Transcontinental Overload

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Heute geht's auf die Insel!
Mein Gast ist Vanessa, eine Engländerin, die lange in Österreich gelebt hat und seit 10 Jahren wieder in ihrer alten Heimat Hertfordshire lebt.

Vanessa arbeitet als interkulturelle Trainerin und Sprachlehrerin, und natürlich sprechen wir ausgiebig über das Sprachenlernen und die Unterschiede zwischen Englisch und Deutsch. Außerdem geht’s ums Umziehen mit Teenagern, die Zweisprachigkeit, verschiedene Schulsysteme, Tee, Schokolade und Chips, sowie den Unterschied zwischen "Handy" und "Handy".

Wenn ihr mehr über Vanessa wissen wollt, findet ihr sie am besten auf Instagram, oder natürlich direkt auf ihrer Website. 

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My guest today is a true ATCK - an adult third culture kid. Third Culture Kids are people who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their country of nationality, and also live in a different environment during a significant part of their child development years.

Shakti is also the author of Colours of a Cultural Chameleon: "Where are you from?" Life. gets interesting when one has no simple answer.

Born in the Netherlands to a Belgian father and an Indian mother, Shakti has known cross-cultural living from an early age, moving to Delhi, India on several occasions, and also Boston, USA, for a year, before returning to the Netherlands, where she lives today with her husband and son.

We talk about writing in general, and writing and publishing your own work, but mainly we talk about what it's like to constantly bridge two or more cultures, what it means to belong, the power of celebrations, and the gift of multillingualism. 

You can find Shakti on Instagram, or go straight to her website for more information about her writing, travel and publishing tips.

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For my very first Destination Special, we're travelling to South America!

Nikki Palazzo, born in the US and a former expat in Germany, is showing off the city she's called home for the last 18 months: Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. 

Join us on our virtual weekend through this colourful and friendly city and find out where to eat, drink cocktails and watch the sunset.
We also venture out of town, and there are tips and anecdotes galore!
Make sure you eat something before listening, as you'll be ravenous once you've heard Nikki describe Paraguayan food.
 
From Tereré to San Juan Festivals and the joys of parallel parking, I promise you won't get bored hearing all about this secret little place that usually ranks pretty high on the list of happiest countries in the world.

For more information, get in touch with Nikki on Instagram, or listen to her on this podcast - she was my guest for Episode 27! If you want to find out about her previous experiences in Germany, she still has her Expat Cast links available.

Some other things Nikki mentions:
El Café de Acá
Mbeju food
El Parque de la Salud
Nu Guasú Park
Guaraní language
San Bernardino town and lake
O Gaucho restaurant
Ciudad del Este: gateway to the Iguazu Falls
Encarnación: Unesco World Heritage Site
The Chaco: the "green hell"

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My guest today is Sabine, a fellow German transplant in New Jersey, who's lived in the US since 2010.
Her story is truly harrowing and amazing at the same time: Sabine talks about how a life-altering emergency made her expat journey take a 180, and how her life has changed since then.

We talk about how an emergency situation like this affects your family in and outside of your country, what consequences a medical diagnosis can have for your residency status, and we discuss different health systems, and the importance of grandparents in your children's lives.

Apart from being an active fundraising coordinator, speaker and advocate, Sabine functions, amongst other things, as a volunteer leadership advisor for the American Brain Tumor Association, sits on the advisory council of the National Brain Tumor Society, and serves on the Board of Directors of Epic Experience, a Colorado-based nonprofit that organizes camps for adult cancer survivors. She recommends their podcast: Campfires of Hope - Living beyond Cancer.

To connect with Sabine, find her on Instagram!

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Today's guest is a true nomad - Iliana, a Living Abroad Strategist, writer and scientist, born and raised in Bulgaria, and currently living in Chicago.

Iliana left life behind the Iron Curtain for adventure in the US just before the millennium and has since lived in five countries on three continents.

We talk about the transience of life, making friends all over the world, what it means to have a relationship with a country, and how to keep a glass-half-full attitude through the darker times.

To connect with Iliana, find her on Instagram, LinkedIn or via her websites, www.olivemaps.com, and www.iliana.us, where you'll find the writer's side of this free spirit.

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Und weiter geht's mit den deutschen Folgen! Mein heutiger Gast ist Susann Reiner, alias Madame Süsette, Vintage-Liebhaberin und Geschäftsfrau mit Herz.

Susann ist ursprünglich aus Thüringen, und floh mit ihrem damaligen Mann kurz vor der Wende in den Westen, wo sie sich in der Nähe von Stuttgart niederließen.

Susann war ausgebildete Krankenschwester, bevor sie ihren Beruf an den Nagel hängte und in vielen Bereichen tätig wurde - unter anderem führte sie zehn Jahre lang eine Second-Hand-Boutique, zunächst in Deutschland und dann in Malaga, Südspanien, wo sie heute mit ihrem Mann bereits zum zweiten Mal lebt. Momentan arbeitet sie hauptsächlich online, und führt außerdem Vintage-Touren durch ihre Herzensstadt.
Susann liebt Spanien, die Sonne, Kleider und natürlich vor allem Vintage-Mode und alles was mit Nachhaltigkeit zu tun hat, außerdem hat sie es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, Frauen zu unterstützen. Ihre positive Grundeinstellung und Energie kann man schon beim Zuhören spüren!

