Season 7, Episode 6. Where do you call home? For many expats, the question isn't an easy one to answer. Many places? No place at all? Keltie Maguire is a Clarity Coach who moved from Canada to Germany several years ago. She uses her professional expertise and personal experience to shed light on the sticky subject of home: how to define it, how to create it, and how to make a place feel more like it. Plus, a discussion - and a confession - about homesickness. FIND KELTIE Her episode on the Dear ...
Nov 10, 2022•38 min•Ep. 180
Season 7, Episode 5. "You asked, I answer!" Listeners submitted questions on Instagram for Nicole to answer, which she does with the help of her best friend and previous guest, Zoe. Questions include: What's one thing you knew now that you wished you knew back when you moved? When did you start calling Germany home? Do you still feel like an expat, after 5 years in Freiburg? Plus, Nicole shares a little update from the road, as this episode was finished in a hotel room in Prague. EPISODES REFERE...
Nov 03, 2022•35 min•Ep. 179
Season 7, Episode 4. Laurel fell in love with Berlin on a solo trip and decided to make the big move. But it wasn't her first big move. Laurel is from Indiana but moved to LA for several years. She shares how the culture shock moving from the midwest to southern California compares to the culture shock of moving from the USA to Germany. Then, we get into her career. Laurel pivoted to tech during her 5 years in Berlin. Germany is not exactly known for being the most up-to-date with technology, so...
Oct 27, 2022•40 min•Ep. 178
Season 7, Episode 3. Esther was finishing up law school in North Carolina when she told a colleague about her dream to live in Italy. That friend knew someone in Germany with an open position, and while Germany wasn't Italy, it was a heck of a lot closer to Italy than the USA is, so Esther applied. Within days, she had a job offer in Tübingen, Germany. She and her then-teenaged daughter moved mere months later and settled into a life abroad in Germany. Esther moved to Freiburg next, where she wa...
Oct 20, 2022•45 min•Ep. 177
Season 7, Episode 2. Chase never wanted to work in an office, although he works in the corporate world. From the outset, he sought jobs where he could work remotely. Back when he started about 15 years ago, that was rare, to say the least. Now, it's quickly becoming the norm. Chase has lived and traveled for years now, all while working - because he works fully remote, or "remote first." In fact, he's SUCH a remote work nerd that he has a podcast about it (About Abroad), and works for a company ...
Oct 13, 2022•47 min•Ep. 176
Season 7, Episode 1. We are back for Season 7! Woo! We're kicking it off with a conversation about identity burps, a term coined by today's guest, Ditte. Ditte is an artist from Denmark living in Berlin after many years in Amsterdam. Though drawing is like breathing to her, a main passion of hers was dancing tango. Then she moved to Berlin, a hub for tango, and... no longer felt like dancing tango. Instead, she felt like going to clubs and dancing to electro music. What's going on?? Easy answer:...
Oct 06, 2022•43 min•Ep. 175
Nicole is popping by about halfway through a longer podcast break to update you on some news! First, some life updates about travel, visits from home, and thoughts from abroad about the recent loss of the constitutional right to abortion in the US. Then, a heads-up for fellow US Americans living abroad - The Expat Cast is collaborating with Horbach Expats to host another 4th of July special event about financial planing! Register now . Finally, listeners in Berlin should head over to Podfest Jul...
Jun 30, 2022•10 min•Ep. 174
Season 6, Episode 25. Do you want to have kids or not? How has your geography impacted this? We asked these questions to the listener community, and fellow expats, immigrants, people living abroad shared their pros and cons, their talking points, their feelings, their beliefs, their dreams. Their answers range from YES to NO to MAYBE, and they're gathered here for you. This marks the end of season six! What a gift it's been - 150 episodes and nearly 4 years of podcasting. Thank you to everyone w...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 173
Season 6, Episode 24. What's it like dating a German? How do I make friends as an expat? Can I get a job in Germany without knowing German? Is the rental market reallllyyyy that bad? Nicole is joined by Idan from Unmatch Me Now to get into all of these questions and more! From personal experiences and opinions to concrete resources about Kindergeld and donating blood, nothing is off the table. Thanks to all the listeners who submitted questions for this episode. This episode is sponsored by MyEx...
Mar 17, 2022•46 min•Ep. 172
Season 6, Episode 23. What's it like to be a foreigner working as a librarian in Germany? We've got two international librarians here to tell you! Katherine and Nicole both fell in love with the career of librarianship before moving to Germany from Venezuela and USA, respectively. Now, they both live and work in German libraries, Katherine in a university library and Nicole in a public library. Both of them first worked at the libraries of cultural centers as a transition when making the move. T...
