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Away We Go We Go follows the journey of Sophie & Jordan Epton, an American couple who moved to France with their 10-month old twins, and the crazy adventure that follows. We dive deep into what it's really like moving and living abroad as expats, interview others who have taken the road less traveled, provide travel tips, discuss how you can do hard things to change your own life, and everything in between.
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[00:00:00]
Jordan: Welcome back to another episode of The Away We Go, we Go podcast. Got another solo one with Jordan today. Had all of the right plans to have. Sophie and I do a little sesh and is the season and that girl. Has been doing a lot of talking lately and she's dealing with some sinus stuff and some voice stuff and some throat stuff.
And so we're gonna give her a little rest. [00:01:00] And uh, you know, I think deep down she's not thrilled, but. Less Deep down she's kind of thrilled. She's like, you, you go do this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna handle it. 'cause I'm like, this girl, this girl needs a break. You know what I'm saying? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna ride it out solo today.
So thanks for, thanks for hanging with me. It is the holiday season and we were kind of talking about this, thought it would be kind of a fun one to just talk about the holidays. As an expat and being abroad and having some of the differences and, you know, holidays away from your home, so to speak, and just what that's all about.
Because, you know, share a couple stories here and a couple things about current and previous experiences, but it's, [00:02:00] it, it, it can be weird. Awesome. But before I dive into that, give a little quick update because it is December 1st now that I'm recording. And that means that we just celebrated a little Thanksgiving break at the end of last week for our, our US listeners.
We're also celebrating Thanksgiving glorious couple days for Sophie and I because. Not a holiday in France. So the beautiful twins got to go to school on Thursday and Friday with all their other friends, and that was great for them. And we got to chill and it was awesome having a couple of holidays where we could kind of staycation a little bit and things were normal for the twins.
Just gave us some, some opportunities. Thursday was like a full on stay at home. Don't even get out of bed except to order some [00:03:00] sushi and eat sushi in bed and definitely not spill sushi on the bed. 'cause I am very organized adult mature eater. My bad. And that was a fun day we did for any of you watching Stranger Things.
We just crushed through some Stranger Things episodes with their last season. It just got to hang out and relax and it was just awesome. 'cause most of the time, no all of the time we're either running back and forth doing work, running to drop off or pick up the twins or hang with them and we're trading hands.
Somebody's cooking dinner, somebody's cleaning up. It was nice to just have like hours at home uninterrupted. That was dope. And the show's awesome. If you're not watching it, you should, Friday. Friday was super cool. Friday we both got up ass early as we are to get these, these two ready [00:04:00] for school. We, we dropped 'em off together and immediately hit the road, made our way out to little town called Leo Sorg.
Which has taken me, how long have we lived here? Like closing it on two and a half years? Yeah. It's taken me this long to still not know how to say the name of that town correctly, but we're kidding there. We're gonna keep trying. We don't give a fuck. Sophie knows what I'm talking about. That's what matters.
And so Tahoe was a super cool day. We got to see a good buddy who lives out there, has an antique shop. We had an amazing lunch at this place that we tried to go to. Back in the summer, obviously the, the Sophie posted about it and the name is, is totally blanking right now. I think it starts with a vowel.
But we walked in and we're like, Hey, do you have any availability? And the, the hostess practically laughed at us, so we made sure to make a reservation this time and it was delicious. [00:05:00] Kind of reminds us of Grenache here in X, which is also like a really approachable, super fun. Meal that does like a three course meal and everything is outstandingly delicious, which we ended up doing our little Thanksgiving dinner with Sophie's folks and the kids on Saturday.
So that was fun. So it was, it was just good. It was chill weekend, played with them, weather was good. Walked around. Sophie was kind of in and out, relaxing, sleeping a bit, just 'cause she hasn't been feeling great, but. All in all super solid weekend, but I, as we kind of jump into the holidays, I do want to kind of talk about how ours has completely differed this year, and so yeah, looking forward to the rest of the upcoming holiday season.
Definitely looking forward to the Christmas time and Hanukkah time because it's well hanukkah's a little bit earlier, but. Christmas end of the year last week. It's that awesome time where like [00:06:00] everybody else is also doing that. So the obligation and timing and expectation kind of chills out work-wise and otherwise.
