Packing Up & Peacing Out

Would you move to Denmark if it meant a 30% pay cut but you get affordable childcare and walkable cities?  In this episode we investigate that very question with award-winning storyteller Lindsay Tigar who made the decision to move to Copenhagen with her young family.  We dig into:  Meeting her Danish husband on Tinder and how their relationship unfolded  Having young children in the US and how di...

Living abroad is AMAZING until it just… isn’t! Some parts just straight up suckkkk and we have things we don’t like.  So we did a whole episode on our HOT TAKES on the worst parts of living abroad.  Now these aren’t our actual biggest issues with moving abroad like missing family, career issues, visa stress… they are more our pet peeves with being an expat/immigrant. We get a bit cheeky and compla...

You know those glossy Travel + Leisure stories about the best hotels in the Caribbean? Imagine getting paid to write them. This episode of Packing Up & Peacing Out is your chance to picture that life with the real story from someone actually living it. Carley Rojas Ávila joins us to talk about building a freelance travel writing career while based in Latin America, and what it actually takes t...

We have both lived in Europe (Czech Republic and England) for about two years now! And with the knowledge we have, we want to answer your questions about life abroad. We cover how long we think we’ll live abroad, financial questions, tips about making friends, and more!  If you are a regular or a new PUPO listener, please fill out our survey so we know what episodes you like and any helpful feedba...

The age-old debate enters the group chat: is assimilation or integration the goal? When you move to a different country you will begin to learn that no matter which you choose, you will always be the odd one out. Of course with varying degrees of difficulty (for Lili & Taylor, it's relatively easy BUT they still get to complain), but no matter how hard you try you will never be a native. Y...

Making friends when you move abroad is notoriously difficult. From cultural differences, language divides, starting from nothing… welp its a lot to do!  Many people find themselves desperate to make the first 3 strong friendships and once those are made they forget there is more to do to form a full life abroad.   Having close friends is so key to happiness abroad… but so is having a full communit...

We're two American girls who left the U.S., but we've always wondered what it's like to move to America. This week, Laura Peruchi joins us to break down exactly what it took to move from rural Brazil to New York City: the U.S. visa process, months of not being legally allowed to work, the culture shock of American life, and why finding community with other immigrant women made all the...

One of the most common questions we get asked when people are planning their move abroad is about finding a place to live! And even though we have covered the topic before, we thought it a good topic to cover again because Lili has been going through a tough flat hunt in London.  In the episode we cover:  How looking for a flat when you are a foreigner is different than at home  Tips for looking a...

Did you know you can be a woman AND a priest? And far beyond that, you can use being a priest to move abroad? This episode of Packing Up & Peacing Out we are talking to Cortney Dale, a listener who reached out to us about her unique life story! She started as a kid in Kentucky, lived in South Africa as a teacher, became a priest in the episcopal church, and after the 2024 election, decided to...

We’re back on the other side of the pond after we both visited home in the states. So this episode is a bit of a catch up on our visits home and a discussion about what visits home look like (and don’t) for two gals who have lived abroad for a while now, but still love visiting home.  Taylor took a spontaneous one-week trip to New Jersey thanks to new direct Prague–Philadelphia flights. Lili visit...

It's been one year since we started Packing Up & Peacing Out! And in honor of a year of making this podcast and forming our community of people who dream big and go for it, we decided to go back to where it started. Our first episode is us recounting why and how we moved abroad. For Lili, it was a windy road that started in Spain, then Australia, and now London. For Taylor, it started in P...

We are both members of the dead dad club, so we know grief pretty well. But it's not just about loss, it's also about living a life you never expected and grieving the one you did.  Grieving when you live so far from home is tough, so we thought we would dedicate a whole episode to it. What we went through, lessons, and tips for anyone who is going through it. If you are dealing with grief...

It’s really damn hot. In case you don’t know, at the time we are recording this there is a major heatwave across Europe. Temperature records are getting broken as we speak and there are already dozens of confirmed deaths either from heat-related illness or drowning from people seeking relief from the heat.  In most European countries, air conditioning is not widely available, so your girls are str...