Mar 10, 2022•48 min•Ep. 171
Season 6, Episode 22. When she was 15, Nyla moved from the US to Germany. It was supposed to be just for one year. Spoiler alert: it's been 6 years and counting! Nyla comes on the show to discuss how the temporary moved turned permanent, and what it was like moving abroad as a teenager. She had to learn the language from scratch and adjust to a new culture, all while those delightful teenage hormones are there messing with your emotions. From dating to drinking to getting your first job and find...
Mar 03, 2022•41 min•Ep. 170
Season 6, Episode 21. Being a single mom ain't easy. Being an expat ain't easy. Being a single mom AND an expat? Yeah, it REALLY ain't easy. But it is possible. Tanya is here to tell us how. Tanya moved from California to Germany when her son was 2. She had been single parenting until that point, and initially when she moved abroad, her then-husband was able to provide support while Tanya adjusted to life in Germany. After she and he divorced, Tanya found herself facing single parenthood again, ...
Feb 24, 2022•39 min•Ep. 169
Season 6, Episode 20. Did you know that 80% of expats who moved abroad for work are male? Often, men get relocated for their work and their wives or partners to come with. Kate has been working with and studying expat partners, or trailing spouses, who tend to be women, for years. Lately, she got curious about that other 20% - the women who moved abroad for their jobs, sometimes with their husbands or partners as the trailing spouse. Thus launched a research project about the breadwinning female...
Feb 17, 2022•42 min•Ep. 168
Season 6, Episode 19. It's a Buy One Get One deal: Nicole interviews not one, but TWO Zacks from Michigan who live in Stuttgart, Germany! Zac XVIII and Zack Bachelor are two guys in their 20s who met on a basketball court in Stuttgart. They're from the same home state, have the same first name, and now are famous around expat social media for their hilarious skits about living as a US American in Germany. From TikTok to Instagram to podcasting and YouTube, the Zac/ks do it all. Many shocking tru...
Feb 10, 2022•38 min•Ep. 167
Season 6, Episode 18. Emily is known online as Emily in Hamburg, but once upon a time, Emily was in New York, in Portugal, and even on a cruise ship! After a performance career in New York City, Emily took a chance and signed a contract to perform on a cruise ship sailing around Scandinavia. Her training for the ship caused her path to cross with the big love of her life: Hamburg. Emily loved Hamburg from the start, but life took her elsewhere. She had a stint living on the coast of Portugal, an...
Feb 03, 2022•43 min•Ep. 166
Season 6, Episode 17. Melanie moved to Switzerland when she was 29 and in love with a Swiss man. That relationship didn't last as she'd hoped, but Melanie stayed in Switzerland anyway. Now, Melanie is 61, and she's living in southern Germany after many years in Cologne and several moves back to her home country of the US, then back to Germany. She shares the ins and outs of all these moves, including some seriously good love stories. Plus, Melanie shares how the questions she's been asking herse...
Jan 27, 2022•38 min•Ep. 165
Season 6, Episode 16. In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about Karlsruhe! Santhiya moved with her husband and their kids to Karlsruhe, Germany in June 2021. Though they haven't been there long, their family has made the most of their time and explored Karlsruhe and the area. Karlsruhe is rich in day-trip opportunities, from a 3-hour train ride to Paris to a quick trip across a river to one of G...
Jan 20, 2022•35 min•Ep. 164
Season 6, Episode 15. Once upon a time, two friends on a train trip to Nuremberg passed a bit of graffiti that would haunt then for years to come. Nicole & Samar have been quoting that graffiti since 2020, and now they're here to share all their thoughts about it with you. "All thinking is comparison." The phrase has come to be a moniker for discussing geographical backgrounds, diversity, and privilege. For people living abroad, the phrase gets at the new awarenesses that come with removing ...
Jan 13, 2022•48 min•Ep. 163
Season 6, Episode 14. Moving abroad ain't easy. Now imagine moving to Germany having never been in Europe before. Speaking no word of German. With four kids. In the middle of a pandemic. And the house you move into gets flooded in a catastrophic regional weather disaster. That's what happened to Sara. She and her husband and their four young kids moved to Rheinbach for her husband's job, developing vegan cheese. They envisioned it as an exciting adventure and a great opportunity for everyone - a...
Jan 06, 2022•41 min•Ep. 162
Season 6, Episode 13. The best thing about Christmas in the US is the cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime, Hallmark, and now even Netflix. Aspen & Nicole are two Americans in Germany who love trash movies, so we asked ourselves, do these wonderful-terrible movies exist in Germany? To find out, we watched Über Weihnachten and This Is Love. Both are German productions released on Netflix that try to itch that same scratch - or dare I say jingle those bells. How do these two movies stand up to ...