So pretty stoked about that. Also, they do Christmas time really well here, so, but I have a few kind of, I think. I don't know, themes to address with the whole holiday season living abroad. I think the first one I'll, I'll kind of talk about is the emotional side of holidays abroad. Not like in a super sappy way, but it can kind of feel like that, I think where you get like these moments.
So in my experience, I've had just these like fleeting moments. When I'm away from family, you know, the types of Thanksgiving dinners I've done for, you know, decades or friends that I've seen or, you know, just experiences that I like, [00:07:00] relate that weekend to, you know, there's, there's just like a thing that you do.
You know, some people are the wake up early and do like a Turkey trot, go for a run. Because there's, you know, charity runs and walks, five Ks, 10 Ks, whatever that the super ambitious people do. There's Turkey bowl, which is American football, which I did for a number of years with friends back home in Chicago.
And it was again, wake up early, go out, play football all morning, get the shit kicked outta you by your friends that are like getting, like falling less and less. Or in shape more and more outta shape. Either way, everybody's just getting hurt and still trying to tackle each other. And it's dumb, but also super fun.
And so there's just, you know, there's just like memories that you. Equate that weekend with, and when you're away from all that, very away from all that, you know, you kind [00:08:00] of have these like moments where you, I don't know, you, you hear a song, you catch a smell of something, food that you're cooking or movie or something that pops on.
You're like, oh
Speaker 2: shit. Yeah.
Speaker: And it, you know, it kind of, kind of pops in. But I think the, the nostalgia part is super fun. Sophie and I always like somehow remember like new things that we haven't shared at this point in our relationship. Uh, we've been together 16 years, but it's like fun to be like, oh yeah, I used to do this on Thanksgiving, and we just haven't talked about that yet.
So it's super fun to talk about and it's fun to think about that stuff and we're very lucky that we, you know, can, can share memories like that. But at the same time there's definitely like a FOMO when you make the phone calls, call back to family, and they're all. Getting together, doing different things, having their meals.
Some look similar, some, you know, as, as like grandkids get older or start their own families, et cetera. People move and spread out. [00:09:00] It starts to look a little bit different, but, you know, it's still, you know, for the first like 10 plus years of, of us being together in Austin, we would always fly back for holidays.
So, you know, there's this, there's a certain amount of like. Disconnection in fomo, and I think there's like the quiet moments that really like creep up on you. And, and the first time this ever happened to me was when I was living in Argentina. And, you know, for those who hadn't heard my, my experience from that earlier episode, I recorded, I lived in Argentina in Enos Highes for a little over a year.
Like 20 years ago and was just living abroad, was teaching English, was working, was learning Spanish. And I remember Christmas and I'm Jewish and you know, still, you know, Hanukkah was, was celebrated. But I grew up celebrating Christmas because [00:10:00] my grandparents were in the jewelry industry. They're in retail.
And from Thanksgiving to Christmas, it is the time of year. So. They always, because Christmas Day was off. That's kind of when they celebrated my mom and, and her family growing up. That's kinda when they celebrated their Hanukkah and kind of Christmas. So it just kind of became like a thing. And it was just the, the tradition And I mean, my grandparents worked their, at their, their stores and their, their, their company up until they literally couldn't work anymore.
And actually. Not the the most fun news, but my grandma actually passed away just a couple weeks ago. She was like 96 years old. She had dementia for the last close to 10 years, so super sad, but at the same time it was the right time. I think there's some relief there. A little sidestep on her. She's a fucking badass.
And. She was a very cool lady and she did [00:11:00] a lot of amazing things and she broke a lot of glass ceilings and it's just interesting to to think about that. You know, had she known about the state that she was in for that long, I think she would've been like, the fuck, this is awful. But, you know, my, my aunt had said it really nicely that, you know, she, she lived her life absolutely with style.
And with Grace, and she was just iconic and people completely adored her even in the last 10 years when she was. Physically healthy, but just mentally not there, unfortunately. And she was mostly kind of bedridden in her apartment. Luckily she got to stay there and, and I think, you know, just in, in some manner of speaking, finely passed away and, and went to, to officially rest because I, I can't imagine if there was some level of comprehension in there.
