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The ExpatCast is the podcast where expats share stories about fitting in, standing out, and every mishap on their journey to feeling at home abroad.
https://www.theexpatcast.com/
https://www.theexpatcast.com/
202 Episodes
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Tereré Talks: Part 10. Is Paraguay a good place to live as a foreigner?
After 9 episodes of singing the praises and things to love about Paraguay, it's time to share some of the honest downsides. (0:00-0:25)
Plus, it's the last episode of The Expat Cast! Over six year since the podcast started in a moldy basement in Germany, it's time to wrap it up in sunny Paraguay.
Nicole closes it out with sharing if she's happier in Paraguay, how she feels about returning to Germany one day, and, of course, how it feels to say farewell to The Expat Cast! (from minute 0:25)
Connect with Nicole @NikkiNeedsToMove on Instagram.
A big thank you from the heart to everyone who's spent some time with The Expat Cast in your ears since 2018. Forming real connections around the globe and feeling less alone in this crazy journey of life abroad has been so rewarding. Mit ganz viel Liebe & un abrazo muy fuerte, -Nicole
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Instagram @nikkineedstomove
Tereré Talks: Part 9. Many backpackers spend months backpacking "all" of South America - but skip Paraguay. Are they missing anything?
Nicole is temporarily living in Asuncion and traveling around the country. Zoe is a seasoned backpacker who might have skipped Paraguay, but is glad she didn't.
Together, the two give insights and recommendations as to what you can do in Paraguay, the best places to visit, and how to link it into your South American trip.
Plus: some of their crazy travel stories!
Mentioned in the episode
-Free Walking Tour of Asuncion: here or here
-Botelleras, traditional Paraguayan bottle dancing
-Tourist information center in Asuncion from Senator PY
-ChacaTours
-Museo del Fútbol Sudamericano
-Atyra
-Get information about visiting Filadelfia in the Chaco
Next Thursday: the final episode of Tereré Talks!
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 8. Paraguay is a mixture of surprises when it comes to language.
Yes, they speak Spanish, but Paraguayan Spanish is completely distinct from other South American countries' Spanish. Plus, the second official language of Paraguay is Guarani, the most widely spoken native American language. And on top of that, there's Jopara, which is a mixture of Spanish and Guarani!
To make things stranger, within the foreigner community, sometimes German is more useful than English!
Videos mentioned in the episode:
-alo_molinas on YouTube and his skits on Paraguayan Spanish vs. Mexican Spanish, practicing Guarani, and saying thank you in Paraguay
-WikiToungues episode on Guarani
Next Thursday: traveling in Paraguay!
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 7. If US Americans are peaches, and Germans are coconuts, are Paraguayans... marshmallows?
One of the main things you'll hear about Paraguay - if you hear anything - is that the people are really nice. But what does that actually mean? Enjoy this series of stories that paint a clearer picture of what exactly people mean when they say Paraguayans are nice!
Next Thursday: languages in Paraguay!
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 6. In Paraguay, you can drop 50$ on a single linen shirt in a posh shopping mall, and you can spend 150$ on a hand-made, custom dining set that you picked up on the shoulder of a highway.
Furnishing a home in Paraguay can be quite the adventure, full of Facebook Marketplace scams, artisans clustered by skill selling on the roadside, and buying plants in the middle of a forest.
Next Thursday: the Paraguayan people!
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 5. Paraguayan food: the best-kept secret in international cuisine?
Paraguay cuisine is a magical land where the sopa is cornbread, the soups have hidden steaks at the bottom, and gluten intolerant eaters can enjoy tapioca-based everything.
Even beyond their own cooking, Paraguayans simply know what to do in the kitchen. There's a booming craft beer scene, heaps of top-rate international restaurants, and the best beef you'll have in your life.
All of that for a price tag that will make you do a double-take, in a good way.
And somehow, no one knows about it. No one talks about it. Until now!
Next Thursday: shopping and commerce!
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 4. Zoe and Nicole discuss the oddities of getting around in Paraguay.
You can walk - but not on the sidewalks. You can drive - but you can't turn left. You can bike - but watch out for the sinkholes disguised as puddles. You can take a bus - but you have to book it in person. You can fly - but the airport shops aren't reliably open.
Next Thursday: food!
