The Expat Cast

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 shar...

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 t...

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 thin...

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: language...

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. N...

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 inter...

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 he...

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...

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 b...

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 s...

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 .   REVIEW On Apple Podcasts On Podchaser On the website   CONNECT theexpatcast...

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...

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 discuss...

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 car...

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 h...

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 li...

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 li...

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...

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...

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...

Season 7, Episode 16. We're catching up with Austyn from Expat Hour. Austyn started her podcast while living in the Netherlands with her four kids and her husband. About two years ago, Austyn ended her podcast to focus on a new job and her family. But some big things have happened in her life since then, most notably that Austyn and her family now live in Portland, Oregon! She joins The Expat Cast...

Season 7, Episode 15.  In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about the Black Forest!  Jenny lived in Freiburg for 5 years, and she spent all her free time taking the train up into the Black Forest to hike, bike, and explore the area. Two years ago, she moved up to that area, and now she is truly the...

Season 7, Episode 14. Lindsey absolutely loved her life in Zurich, Switzerland. But still, she moved back to her home country, USA. After years and years of living the best life she and her family could in the US - we're talking beautiful house, big garden, kids riding a yellow school bus to school, the whole works - she still found herself daydreaming of the walkability, work-life balance, beauty...

Season 7, Episode 13. Marlene and Nicole met and became friends in Freiburg, where Marlene was getting her master's degree in the Global Studies Program. Shortly after finishing the degree, she moved to Berlin, and from the end of the program until today, she's faced a series of serious challenges: housing insecurity, job insecurity, visa insecurity, health and mental issues, relationship difficul...

Season 7, Episode 12. Shaun from The Germany Experience and Nicole from The Expat Cast are coming together for a special episode: a call to donate to their charity of choice this holiday season, and a big announcement from Nicole.   4GEPADFO Donate to Krisenchat Ukrainian   FIND SHAUN The Germany Experience On Instagram   REVIEW On Apple Podcasts On Podchaser On my website   CONNECT theexpatcast.c...