That must have been awful, but. Super fun to, to think about her. She [00:12:00] has, she, she recorded some albums that are on Spotify's Badass, so I can go back and listen to that. But for me growing up was going to her house on Christmas and I go with my family and that was just, that was, that was what we did on Christmas every year.
So even as a Jewish family, that was just kind of our thing. And when I was in Argentina, that's where everybody was. And I just remember on Christmas Day, it was just, it was like, I don't wanna make it out to seem like more depressing than it actually was. 'cause it wasn't really depressing, but it was just the time where like I had a lot of friends that were traveling or had left and gone back home to the US and I just kind of didn't.
Have anything arranged that day? I mean, I had a lot of friends and I could have joined different Christmas celebrations, but I just didn't, for whatever reason. [00:13:00] And I remember, I mean, it was like a ghost town. There were only two times where I saw Buenos Aires as a ghost town. One was at Christmas and the other was when it was, I was there in 2006, so it was during the World Cup and when Argentina was playing.
It was 11 million plus person city, and there was nothing, no taxis, no buses, I mean, humble weeds. It was crazy, but it was kind of like that on Christmas. And I just remember, I, I found a payphone in the middle of the road and made a few calls with my calling card, called my my Family, and had a nice little chat with them.
And, you know, it was, it was chaos where they were. And so. I got like a few minutes. Yeah. I obviously gotta talk to my mom and my dad. And so I went up to my sister and then, you know, they just kind of passed the phone around. It was a little quick, little chaotic, everybody's kind of eating, running around, doing whatever.
And so it was only like a 10 minute call and then I kind of [00:14:00] hung up and that was like the first time where I was just like, Ooh, this is, this is kind wild. And this year, I think what was really interesting was. It was kind of the opposite of quiet moments where it was like you kind of like think about that when you're thinking like, oh, I live abroad and during the holidays it's like super quiet everywhere.
But then the opposite happened for Thanksgiving for obvious reasons, not celebrating that here in France. And it was more of like nothing stopped. It was just very normal. And so it almost felt like it was easy to just. Not even remember that this kind of nostalgic special holiday was even happening. I mean, again, Sophie and I took some time off, but because the kids were in school, we weren't able to drive up to the app to be with her folks.
They ended up coming down on Saturday. We did a really nice lunch Acron on [00:15:00] Saturday, and you know, with the twins and with us being here, just, that's just kinda the way it's working out right now. But that was an interesting realization when it was like, you know. Nothing's changed. Everything is just kind of going on as a normal day 'cause it was a normal Thursday, a normal Friday.
Even if they're participating in Black Friday. But it was, it was, uh, it was, it was an interesting kind of thing. So, you know, I think, you know, cooking some, some fun stuff, familiar recipes. Obviously we made a bunch of phone calls and video calls. Ways to kind of combat some of the FOMO and the disconnection.
Obviously technology is better now than it was when I was in Argentina. I don't have to get a calling card and find a payphone. I can just FaceTime with family. So that was still pretty cool. But, you know, I think there's, uh, everybody has a lot of their own personal ways to stay connected. I'd be curious to [00:16:00] hear what some of y'all do to stay connected with.
Traditions when your physical surroundings are very different than, you know, the celebratory time over there. That was the weirdest fucking way to just say, Hey, if you celebrate Thanksgiving or a holiday from where, whatever your native country is and you don't live there anymore, how do you celebrate it?
So I'd be curious to hear that. I think, uh, a couple other cool things. To think about maybe the next larger section here is traditions in a new country. So obviously we're in France, so you know, there's some differences that we obviously notice between here in the US I think, you know, you have certain things like US Thanksgiving versus the French Noel, which is Christmas dinners.
You know, it's, it's the Turkey or maybe some flora. Which do you choose? I mean, I'll tell you this. I love me some [00:17:00] gra. I could fucking put down a couple jars of fo gra in a setting, spread it on bread, take some spoon, hits all sorts, get some chips, some crackers. Put it on a croissant. Put anything on a croissant.
What's up? I have a problem with bread. I almost an entire baguette tonight did some slow cooker chicken, had a lot of good of juices in there after it was done and I just kept dipping the bread in there. It's so damn good. You put some GR on that, man. I'm crush that shit so yummy Turkey. It depends if you know, you know some people can really fuck up a Turkey and make it super dry.