Mehr über Susann und ihr Leben findet ihr auf ihrer Madame Süsette Website,  und natürlich auf Instagram. 

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We're heading to Rotterdam today. My guest is Sicilian Rossella Davi, who's lived in the Netherlands on and off for the last 12 years.

While we talk a lot about how national stereotypes aren't always applicable, we also can't escape them, and have a good laugh at Dutch minimalism vs. Italian drama, amongst other culture shocks. 

Find Rossella on Instagram, or check out her Going Expat website if you want to know more about moving abroad, and in particular the Netherlands!

Want to be a guest on this podcast? Please get in touch, I'd love to hear your story. Check out my website Transcontinental Overload.

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Meine erste Folge auf Deutsch!
Mein heutiger Gast ist Monique Menesi - vielleicht bereits bekannt durch ihren Muttersprache-Podcast, oder ihren Unternehmer-Podcast zum Business-Aufbau.

Monique ist erfolgreiche Unternehmerin, Auswandererin und Coach mit mehr als 30 Jahren Erfahrung. Wie sie selbst das Auswandern mit ihrer Familie meistert (Dubai, Katar, Schweiz und USA) und was sie sonst noch für Pläne hat, erfahrt ihr in unserem Gespräch.

Natürlich sprechen wir auch über ihre große Leidenschaft, das Coachen von Frauen und die Begleitung bei der Unternehmensgründung, und alles, was dazugehört.

Weitere Infos findet ihr am besten auf Moniques Website, und natürlich auch auf Instagram. 

Viel Spaß!

Wenn ihr inspiriert seid. und selbst Gast bei mir sein möchtet, meldet euch bitte! Ich freue mich immer über neue Geschichten.

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My guest today is "The Culture Guy" - Christian Höferle, founder, president and CEO of The Culture Mastery, a coaching, mentoring and consulting company based in Atlanta, Georgia.  

Our conversation starts with Christian's early life in small-town Bavaria (incidentally, the exact same area and time period I grew up in),  his experience as a 17-year-old exchange student in the US, and how this part of his life shaped his future mindset. We then meander through his professional life traveling from Germany to the United States, and finish by talking about the nature of his business. 

We cover a multitude of cultural differences, expectations, and the importance of vulnerability in an international setting, and find some special Bavarian aspects of being German - which I'm always happy to talk about!
Christian shares some amazing insights into the German and American psyche and draws out some fascinating historical coincidences - if you're working in an international environment and are intrigued by how different cultures can work together more productively, you're in for an absolute treat.

Christian mentions Karl May, a German 19th and early 20th-century author, and in fact one of the most well-known German writers to date. He wrote travel adventure stories about the American Wild West despite never having travelled there himself, and his stories about Winnetou and Old Shatterhand were part of German children's childhoods for over a century.

Just because I promised it in the episode, here's an American swear word you might not know you needed:  "BFE = Butt F%$ Egypt = the middle of nowhere". You're welcome.

Spider Murphy Gang is a Bavarian pop group we grew up with in the 80s. Watch the video of the song Christian quotes from to get some impressions of summery Munich in the 80s!
Eisbach-Surfen: The Eisbach is a side arm of the Isar, Munich's beautiful river, and there is a standing wave, where surfers gather at any time of the year to show off their skills.

Find out more about Christian and what he's up to on The Culture Mastery Website, his very funny and informative YouTube channel and podcast "Two Chaps Many Cultures" on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and IHeartRadio, or find him on LinkedIn and of course on Instagram.

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Today's guest is, without a doubt, the most global person I've had the pleasure of talking to! She is none other than two-times author, writer, speaker, economist, language enthusiast and passionate expat, Mariam Navaid Ottimofiore.

To say that today's episode is a love letter to learning languages is an understatement, and you will find so much wisdom in Mariam's observations. I kept wanting to stop and take notes.

Mariam was born in Pakistan, grew up in Bahrain, the United States and Pakistan, went to college in the US and Britain, and has lived in Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Dubai, Ghana and Portugal. She met her German-Italian husband at university in Brighton, England, and they're raising their three children with even more than "just" their four home languages.
They're currently based in Cascais, Portugal.

I still don't know how we managed to fit it all into one episode, but we cover a huge variety of topics. We talk about how she has managed all those moves,  maintained and developed her identity, why learning the language of each country has been so important, and how she keeps all those memories alive for her family.

Mariam recently published her second book, "The Guilty Can't Say Goodbye", a mystery novel about three global women, and of course we're talking at length about this book and the writing process. I devoured it on a recent trip and wholeheartedly recommend it for your summer reading list!

For more information about Mariam, her life and her books, visit her website, and make sure you follow her on Instagram. 

Find reviews of her books on Goodreads: The Guilty Can't Say Goodbye, and This Messy Mobile Life.