It's Tea Time Somewhere

In this final episode of the season, our podcast team gathers together once more to discuss a relatable topic of overseas life. This time, it's all about transition. Denise, Melissa, and Alicia each take a moment to share about how they've navigated through and coped with the transitions that have come their way this past year. Some of the change was excepted and some of it came as a shock. Regard...

Emily Thomas (Mom Struggling Well Podcast) admits that expat life was not the exciting adventure of her dreams.  Maybe it was the lack of a good shower, the morning roosters, the firework plant next to your apartment or maybe, it was the fact that she was right in the middle of her journey through infertility. It can be excruciating enough dealing with the disappointment of not being pregnant mont...

There are very few careers on this earth where we group individuals by their marital status. However, when it comes to team dynamics and cultural expectations overseas, it happens a lot.  Oftentimes, we gravitate towards being best friends with people who share the same marital status as us, but that doesn't have to be the case. In this episode we talk with happily-single Amy Young.  She shares ab...

Stress, transition and unrealistic expectations of a culture can all be triggers for eating disorders and negative body issues.  All three of these things are prevalent in life abroad.  Elizabeth Trotter, Editor of A Life Overseas, shares candidly about her personal story of battling an eating disorder and how she has seen victory in this area of her life. Elizabeth shares how to speak positively...

Exhaustion. Burnout. Fatigue. Somehow we don't see it coming but we know when we're there. That moment when we've come to the end of our rope, when we've given and poured out all that we have, all while forgetting to take care of ourselves in the process. In this interview with Danielle Wheeler, founder and creator of Velvet Ashes , we talk about being proactive to find sustainment in our lives (a...

"You think your life is one thing and then you get blindsided by the reality that it's actually something else, something you were totally unprepared for," Julie Martinez recounts about her final weeks in Chile. Five days after Julie delivered her second child, she found out devastating news concerning actions done by her husband. The next thing she new, she and her family were on a plane headed b...

Depending on where you live in the world, the topic of skin color might come up daily. Maybe your skin tone is noticeably different than everyone else around you and this physical feature is brought to your attention (as if you weren't already aware of it). It then becomes the topic of discussion for the next 5 minutes. It's a type of discussion our friend Sharon Rivers is all too familiar with an...

One of the more intimidating things about living cross-culturally is when you decide to start inviting people into your home. Our minds tend to go into overthinking mode with all sorts of questions: "What if they don't feel comfortable? What if they don't like the food I prepare for them? Is this halal? Do I need to make room to sit on the floor or in chairs?" Fortunately, Julie, the writer behind...

Christmas is upon us and Denise, Alicia and Melissa are talking ALL about it.  They take the discussion way back to their childhood years and discuss the traditions they grew to love.  Those traditions turned into expectations (which sometimes led to disappointments) they put on the holiday season as an adult.  They discuss their first Christmases overseas as well as what they have come to love ab...

For 13 years, Phillippa and her husband and their 2 kids lived in a remote village in the Philippines. When it became obvious that their time there was coming to a close, Philippa found herself dreaming of a life in the West drinking coffee while her kids went to a beautiful public school. Then they received an email asking them to consider a new village with a NEW language and a NEW culture (whic...

Living Abroad can challenge any marriage.  When married cross-culturally those challenges quadruple.  Michelle Acker Perez candidly shares about life overseas and experiences of be Guatemala and the joy and difficulties of cross-cultural marriage.  We covered a wide range of topics with Michelle including navigating uncomfortable situations within each others home cultures, sorting out family dyna...

It's always good to have a plan. That's the responsible thing to do, after all. Unfortunately, there's never any guarantee things will go according to plan -- and this is when our flexibility as expats is tested.  Allie Riddle, a third generation expat, shares her experience from her family's sudden evacuation from her home in South Sudan when the war was just too close.  Allie left behind her hom...