You gotta have some good ass gravy. I'm all about the day after sandwich. Oh, especially
Speaker 2: if you get a croissant. I have a problem. I can't stop talking about '
Speaker: em, but literally any kind of delicious bread. Throw some Turkey on there. You get [00:18:00] some Thanksgiving stuffing on there. Obviously some gravy. Throw some cranberry sauce in there.
Probably a couple extras. Get a little, some like potato chips for some crunch and added a little saltiness and like. Ooh, that's a damn good sandwich. Especially if you butter up and, and like pan fry both sides of bread. Woo. Yeah, I love food. But then you got other things like dessert wise. I don't know if you're like a pecan pie or a pumpkin pie household.
Versus the French Busin Noel, which you can find me eating any variation of that all day. I will dump a pumpkin pie out the window and waste it. 'cause I don't give a fuck about pumpkin pie. But a busin Noel, sometimes they got ice cream in them. Sometimes it's just the cake. And you got like a, like, not, not a buttercream, but like some sort of like Swiss meringue filling or whatever they're doing.
[00:19:00] Douse that shit in chocolate. I've had variations, and let me tell you, they're all good. Every single one of them. O love a bush and Noel Bush, Bo to Noel. Now also, I will say there's another super kind of traditional festive thing called, it's called re de My French is getting there, the 13 desserts. It is a traditional al Christmas ritual in south of France, and it's essentially, I think.
It's kind of like a symbolic spread of more like religious focus. You know, 13 different sweets served after the Christmas Eve dinner, but it's got things like raisins, dried figs, almonds, hazelnuts, which I think they refer to as the the four.
Speaker 2: Don't ask me,
Speaker: I dunno what this [00:20:00] stuff means. Look it up. Some of the other things they do, a white noot and a black noot.
Which I'll crush some Noot. Love that. Not just in the Three Musketeers. They'll put dates and prunes on there. They'll even do fresh oranges or clementines, fresh apples or pears. And then one thing they put on there is a PO ofWe, which is like a, it's like a sweet olive oil brioche flavored with orange blossom, which.
Not my thing. One of my favorite bakeries that makes some amazing pastries in town and amazing breads. They do even just like a, like a brioche loaf with the orange blossom kind of flavoring in there. Not for me, I just, how I, it's two floy and bitter and I'm like, you don't, you don't need that in there, but.
It's tradition. Then the other things are the, the kaison, which are like [00:21:00] kind of the diamond or marquee shaped little maran and candied melon specialty from exome po. So these are kaison to X and the last is a quince paste, which, you know, it's like a, they're not like a Turkish delight, but it's like a firm fruit jelly square.
I think they make it, it's like quince sugar and lemon, something like that. So that's the, the, and that's definitely like a holiday classic here. You know, for us in the US, I mean, I don't know what your Christmas dessert spread looks like. Thanksgiving spread. A lot of people are pie people. If I have to choose, I'm a cake guy all day.
I'll crush a French silk pie, which I don't even know if they do here, which is now I'm just thinking about and realizing, but I. Any kind of dessert, I'm still gonna kill it. I think a couple other things is because we do Thanksgiving in the us, they don't really start [00:22:00] a lot of the Christmas celebration stuff until immediately after Thanksgiving versus.
Here in France, they're, their Christmas celebration start like mid-November, which can be pretty fun 'cause you get a nice buildup into it. But, you know, there's, I, I still think the, the communal gatherings, but Thanksgiving just adds an additional one. And you know, it's, it's very, depending on, you know, who you're with, but obviously the tradition is gratitude giving thanks, sharing what you're grateful for.
I actually had a buddy from England ask me, he's like, do you guys really sit around the table and like stop eating and actually like, just talk about what you're thankful for? And it was pretty funny and I was thinking about it. I was like, yeah, totally. Well. Do we, it was funny because in, in my family growing up, we definitely did it, but we had a, an adult table at a kids' table and you know, when we got up to the [00:23:00] adult table age when we were all sitting there, I think by that point we were all probably like sneaking off to smoke a joint or something like that and come back.
