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Today's guest is Rachel from YouTube channel "Meet the Germans"!
I always love talking to people with a connection to Germany, and Rachel being a Brit in Germany was a double whammy of fun for me.

Apart from comparing notes on German and British culture, we also discuss what it's like to move in stages, and the importance of moving on your own terms, especially when it comes to your career, so you don't end up being a trailing spouse.

Other topics include the German obsession with asparagus, bad internet infrastructure, carnival hysteria, and the crime that is the dubbing of TV series and films.

Please go and find Rachel's show on YouTube! You can find her on the Deutsche Welle Euromaxx YouTube Channel, and of course, check out her Instagram.

Episodes of Meet the Germans that we talk about in particular are:
Small Talk
Asparagus
Film dubbing

And please don't forget to consider a donation to Refugees International. You can do this by visiting my website and scrolling down to the Psst! Section to find the "Buy me a Coffee" button, or go straight to my Ko-Fi page. Thank you so much!!!

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Today's guest is Oscar, a software engineer from Uruguay. At the age of 17, he ventured away from his home country to achieve his career dreams, but eventually decided to put family first and return to Uruguay, after living in the US, the UK and Portugal. We discuss what it's like to find your place in the world when your sense of belonging is askew, and you constantly question your identity, and how certain life events make our minds up for us.  

Other conversation topics range from navigating British social norms and sense of humour, to craft beer and international hand gestures, as well as raising multilingual children and trying to establish English customs in a Latin American country.

I found Oscar's story really inspiring: belonging everywhere and nowhere, loving your family and the countries that become part of you, while keeping your sense of humour - a perfect recipe for years like this one!  

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Today, I'm joined by Dr. Laura Anderson, child and family psychologist with her own multicultural background.  Dr. Anderson specializes in global families, adoptive families and those raising gender expansive children and adolescents, as well as treating children and teens suffering from anxiety and depression. 
The range of topics we cover in our conversations are so valuable and interesting to all parents, not only global families, and if you are the parent of a teenager, or a pre-teen, I'd highly recommend listening!

A big topic we talk about is parental guilt, as added mobility and options always lead to a rise in feelings of guilt and fear. We discuss how you can avoid falling into that trap, and a "recipe" (27:50) for more successful transitions, using the following ingredients:

• child input
• preparation / preparedness
• acceptance of discomfort / grief, loss, fear
• sense of being in this together
• maintaining boundaries: no decisions out of guilt or fear

The book we mention is Raising Global Teens, by Dr. Anisha Abraham, a practical handbook for parenting in the 21st century.

If you'd like to find out more about Dr. Anderson, visit her website, or find her Common Chord Psychology page on Facebook.   

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My guest today is Sophie, whom I met at work here in Austin. She was in total disguise when we met; to me, she sounded just like any other American girl in her twenties, and I had no idea she was a TCK with a very varied international background, until I heard her speak Italian on the phone. I'm so happy she wanted to be interviewed for my podcast, and it was fascinating to hear her family's story and her perspective as a TCK. 

We talk about the difficulties of being thrown into a new country with a new language at a young age, what it's like to maintain friendships over time and distance, and how tough it can be to reveal, and be proud of your full self when you're surrounded by people who don't necessarily want to hear the whole story. 

And if you want to check out today's sponsor: https://roomsteals.com/

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Here's the German version of the last episode!
Und hier das Ganze auf Deutsch! Ich hatte ein wenig Zeit und Lust, mal wieder meine Muttersprache zu benutzen.

Wer Interesse an dem Artikel bei Medium hat, hier ist der Link.  

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It's been just over 6 months since I launched the podcast! As I don't have a new guest this week, I thought I'd use myself as a substitute. And as a special touch to celebrate this half-anniversary, I decided to do this not only in English, BUT ALSO IN GERMAN.
So if you'd rather listen to my ramblings in German, or if you just want to know what I sound like speaking my mother tongue, just download the next episode, 15 b. Or better still, download both, anyway. You know you want to!!
The content is pretty much the same, of course, I veer off track from time to time, couldn't help myself.

The Medium article I read from can be found here.  

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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!!