32 episodes
Round Trip Stories Tracy Vilanova and Melissa Ens
-
- Society & Culture
-
-
5.0 • 7 Ratings
-
Through weekly guest interviews, hosts Melissa Ens and Tracy Vilanova offer gifts of understanding for those who have recently returned from living abroad, reflection for those who have been back for years, and insight for those who have never left their home country. These stories help us all understand the world and ourselves just a little better.
www.roundtripstories.com
-
Back Home to Recalibrate: Joanna's Return Stories to Trinidad - Episode 31
This is Part 2 of our interview with Joanna Mead, an international baccalaureate Technology and Math teacher originally from Trinidad. After living abroad for sixteen years, she felt she was losing her Trinidadianness and time with her family. She landed a job at an international school in Trinidad an hour away from her mom, and began the process of immersing herself in her home culture once again. However, Joanna's accent had changed and people looked at her as a foreigner. Joanna discovered that she needed to be open minded in her own country, just as she had in her previous overseas experiences.
See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram to hear about upcoming customs episodes and share your stories with us! -
Resourcefulness Leads to Connection: Joanna's Stories from Trinidad to China - Episode 30
Our guest today is Joanna Meade, an international baccalaureate Technology and Math teacher originally from Trinidad. After attending university and teaching in the U.S., Joanna's itching for change took her abroad to teach in Japan, and China. She especially wanted to immerse herself in the local Chinese culture and language when she moved to Wuhan. She hit the ground running, but realized she did not have google maps to guide her. But no worries, Joanna’s tech savviness and willingness to ask for help allowed her to navigate so much more than a city map.
Mentioned in this episode:
Network of International Christian Schools
Life Plus (international school Joanna mentioned)
Teach Away (more teaching jobs around the world)
See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram to hear about upcoming customs episodes and share your stories with us! -
Weather Is Another Adjustment: Customs Chat - Episode 29
This customs episode is about WEATHER, and we have several guests share their stories! Along with the myriad of cultural changes when moving globally, weather is one more adjustment. How did moving to a new climate (or hemisphere!) affect us? We can settle into the cycles of a rainy season or dry season, and still be caught off guard by the almost suffocating humidity. Life is like the weather: sometimes we have dry seasons where not much seems to be happening. Other times we have a rainy season with occasional clouds and powerful storms with sometimes inconvenient consequences. But after the rains, the sun's rays come through, green is everywhere, and we realize we would never want to live without those rainy seasons.
See Edd's stunning sky photos from around the world here.
See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram to hear about upcoming customs episodes and share your stories with us! -
A World Turned Upside Down: Stacy's Return Stories from Kenya to California - Episode 28
This is Part 2 of our interview with Stacy Hipwood, International teacher, mother and wife, who is passionate about Kenya and holding up her family. Stacy fell in love with Nairobi and stayed for eleven years teaching, marrying, and raising her two children. She never wanted to leave. But her husband’s brain aneurysm and recovery period sent her whirling. With a two and four year old to care for and now the sole provider, she and her husband made the decision to move to the U.S.
Resource mentioned in episode: Link Care Foundation
See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram to hear about upcoming customs episodes and share your stories with us! -
Relationships Were the Priority: Stacy's Stories from California to Kenya - Episode 27
This is Part 1 of our interview with Stacy Hipwood, international teacher, mother and wife, who is passionate about Kenya and holding up her family. Stacy fell in love with Nairobi and stayed for eleven years teaching, marrying, and raising her two children. Her transition to living in Kenya was supported by her connection to friends who became like family. Even though long utility outages just about drove her out of the country, the culture of focusing on relationships and caring for others kept her firmly rooted, hoping to never leave.
See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram to hear about upcoming customs episodes and share your stories with us! -
Leaving Wuhan Just in Time: Dr. Stanley's Return to Ghana - Episode 26
This is Part 2 of our interview with Stanley Anenyemele Asasu, doctor and writer from Ghana, Africa. In 2015 Dr. Stanley left to pursue his dream of becoming a medical doctor through a Wuhan, China university program to educate foreign physicians. He was set to return to complete his medical clerkship in Ghana for February 2020, and he made it out of Wuhan less than 24 hours before the city closed for seven months. Back in Ghana after his five year sojourn, he received a warm welcome from his family, but there was some suspicion of him from his local community. Listen to how Dr. Stanley used his medical education for such a time as this.
See photos of our guests and sign up for our email list at roundtripstories.com. Follow @roundtripstoriespodcast on facebook and instagram to hear about upcoming customs episodes and share your stories with us!
Customer Reviews
Exploring Community Around the Globe
I just discovered this podcast full of such a variety of stories from so many intrepid travelers who have ventured all around the world. There’s nothing like travel, especially living in another country, to broaden your horizons and challenge stereotypes. There’s so much cultural richness, so many incredible people and so much great music and food to experience when we leave our own comfort bubble to explore the wider world.
Tracy and Melissa make it fun and I love the way the music and sound effects make the stories come alive!
You must listen to these Wonderful, heart-warming stories
These are such interesting stories. They will make you laugh and they will make you cry. Having lived overseas and then returned to the U.S. it is comforting to hear other people’s stories who understand the transition to foreign life and then the (often harder) transition back to home country life. Thank you for telling these stories! This podcast is a must listen!
The podcast we need
I left California in 2012 to serve in Germany and abruptly (and a bit traumatically) returned with my kids in 2020. There’s been NOTHING to help my kids and I transition back or understand the common things that come up for repatriation as individuals, as a family, etc. This podcast is such a gift to families like mine… a place to hear stories that, while unique, help normalize the joys and challenges of leaving and returning. I soak up knowing that we’re not alone and that there’s a place where we are understood, don’t have to explain our “weird” multi-cultural selves, and are inspired. Many of us left community when we returned… Melissa and Tracy provide a new community here by bringing us together through our shared stories. Share this with ANYONE you know who’s returned or are returning. It’s the hug we all need.