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 3. White chunky tile flooring, a special pavilion for the barbecue, and an old dude with a gun napping at the end of the street. Welcome to a Paraguayan home!
In Paraguay, there are a lot of quirky things about a house, from the confusing but cool electrical outlets to dogs that are kind of pets, kind of security. Nicole and Zoe explain what a Paraguayan home looks like, plus a cost breakdown to compare rent and utilities costs among Paraguay, Germany, and the USA.
Listen until the end for the wild tale of how far German government agencies will go to track you down!
Next Thursday: transit in Paraguay.
Read more about tereré here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 2. Things Nicole read about Paraguay before moving here: it's the only landlocked South American, and it has an impressive mail system.
Both "facts" proved to be untrue. So Nicole and Zoe are here to correct them!
After going over basic geographical information, Nicole and Zoe share a short history of Paraguay, some fast facts about the population and places of interest, and a bit about safety in Paraguay. Plus, they discuss their first impressions upon arriving in Asuncion - including the unusual city structure!
Next Thursday: we dive into the numbers for all things housing in Paraguay.
Read more about tereré here.
If you're visiting Asuncion, check out a free walking tour: here or here.
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Tereré Talks: Part 1. Exactly a year ago, Nicole packed up her bags and moved from Germany to Paraguay. She didn't know what to expect, because the Internet knows everything, except, apparently, things about Paraguay.
After a year in Paraguay, Nicole has lots of love for this special place, and she's here to share about it in the Tereré Talks.
Nicole's friend Zoe joins her as a co-host, and they start off by catching up on the last year. What did Nicole get up to? What did she find to do for work? Where has she traveled to in South America? Why hasn't this podcast come out for months??
And most importantly, what's the update on The Expat Cats!?
Next Thursday: a crash course on basic information about Paraguay.
Read more about tereré here.
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Season 8, Episode 0. A new season + a new format! In this intro to the new season, Nicole shares what she's got planned for season 8. Plus, she walks you through what tereré, the drink that's inspired the name of the season, is and how you drink it (at least as far as she's learned so far!).
Read more about tereré here.
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Season 7, Episode 25. This week's guest is your host, Nicole! Nicole is from the US and lived in Germany for five and a half years. Just a couple weeks ago, she moved from Germany to Paraguay for a temporary stay.
Over the course of seven months, Nicole recorded audio diaries about the move. The voice notes chronicle multiple moves, vehicle sales, paperwork stress, figuring out how to quit a job in Germany, the oddness that is packing items to ship across an ocean, and sadness because of how a big move like this one impacts friendships.
There's laughter, there's tears, there's an emptied bottle of tequila!
Listen to the episode where Nicole announces her move here.
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Season 7, Episode 24. "Last year, the world changed, and the awareness of the situation is there now. It wasn't there 10 years ago."
Kateryna grew up in Kiev, Ukraine and moved to the Netherlands a decade ago to study. Before she could reflect on if she'd like to stay there longer after her degree, war broke out in her home country. But, weirdly, not many people around her knew about it or discussed it.
Fast forward to 2022. By then, Kateryna had spent most of her 20s in the Netherlands and built a life for herself there. Suddenly, the war escalated, and thousands of fellow Ukranians were seeking safety abroad due to the war, including in the Netherlands.
Kateryna discusses how experiencing her 20s abroad affected her, plus what it's like to be abroad as an expat versus to be abroad while feeling war.
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Season 7, Episode 23. You might recognize her name and her voice from NPR, or National Public Radio, broadcasts across the US. Soraya grew up in the US, Iran, and Germany as the child of German and Iranian immigrants. She built an impressive career as a foreign correspondent, despite significant barriers keeping women from doing such work at the time.
She persisted, and she succeeded. Soraya's career had her living for years in Afghanistan, opening up a Kabul bureau, before moving to Egypt, just months before the Arabic Spring broke out. After years of covering intense conflict and war, Soraya was eager to take a job in Berlin - but months after settling, the Russia-Ukraine war broke out for the first time.
Now, she's been in Berlin for over 10 years, and she's the host of her own podcast, Common Ground Berlin. She joins us to talk about her extremely exciting life in such a wide range of fascinating places.