So maybe we're sharing what we were grateful for, but I'm, I'm pretty sure we all knew that it was the dessert table naturally. Now when I went back to Colorado to spend time with Sophie's family, this was back in the day when like everybody was still in town and I only went back for a couple because we normally went back to my family for Thanksgiving and her family for Christmas.
But I remember the first time I went for Thanksgiving and first of all, lemme tell you that family makes some
Speaker 2: food.
Speaker: It was amazing. I mean, it was a massive spread. Their potluck style and everybody can cook well. So many dips, delicious Turkey pies for days. And I will crush those pies 'cause they made some damn good pies and just [00:24:00] like, oh my gosh, so many delicious sides.
Done, right, done uncorrectly and that was amazing. But like legit, they're like a family that like sings together. They have families that sing really well, harmonize really well. They're like holding hands and singing and talking about gratitude. I'm like, this exists. Is this real shit? Because like my family is made up of cartoon characters, like constant jokes and shit talking and it's, it's ridiculous.
And I'm sure some of you relate to both of those, excuse me, to both of those, but. It was definitely funny, you know, Sophie coming back with my family and kind of being a deer in the headlights, being like, is this real? Are you people really like this? And then me going back to her family and, and doing the same thing just from different perspectives is pretty funny.
But I. But yeah, I think that one of the cool things about the Christmas time here is the markets. I mean, they have Christmas markets, everybody does them. Xs [00:25:00] Christmas market is fucking awesome. And it's huge. And it's all throughout like the second half of November and all throughout December. And they just, you know, we've talked about it.
They have these big log cabins that sell gifts and cool stuff and specialty foods. They're roasting chestnuts. You got mold wine. They have like little, like the town's all overdo this. It looks like these little mini like county fair rides out of the eighties and they're fucking everywhere in X and it's, it's awesome.
We haven't done enough with the twins yet and we probably will in the coming weeks, but, but super fun. Fun. One thing that I am interested in hearing about, because Friendsgiving is obviously becoming more. Visible. I'm sure this has been going on for a very long time, but with socials and everything, you obviously can see more from Friendsgiving, but I'd be curious about hearing, you know, what kind [00:26:00] of Friendsgiving or like international potlucks you're doing.
I think, you know, we're, you hear us talk about all the time, like we're, we're in over our heads with 3-year-old twins organizing. Organizing anything is just, I'm not gonna say out of the question, but it is a reach. So in the coming years, I'm hoping that we're feeling a little bit more grounded. We can kind of bring people together more, do like a bigger celebration and get a bunch of people together.
But I'm, I'm curious, you know, if you have any good stories about friends givings or international potlucks where. You have people from different cultures. 'cause everybody likes to celebrate whatever it is. And if you're just saying, Hey, we're doing Thanksgiving, bring something traditional or bring your favorite dish, you know, share a story or just bring it and, and everybody gets to try different stuff, you know, I think that's a super fun way to do it.
You know, blending traditions. Maybe [00:27:00] you're combining something from home that you do. I mean, I, I can get Turkey here and we can get all the things, but maybe also you're, you know, doing more local stuff. We're bringing mold wine that we wouldn't normally do, which maybe some people do. We didn't. But, or doing the, the Zel here, which again, I'm probably gonna go for the bush in No, well, because it's cake and ice cream and chocolate.
But again. Or, or what? What new rituals you find yourself creating when you move abroad? Are you creating new rituals of connection? How are you kind of reflecting and connecting? I think it's super important to do both. Obviously for us, this podcast is a way of. Continually reflect reflecting and it's a, it's a good recorded journal in some ways, but always, I'm always curious to [00:28:00] hear your stories.
You know, I've had a few people that, that send some really good stuff when I kind of prompt with that, so loving to hear more. But yeah, I think, you know, the, the gratitude thing being the. Giving thanks and gratitude holiday. You know, I think reflecting on living abroad and, and what that continues to teach about belonging and identity and gratitude.
Of course, I think gratitude from us, it's an easy one. Like it's, it's a privilege to have made the decision to do what we're doing. And then regardless of the struggles that we. Are experiencing while they're real in our world, it is still an absolute privilege to get, to have challenges like we're having.