Dec 23, 2021•43 min•Ep. 161
Season 6, Episode 12. Grief isn't something reserved for tragedy and death. Grief has a much wider spectrum, and people living abroad have some unique challenges with some of its forms. Returning guest Katie, a US American living in Munich, Germany, has had her own (un)fair share of grief. As a licensed counselor, she's put her experience and professional knowledge to pen and paper with her new book, The New Face of Grief . We talk about scheduling a time to grieve, forcing ourselves to tell fri...
Dec 16, 2021•42 min•Ep. 160
Season 6, Episode 11. In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about Wiesbaden! Christie moved from her home of London to her husband's home of Germany and quickly fell in love with the city of Wiesbaden. Located among German wine country and in the most forested state of the country, Wiesbaden's natural charm is made even more impressive by its historic old town. Now a food and travel writer, Christ...
Dec 09, 2021•44 min•Ep. 159
Season 6, Episode 10. Hey so uhhh... Are German people funny? We tackle the age-old question with Chelsea, a US American in Hamburg and a fellow lover of comedy. First, we share our favorite and least favorite German language movies and TV shows in the category "comedy." Then, we explore the stand-up scene in Germany, both via online specials and in-person shows. Finally, we turn the examination inwards as we ask, do German people find us funny? Donate to Kinderlachen to support education grants...
Dec 02, 2021•38 min•Ep. 158
Season 6, Episode 9. Nic and Simon from the podcast "Decades from Home" come by to talk about the media landscape in Germany. Nic and Simon both moved from the UK to Germany, where they've now been living for (you guessed it) decades. They share how they find their news in Germany, compare German political reporting to it in the UK, and even get into why US news is covered with such dramatic flair in German publications. And, yeah, we mention the news story about the reappearing penis sculpture....
Nov 25, 2021•46 min•Ep. 157
Season 6, Episode 8. Let's talk about how to get mental health support when living abroad. One great thing about living in Germany is the health care - for many reasons, but notably, most public health insurances cover mental health therapy. It's a wonderful thing, but like all things in Germany, there is a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy required to find a therapist, get the therapy approved, and start the actual process. Today's guest, Julian, is from Venezuela and has been living in Germany ...
Nov 18, 2021•42 min•Ep. 156
Season 6, Episode 7. Casey and Nicole compare stories and experiences from their first trips back to the US since the arrival of the pandemic. Casey moved from the US to Germany 3 years ago. In March 2020, she had her bags packed and ready to go on her first trip back home since moving abroad... when lockdown was announced and international travel was halted due to Covid. In August 2021, she finally got to go home. This was her first time visiting since moving abroad, her first time seeing famil...
Nov 11, 2021•43 min•Ep. 155
Season 6, Episode 6. To some, Julie's life might seem like she's hitting certain milestones too late. But for Julie, life is playing out right on time. She left her good, satisfying life in Scotland in her early 40s, because she was ready for a change. Love took her to Munich, Germany, where she moved in with her partner, started her own business, and had a child - all at the same time. Although it was a lot of life changes all at once, Julie embraced this opportunity to create the life she want...
Nov 04, 2021•40 min•Ep. 154
Season 6, Episode 5. On a solo backpacking trip in her early 20s, Meghan visited Munich. She wasn't expecting to fall in love, but she did - with the city itself. She moved there as soon as she could, at least temporarily. But she extended her temporary stay by another couple months, then another, then another... Now, she and Munich are celebrating 14 delightful years together. Along the way, Meghan has repeatedly chosen to stay in Munich, through career changes and challenges, breakups, and mor...
Oct 28, 2021•37 min•Ep. 153
Season 6, Episode 4. In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about Kiel! Jordan Wagner takes us all the way up north near the Danish border to the city of Kiel, a harbor city that is a paradise for boat lovers. Jordan used to think she could never love anywhere like she loves southern Germany, but Kiel converted her to love the north even more. She let's us in on the things that made her fall in lov...
Oct 21, 2021•43 min•Ep. 152
Season 6, Episode 3. Stop me if you've heard this one - a South African, a Filipino, & an American walk into a bakery... Shaun from South Africa moved to Germany 14 years ago and now runs T he Germany Experience podcast. Lawin from the Philippines moved to Germany 2 years ago and now runs the Pop Your Cultural Cherry podcast. And your host Nicole moved to Germany 4 years ago and hosts, well, this podcast . The three come together to share their personal preconceived notions about Germany and...
Oct 14, 2021•44 min•Ep. 151
