We strongly believe that friends are the family that you choose for yourselves. Therefore, they are an important part of our lives. BFF, right? We form bonds with our friends that are so unique and strong, we build a secondary family while being away from home. These friendships are so precious to us, but some of our friends chose to move back home after university. Keeping the friendships going ain’t easy - especially when you throw in time differences and distance into the mix. We are definitely not strangers to long distance friendships, and our friends are too important for us to just let go.

In this episode, we discuss the meaning of friendship to us, loyalty, how our friendship has changed throughout the years, our experiences with toxic friendships, the challenges we faced with long distance friendships, what we do to keep in touch (with the nice ones lol), and how we deal with not having our best friends geographically close to us.

If you have friends - or if you’re one of ours, give this one a listen!

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Timestamps:

Definition of friendship and what a good friend means to us (00:40)

Toxic friendships that are not healthy for us and how we view them (03:03)

Long distance friendships and how we have managed to stay in touch with our long distance friends (09:56)

Drifting away from friends and friendships that don’t stand the test of time (18:39)

How to deal with not having close friends be geographically near to us (21:16)

Moving to a new city and having to make new friends (26:50)

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Unless you’re a member of the Royal Family, everyone has found themselves in that position where they have to look and apply for jobs, work on their CVs, and attend interviews. We all know how gruelling that process can be. However, the journey becomes extra hard when you throw in immigration status, minimum salary requirements and expiring visas!

As working adults in the UK, we recognise our privilege in having found employers that can hire AND sponsor us. In this episode, we share our experiences in looking for jobs in the UK, why we chose to stay in the UK, the challenges that we faced while applying for jobs as migrants, the working life of Pharmacists, and all that fun stuff! 

So, if you’re ever curious about what it takes to get a job and work in the UK as a non-British national, or if you are thinking of applying for jobs in the UK and you’re a migrant like us, this one's for you! 

Disclaimer: The current fees associated with the work visa application might have changed since our own applications a few years ago so please do your own research if you are looking to apply for your work visa. There are also differences between applying inside and outside the UK. We applied for our visa from inside the UK.

Timestamps:

Why we chose to stay in the UK after university (00:24)

The difficulties of looking for jobs in the UK, the challenges with timeline and withdrawn job offer (01:37)

Interview process for a job as a Pharmacist, questions asked during the interview and salary expectations (09:25)

Visa application process once we got the job offer, decision times, how much it cost (11:20)

Relocating to new cities for our jobs, looking for accommodation, how much we paid for rents and panic packing! (15:47)

What it’s like working as a Pharmacist in the UK and do we like our jobs?! (24:36)

Questioning if this is the right career path of us (30:17)

Resources for you:

Information about working visa:

https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa

https://visaguide.world/europe/uk-visa/employment/tier-2-general/

Information for non-EEA qualified pharmacist if you want to work in the UK

https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/registration/registering-pharmacist/overseas-non-eea-qualified-pharmacists

https://www.workgateways.com/industries/pharmacist

Michelle Obama ‘Becoming"‘: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Michelle-Obama/dp/0241334144

Please follow us on Instagram @twopillsinapod

Jessica on @jessicayapzl 

Candies on @candiessutanto

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Have you ever walked on the street minding your own business and suddenly someone is shouting racial slurs at you? Have you ever been made uncomfortable when someone makes a comment about your race? Have you been that person who was insensitive to other races and now want to do better?

In this episode, we chatted with our friend, Sharon, about the issues surrounding the recent anti-Asian racism that have risen since the pandemic, what brought us here, and what we can do moving forward? 

We know it takes more than an episode in a podcast to eradicate racism, but if we can just inspire change in one person today, this episode has done its job. So please, listen to it, talk about it, and most importantly, SHARE IT with everyone you know. 

Every.single.conversation.matters

Our guest today: 

Sharon Geraldine is a fellow Asian woman who is currently living in the Bay Area and working as a Product Design Engineer. She has been friends with Candies for over 10 years. Despite living in different continents, they have grown up together and often discussed issues that they care about with each other. Apart from being extremely multi-talented and resourceful, Sharon is also very compassionate and kind to others - which is why issues such as racism have always been something she cares and tries to raise awareness about.

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Candies and Jessica are two best friends who have been through different phases of lives together and stuck with each other through thick and thin. 

In this episode, we shared a bit of our background, where we are from and the culture shocks we stumbled upon while living in this foreign land. We also talked about how we came up with this podcast, why we launched it and what we want you to get out of these episodes! 

University life is like a roller-coaster ride, and we loved it! The adrenaline rush, the ups and downs, and the many firsts that you will remember for the rest of your lives.  Whether you are an international student or working adult who miss student life, I am sure you can relate while listening to us!

Timestamps: 

Who we are, how we met and became friends, how we came up with ‘Two Pills in a Pod’ as our podcast title, why we wanted to make a podcast (00:16)

Why did we choose Pharmacy and how did we end up in Belfast? (03:59)

Adjusting to life in the UK as new international students, culture shocks, how we felt about homesickness (06:28)

Life as university students and how much we enjoyed them (11:46)

Jessica talked about the part time jobs she had while in university and her experience being the university’s ambassador (13:42)

Candies talked about her experience as an Erasmus exchange student in Belgium (17:10)

Travelling during university holidays and our favourite holidays (20:24)

Outro (23:25)

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