions "the concept of the third-world kid." She meant to say "third culture kid." More information about what third culture kid means can be found on Wikipedia.

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Season 2, Episode 8. Today's guest turned an existential crisis in Boston into a thriving non-profit in Nicaragua. How the heck did that happen? Welcome to the fascinating life of Berly. Now living in Freiburg, Germany while she completes her Masters degree in Global Studies, Berly has traveled the globe and lived in a variety of countries.

Through her personal experience as well as her experience in her non-profit, Berly has learned that the most important thing is community. It was only after being inspired by people she'd met that Berly considered traveling the world, and it was thanks to a group of encouraging, like-minded friends that Berly took the leap & started her non-profit, Women's Worth Inc - which hosts soft and hard skill seminars for women in the informal economy in Nicaragua, which, in turn, has inspired a strong community among the women involved in the Women's Worth trainings and programs.

As her story beautifully exemplifies, community can become circular in nature, and it sometimes takes a single person's example to start a wonderful cycle of giving and receiving help and support.

FIND BERLY & WOMEN'S WORTH, INC.

Women's Worth, Inc.'s website

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Season 2, Episode 7. Iceland skyrocketed to the top of the Must Visit list of many eager travelers over the last 5 years, but what's it like to actually live there? We chat with American expat Alex Illes about how she ended up with Iceland, how she managed to move her cats with her, and what it's taken to make life there work.

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