LINKS
Common Ground Berlin
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Season 7, Episode 22. Lindsay was living in Michigan and nearing the end of high school, so she started to look at colleges in the US. And then she had a better idea. Rather than go to a US college and study abroad for a semester or a year, why not just go to university abroad?
Now, she's halfway through her degree in Utrecht in the Netherlands. Lindsay tells us all about how she got the idea in her mind to get her Bachelor's degree abroad, what it's been like in comparison to a US college, and how she's navigated relationships with family and friends back home - all while learning to be an independent adult in a country she is brand new to!
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Season 7, Episode 21. Is there joy in life in Germany? Today's guest Priya grew up in India, lived for several years in Uganda, and now lives in Stuttgart, Germany. Priya and her German husband are raising their two small children in Germany, and focusing on family life has changed the considerations of what "joy" even means.
We discuss where there was and wasn't joy in the various places she's lived. Priya shares a beautiful metaphor for how think about priorities when seeking joy. Hint: it involves one of the most popular brunch meals!
LINKS
Priya's Instagram
Wax & Wake BK on Instagram
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Season 7, Episode 20. If you think of a financial planner, you might not immediately think of the resume of today's guest. Born in the USA. A stint in Moldova. A few years in France. Then Rome. Then Copenhagen. Then back to the US, to Boston and then to Denver. And now, Toulouse, France.
Kieran spent most of her 20s living in various parts of Europe, learning what she likes and doesn't like in life, in a place, in a career, and in herself. A crucial piece of advice she got over a coffee date with her boss/mentor led her to relocate to the US, where she switched career tracks to become a financial planner.
Now, after establishing her career and listening to her intuition, Kieran relocated to Toulouse, France, this time in a more permanent manner. After all her moves and career shifts and opportunities, she now views future life plans or ideas in the framework of, "I wouldn't be surprised if..."
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Season 7, Episode 19. Oscar grew up in Ecuador and moved to the USA in his early adulthood. Now, he's preparing to move to Germany with his German partner - who, funnily enough, is from Hamburg, exactly where Oscar's great-grandfather was from!
Oscar fills us in on what these three countries have in common, including a surprising opinion about which countries have the least in common. Plus, there is an enthusiastic nerding out over bridges in this episode! And an exciting Q&A about life in Paraguay, where Oscar's partner once lived!
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Season 7, Episode 18. Eleanor is a late bloomer. She moved abroad on more or less a whim in the late 1990s, when she was in her late 20s.
Eleanor was working in tech at the time, and although her initial move abroad was rather disorganized, with many misfires and much flying by the seat of her pants, by the time the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s, she was in a good position. She was living in Munich, Germany, working a steady job in web design, so she decided to stay. To bloom.
When she hit her mid-30s, she changed her career and met her husband. They had their kid when she was in her early 40s. And now, Eleanor is approaching her inflection point, or the year when she'll have lived longer in Germany than in her home country (USA). And now, she's here to share the wild story with us and reflect on what it all means.
FIND ELEANOR
Her Website
Her blog post, "How I Became a Lifetime Expat in Germany"
On Instagram @eleanormayrhofer
On LinkedIn
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Season 7, Episode 17. Kendall Long is now a resident of Germany! You may know her from her appearances on The Bachelor or Bachelor in Paradise. Now, this LA local is calling Stuttgart, Germany home, along with her fiance and their dog.
Kendall has been in Germany a month or two, and she joins Nicole, a fellow US American who has been in Germany for over five years, to swap insights. Kendall shares her first impressions of Germany and asks some burning questions, and Nicole gives advice to her as a newcomer to the area.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Previous episodes about Learning German and Becoming Bilingual as well Travel Germany: The Black Forest
Find a tandem partner with Tandem or VHS
DM pharmacy store and the brand Weleda
Carsharing programs such as Grüne Flotte in Freiburg or several companies in Stuttgart
World's Largest Pig Museum in Stuttgart
FIND KENDALL
On Instagram @itskendalllong
On TikTok @itskendalllong
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Thank you for your interesting podcast, it was a pleasure to listen. To the English school you recommended, I also want to give recommendations about the online English language school EnglishPapa http://englishpapa.com /, on the website of which you can take a free test, the first trial lesson is also held for free.
Awesome podcast😍
Such great insights into what it means to be an expat. I recommend this to anyone thinking about moving abroad!
This podcast is a great discovery.
thank you for this