If you told us 4 years ago that we would spend our friday nights at the pub screaming at our teams… we would laugh!  But when you move abroad, taking up sports is one of the easiest ways to integrate and make friends.  In honor of The World Cup being on, Taylor and Lili talk about how sports factor into living abroad. And TBH, they are a bigger factor than we ever thought! We discuss:  The differe...

Not every dream city abroad is made equal… some are walkable, some are quaint, some have world class entertainment, some have the hobbies you love. You just need to find the perfect city for you.  So what are the green flags to look out for? Taylor and Lili have each moved to very different cities and learned which parts of them make them a great fit and which parts aren’t so great.  We discuss: ...

In Spain, they think they are the healthiest in the world… and then they pull out a pack of cigs. In America, they think they have the best healthcare in the world… then you get a bill for $5000. In Australia, they say they are the most active country on earth… but they get a lot of skin cancer.  Basically, we all think we have health figured out! In reality, we all have a lot to learn from each o...

Unless you live under a rock you’ve probably heard the term Euro Summer, but what actually is it? How does one ‘Euro Summer’?  In this episode of Packing Up & Peacing Out we are putting on our travel agent hats and laying it out for you as two girls who live in Europe and have done a lot of traveling.  Whether you have a trip to Europe planned this season or Euro Summering is on your bucket li...

So the elephant in the room is that Taylor and Lili have never met in real life… until now! Lili flew to Prague and is officially an American in Prague for this episode and in honor of our first IRL episode, we are answering listener questions.  Love the show? Leave a review, it helps other people dreaming of moving abroad find us. We cover everything from how we started the podcast, to how person...

You know that moment when someone asks "where are you from?" and instead of a one-word answer, you watch someone take a breath and figure out where to even begin? Those people have a name: Third Culture Kids. And their stories are some of the most fascinating ones in the world of living abroad. In this episode of Packing Up & Peacing Out, Taylor and Lili sit down with Veronika Kozel,...

You walk into your first gynecologist appointment abroad, feeling nervous but prepared. Then the doctor gestures for you to undress  (no gown, no curtain, no "whenever you're ready") and suddenly you're going full Pooh Bear from the waist down while she stares at you like this is completely normal. Because for her, it is. Nobody warned us though! In this episode of Packing Up &am...

Your beloved daughter tells you she’s moving 5,000 miles away from home. WTF?! How are we supposed to stay close? Don’t worry, two mother daughter duo’s are here to help! In honor of our 50th episode AND Mother’s Day, we are bringing on our moms to discuss all things being a daughter who moves abroad and how our moms feel about it. Diane (Taylor’s mom) and Kelly (Lili’s mom) share their perspectiv...

You've got the visa. You've bought the plane ticket. You've told everyone you're doing it. Now you actually have to pack up your entire life and get it to another country. No big deal, right? In this episode of Packing Up & Peacing Out, Lili and Taylor get into the unglamorous but essential logistics of physically moving abroad — what to bring, what to leave, how to ship the re...

Finland keeps topping the World Happiness Report. And every time it does, someone (probably you) asks: should I just… move there? In this episode of Packing Up & Peacing Out, we're breaking down what the World Happiness Report actually measures and why a country's happiness ranking might be one of the least useful things to consider when deciding where to move abroad. Spoiler: the USA...

Moving abroad isn’t just visas, flights, and cute coffee shops. It’s also realizing your fridge is the size of a shoebox, lunch happens whenever people feel like it, and apparently you now need to say hello and goodbye to everyone . In this episode, Taylor and Lili are rating all the random things they’ve had to get used to while living abroad in Prague and London—from mildly annoying to surprisin...

Death and  taxes… yes, even when you move abroad, the IRS still wants to hear from you. If you’re an American living overseas (or dreaming about it), this is one of those things no one really explains— you still have to file US taxes no matter where you live in the world . Fun! 💸 This episode is sponsored by MyExpatTaxes Our first sponsor (!!) and a tool built specifically to make filing US taxes...