And we, we recognize that and we talk about that a lot, you know, because of the, the, the way that we got here and, and how we're, [00:29:00] we're continuing to, to do it. So I think that's, that's super fun. I think. You know, the, the, some of the things that I've been thinking a lot about lately and, and maybe, you know, you've had similar feelings like this where I get asked the question a lot, like, how long are you gonna stay?
Is this a permanent thing? Are you guys gonna be there for a long time? Is it just a few years? Number one? I don't know. I don't know. No idea how long we're gonna stay here. We don't have plans to. Pick up and move. I mean, you know, I, I am technically sharing my video right now and I'll do a great job of uploading these to the podcast, but sitting in this apartment that we've decorated, and even for admitting having been here for nearly two years, I think probably I'm gonna blame it on having the twins.
We've acquired a bunch of shit that we have [00:30:00] stuffed in closets, and I'm like. We tried to be minimalist, but like, you know, we furnished a, a home. We just have a lot of stuff and, and I think we're happy exploring what we're exploring. But getting back to my point after that tangent, maybe you felt like this too, that you, you don't know how long you're going to do something, but if you don't do it as long as quote unquote, you think you should.
Wherever that should comes from. It can, it can kind of feel like pressure where, you know, maybe you live somewhere for a certain time and you're like forcing yourself into liking it or just accepting certain things and being okay with them, even if they're not okay. You know, I, I think that we've had moments.
Here. We talked about this [00:31:00] in much older episodes about year one and just how hard it was and how we were questioning shit a lot and being like, why did we do this and why are we still here? And like, is it enough? Have we had enough already? And feeling like super guilty about, oh no, no, no, no. We can't leave this early.
We haven't even given a chance and. Really, it doesn't fucking matter. Long run. It doesn't matter. I was in, in Argentina for 15 months and I've nearly doubled, if not double. Yeah, no math, not, not math right now, but I've been in France closing in on double the amount of time I was in in Argentina and. It doesn't fucking matter because my experience in Argentina was so impactful and so awesome, and it continues to pay dividends in so many ways.
In [00:32:00] the fact that I had the time and capacity to learn Spanish very quickly, and I got pretty decent at it, where I was able to build relationships from speaking Spanish, and even now I can connect with people in Spanish or have that experience. I meet people who. Have lived in Mexico or other places where they also speak Spanish and we can relate and it's super fun.
Shout out to CNC and you know, it's, it's really cool to even just have conversations with people that I'm meeting now, where, however that comes up, not like I'm just dropping in conversation. Hey, how's it going? I've been for 15 months anyways. What's your name? Real subtle like that guys, real subtle. Um, but you know, I, I think just the experience of having done that is a topic of conversation and, and it absolutely like, gives [00:33:00] back.
And so I think about that a lot now. You know, we've been here for roughly two and a half years or, or coming close to two and a half years. At any point, if we get to a place where we're like, eh, we're just gonna move back home, whatever that means, or, or call it quits, or move somewhere else, like this experience that we've had, just living day to day is going to be a lifelong thing.
And I think that recognizing that and having gratitude for that makes the hard days easier and makes the fun days better. To be honest, when we're going through really tough days or experiences and thinking, you know, someday if we're not still here and we're in the back home, what again, whatever that means, you know, circumstance, just being able to refer back to like, oh my God, do you remember when we had some [00:34:00] absolute shit show days?
And my gosh, like. What the fuck are we doing and how are we still doing this? And hey, here we are now and we're okay and things are okay. And, and I think, you know, being positive in that way and optimistic and, and looking at it like that just makes it really cool because you could move somewhere and not know what it's gonna be like and how long are you gonna be there.
And it could be six months, it could be six years, somewhere in between or longer. And it really is just. About the experience and the fact that you're doing it. And you know, Sophie and I had some time to reflect when we were just chilling by ourselves and just saying like, man, I'm feel really proud of myself and you know, I'm proud of us.
For just doing it. Even if half the decisions we've made are fucking stupid decisions. Like, you know, [00:35:00] choosing inconvenience over other things, which I think feel stupid in the moment when you really need the convenience. But again, the experience is super fun and just being able to survive stuff and continue to, to, I.
