Has a song ever carried you through a rough time in your life? That's exactly what happened to British international Karl when he moved to Denmark.

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

Can moving to the U.S. help a European expat have a smoother transition to living in China?​ Pia and her family just recently left Shanghai, China after living here for two years. I have met some active expats in my life but Pia takes the cake on really living life the fullest. She explored China, worked and volunteered locally, all while raising two intelligent and worldly daughters. Come have a listen to the answer to that question and more as we explore a blog of hers from this time period. ​

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

​Do bookworms learn languages better? In 2017 Angie was the Creator of T(h)ree of Books YouTube channel. She was also a German expat living in Shanghai, China. She had a few languages under her belt before she moved to Shanghai and started to study Mandarin Chinese. ​​Angie decided to take the time to study Mandarin Chinese in a classroom setting the first few months she was in the city and that is what our conversation revolved around. At the time, I was self studying while working way too much, so I had questions about the classroom experience in China.

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

Did you blog your way through your first experiences in a new place? Shannon Martin does this. She is an American who has lived in Shanghai, China for 6 years. In this two part interview she shares her first impressions of China via a blog post she wrote in 2012 with her current life in Shanghai. Shannon brings up many nuanced aspects of daily life in Shanghai that often get overlooked like personal space differences, cartoon patterned bed sheets, books, quiet places and more.

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

The first year in a new country is always the hardest.

Evan did what I did, he took to writing a blog to sort out the think through what he was seeing, experiencing and feeling. In this conversation we revisit an early blog post of his from when he first arrived in China. We chat about dogs, language and so many more nuanced aspects of Chinese (and American) culture.

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

Do you have a spiritual home? Xing Zhao does. He's a Chinese Writer, Translator and former international student in Edinburgh, Scotland. Xing shares with us a blog post, Kapa Zhou, that he wrote during his first year studying in Scotland. He goes on to reflect on how his memories of that time period and how they are not fully represented in the blog entry. Xing also shared a post he wrote on the Chinese language version of this blog as advice to other international students. As someone who has taught international students both in Asia and in my passport country of the U.S, this was interesting insight to get first hand indeed.

Xing’s website: https://kapazhao.com/

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

Have your expectations about a place ever gotten you into trouble?

American expat Evan, also known as my husband, was kind enough to be our first guest on the podcast show back in 2017. He shared a group email that he wrote to his family and friends back home with us as well as what he thinks about his culture shock now, 20 years later.

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...

Questions about family can be triggering if the experience was not ideal. This is one of the reasons that Steph's talked about her family in tiny drips here and there but not in depth. But it felt disingenuous to ask other expats to open up about their early family life growing up with immigrant parents without diving into these experiences herself. So to help with this tabled turned interview, Melissa was kind enough to hop in and guide the conversation.

Melissa's podcast: Tired In My Twenties: https://tiredtwenties.substack.com/

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

🔥Need help with your podcast: https://www.coffeelikemedia.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738...