It's time for another segment of "It's Tea Time Somewhere!" This time we're talking home assignments. What does our preparation look like? How bad is the jet lag? (Spoiler alert: real bad.) What does life look like when we're finally back to our home country? These are just a few of the things Denise, Alicia, and Melissa chat about in regards to heading "home." So go ahead and make yourself some t...

The longer you live overseas, the harder it is to answer the question, "which country do you like best?" While culture shock usually brings all the things you don't love about a country to the surface, longevity ends up showing you things about the culture you wish you could take with you everywhere you go. We covered a wide-range of topics with Elizabeth including making friends, having a bicycle...

Sometimes we don't think we "have the time" to embark on anything new. No time for exercise, no time for writing, no time to start a new hobby (or pick an old one back up). The idea seems dreamy but you're convinced your schedule is simply too packed to add anything else. Sara Beth certainly thought this same thing when considering whether or not she should join her husband in training for a triat...

Isn't it funny how sometimes we struggle with going the extra few steps to meet our neighbor, even though we've already taken thousands of steps to move overseas in the first place? We've already sold all our possessions, moved away from all that's familiar, and immersed ourselves into a new culture and language. So what makes taking some of those extra steps to reach out to the people around us s...

Any high schooler would choose boarding school over homeschooling, right?  Not necessarily.  Robin Talley discusses how as a family they talked through educational choices and how they decided to homeschool through high school, even though they live in a remote area without traditional American opportunities.  Robin talks to us about overcoming doubt during hard times, being creative to fulfill th...

What do you do when fear seems like it's paralyzing you? What if the life overseas you envisioned seems to be unraveling? Ruth Ripken touches on these questions as she opens up about sickness and loss in her own life while living abroad. She reminds us that moving forward doesn't have to be a lot of steps all at once. Sometimes it simply means taking one obedient step at a time.   Please check out...

Introducing our new episode series: "It's Tea Time Somewhere!" Every several episodes, we'll take a break from interviewing guests and the podcast team will get together to chat about different topics. This week it's all about LANGUAGE. The thought of that either made you fist pump the air with excitement or made your eye twitch a little. Denise, Alicia and Melissa share about the beginnings of th...

A lot of people thought Dacia wouldn't last in Uganda. Pretty clothes and heels filled her closet in Texas before she decided to sell everything, buy her first pair of flat shoes, and move abroad. She was the only overseas worker with a local boss and she knew if they were going to make this work, she was going to have to submit to the culture a little more than most people do. Dacia is a radiant...

Lisa's greatest adventure — parenting — combined with unique cultural experiences, has led to some of her most exciting discoveries about herself. When she and her husband, along with their infant son had the opportunity to move abroad, a lot changed. But the fresh start (plus adding a new family member) brought the opportunity to figure out what mattered most to them. Whether it's picking and cho...

Muslim women have always been a close part of Marilyn's life. Growing up as a TCK, they were like her aunts and second moms. As she became older, Muslim women became some of her closest friends. Differences in religions can certainly complicate things sometimes -- maybe even challenge our own faith -- but when a foundation of respect is built, cross-cultural friendship can prove to be just as deep...

Colette and her husband, Max, have a marriage that is admired by the young students they spend time with in their city. "I want a marriage just like yours," the students constantly exclaim. But Colette assures the students (and us) that their marriage does not come without a lot of hard work, commitment, and sometimes having the same conversation over and over and... well, you get the point. Their...

Join us as we chat with Lauren Pinkston about adoption, moving between different countries (4 to be exact), and doing the things we said would never, EVER do. You'll also hear a little bit about the fair trade business started and how she handles herself when invited to "ELITE" events with local friends. You won't want to miss that story. For full show notes go to www.takingroute.net/podcast Like...

Welcome to the NEW podcast from Taking Route. We're not going to lie, starting a podcast in a country known for frequent power outages (and having poor internet connection) definitely complicates things. Nevertheless, we are determined to bring you quality conversations from expat women around the globe. We have SO many topics to cover and we can't wait to bring you into the conversation. To start...