Become more secure with your decision making or your at least ability to, to overcome adversity or, or challenges when whether you've created it yourself or you're in an environment where it's impacting you. Just just knowing that you have the strength to do that, I think is something that we've, we've talked about a lot and that we're super grateful for.
Love being exposed to new celebrations and how people do it. Here again, because we're at the stage where we're at sometimes a little bit tougher to expose ourselves and get involved. 'cause even if we go to a friend's house, it might only be a few hours before we're like, okay, we've reached the limit time to take the toddlers home.
[00:36:00] But we know that. I mean, man, they're becoming awesome people. They're in between three and three and a half right now, and they're so interactive and talkative and funny. And London was actually like folding laundry today. She was like really excited to take clothes out of the laundry hamper and, and fold them and like kept coming up to me like.
Speaker 2: Man, come on man. You gotta, you gotta take stuff outta here and you gotta, you gotta fold it, you gotta put it away. But come on, man. I don't know
Speaker: who taught her that, but it was fucking hilarious and I was laughing my ass off. And I love that kind of stuff, especially from a three-year-old telling me what's what?
'cause she ain't wrong. She ain't wrong. And it was really cute. So I think look, whether you're, you're celebrating with family, celebrating with friends, or celebrating solo and going for walks and [00:37:00] reflecting, I think the important thing to remember is tradition isn't necessarily just where you are. It, it's what you carry.
And I'd, I'd love to hear stories about, you know. How you have adapted your traditions and what you've taken with you and, and what you've left behind. Again, I, I love always getting the messages in our, mostly in our Instagram and the, the epton, the underscore epton account because it's the easiest to, to keep up with.
Honestly. I've seen a few comments on some podcast episodes and I, for whatever reason have trouble navigating to those. So I haven't, uh, responded quickly enough, but. Love hearing other people's stories. 'cause you know, what you guys get is a, a one-way conversation about our stories. Hopefully it's some stuff that you can relate to and, and think about.
[00:38:00] And if you've had similar experiences where you feel super lonely or just questioning. Things or even if families or friends are giving you shit, you know, and it's during the holidays and that kind of hits harder. You know, I think being brave and, and moving abroad and, you know, actively choosing the adventure over the convenience is absolutely something worth celebrating and feeling gratitude for.
And, and if nothing else. That this podcast offers. Hopefully, it's, it's some variation of that, which is, you know, inspiration for inner strength when you're feeling. Lost or feeling like shit. But it's because you've, you're in the middle of a big decision that you've already made and you're living it out and [00:39:00] trying to make it work.
And some days feel like they support that and sometimes they feel quite the opposite. And I think it's, it's easy to feel gratitude on the days that are working for you and on the days that aren't working for you. It can be hard to see the forest through the trees, and I think that the experience itself just kind of earns you a seat at the table that you probably want to be at anyways.
You know, if you're, you get, you get the non-supporters and people talking a bunch of shit, asking you when you're gonna come back, or why'd you decide to do this in the first place? Or, I don't wanna hear you complain. You're the one who decided to blah, blah, blah. Like that's not necessarily the table you probably wanna be at because you are the kind of person that said, no, fuck it.
Like, I'll take the challenge, I'm gonna move abroad and figure it the fuck out, or start a business or just do something massively challenging that other people are confused by. And I think that just being able to know that again, number one, you're not [00:40:00] alone because we all feel like that. And, you know, especially if you're in a, if, if you're in a partnership where one person is from one country and the other person is from another country, I mean that it's just built in.
Like no matter what, somebody's gonna be left out. And it's really tricky and I think it, it's, it's just fun to celebrate. So whatever and whenever you can celebrate anything and everything. Props to you and share some stories. Thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging with me again. We're, uh, we're battling, we've been talking about having some amazing episodes and I know we've had some great guests recently.
We have more coming. Really fun to listen to. Sophie and her mom have follow up session because obviously I always have like super fun conversations and there's just a lot more there. But we do have some other good ones in the pipeline, obviously just with the holidays, travel and and [00:41:00] illness we're, we're just kinda work through all of that, but stick around.
Share forward this on to anybody else that you think might have an extra, however the fuck long this episode is to. Waste some time and hang with us and, and talk about funds and not funds of moving abroad. But uh, until next time, thanks for being here. Love ya. Talk soon.