Women Abroad

Melina Nardi is my guest today for the 27th episode of my podcast Women Abroad with me Françoise Falisse.

Melina is Co-founder and Head of Strategy at Mila Branders, a company located in Valencia, Spain. 

Mila Branders is a creative agency with a focus on strategic brand building for small and big brands, in all sectors. Her clients are very international. 

She is also an author. Discover her book: “A Zest for Happiness”

Melina is an explorer and an engaged woman. Before settling in Spain, her journey abroad led her to live in countries as diverse as the US, Palestine, Chile, and Turkey. Though she faced multiple challenges, she speaks about life abroad with passion and determination. She is a believer that we can push back the boundaries of what is possible.

We discussed:

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My guest today is Silvia Polvara. Born in Italy, she studied and worked in Germany and the UK. She currently lives in Luxembourg. 

Each story of the women I interview explores a different facet of what it is like to live away from home. 

The outside perspective you get is at the heart of an international mindset that you gradually develop throughout your time abroad. 

As a child of a third culture, Silvia was also raised outside her native country. Luxembourg City, nestled in the heart of Europe, is a cosmopolitan and multicultural place where she enjoys embracing diversity. She also feels at home here.  

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The 25th episode of Women Abroad brings me to introduce Barbara Lima. Barbara is a visionary, multilingual, and multi-talented Brazilian artist and entrepreneur.She is the founder, editor-in-chief, and creative director of The Weave Magazine, a seasonal and regenerative publication.

She traveled and moved to Canada, France, China, Australia, Malaysia, Costa Rica, and now Mexico for self and professional development. Barbara calls herself a nomad, grounded, aligned with herself, and moving with the flow of life. For us, she opens her heart to her journey of self-discovery abroad and how she sees her traveling abroad as a catalyst to develop spiritually. 

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My host for this 24th episode is Ludovica Arvigo, an Italian student in psychology. With her, we explore what it means to develop a third culture when, like her, you grow up abroad and build your educational background outside your parents' country of origin.  

The wish to take a gap year never comes by chance. It often answers a call for self-discovery out of your comfort zone. From her getting prepared for her four-month trip in Central and South America, Ludovica’s episode is an ode to the joy of meeting yourself outside of an organised setting and a powerful confidence booster. 

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Pour ce 23ème épisode, j’accueille Virginie André.

Virginie et sa famille quittent leur Belgique natale pour embarquer pour Stockholm, en Suède. Entre le rêve longuement mûri et sa concrétisation, elle constate rapidement que le chemin à la résidence est un parcours qui peut être long et balisé d’obstacles.

Partir en famille vous amène à découvrir un pays sous des angles multiples qui enrichissent votre expérience de l’étranger.

La qualité des préparatifs, notamment les démarches administratives, importe aussi beaucoup et peut amoindrir le choc à l'arrivée dans le nouveau pays. 

Vous souhaitez en découvrir davantage sur l’expérience de Virginie et sur la Suède, en quoi ce pays suscite son admiration, et l’inspire pour ses projets professionnels, c’est tout de suite, votre nouvel épisode de Women Abroad.

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Hello and welcome to my podcast Women Abroad with me Françoise Falisse. This interview podcast is a space for women from around the world to talk about their experiences of living and working abroad. 

For my 22nd episode, I welcome Joana Silva Carreira. Joana is a Portuguese early career woman, and a singer currently living in Luxembourg. She first spent six months in Belgium and six months in the US. 

Her outgoing personality and open-minded worldview have made it easy for her to adapt abroad. 

Having friends you can relate to and trust when living abroad is sometimes like having a family away from home. If studying or a work assignment is the reason for your move abroad, finding a hobby outside of work can bring balance to your life. What you need to be fulfilled may also become clearer during your trip abroad. Joana is exploring all these topics with us now. Let's get to know her. 

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Pour ce 21ème épisode, je suis ravie de vous présenter Racha Zahira Ammati, consultante spécialisée dans le développement de projets visant à l’autonomisation économique des femmes et l’égalité des genres.

Elle est également conseillère jeunesse au bureau régional de l’ONU FEMMES pour les États arabes, et y est également active sur la plateforme Agora pour l'innovation en matière de genre.

Née au Maroc, elle réside actuellement à Ottawa au Canada. Au fil de ses multiples expatriations, elle est devenue une citoyenne du monde. Je vous laisse découvrir ici ce que cela signifie pour elle et comment de chocs culturels en prises en conscience, ses projets de développement pour les femmes se sont mis en place.

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Today I have the pleasure to host Betina Szkudlarek for my 20th episode. Betina was born and raised in Poland and she currently lives in Sydney, Australia. She is an Associate Professor, Program Director Master of Management at the University of Sydney Business School, and a specialist in intercultural relationships, inclusion, and diversity. She also works as a freelance Strategic Planning, Sustainability, and Growth Consultantfor theUnited Nations Alliance of Civilisations.

Being exposed to different cultural environments gives us the opportunity to discover new people and new behaviors, some we like, some we don't and it is really important to go beyond the stereotypes that we can all build. The real value of a person goes beyond their behavior, it is about our perception. Managing diversity is about seeing each person as unique.

The internet connection was unstable at times, my apologies for that.

Let's now hear her story as a woman living abroad.

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Today I am pleased to host Tatiana Zébazé who is now Transversal Manager in a multinational company active in the insurance sector worldwide.

She was an expatriate in Lagos, and was recognised as a member of top 800 executives leaders of her group in 2018 and she still is. Tatiana is currently living in Paris. Expatriation is often chosen by those who want or need to advance their career. Progressing in your professional life also has a price to pay when you decide to move alone. And having the support of your loved ones is also a key to your success. 

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I am hosting Jill Saville for this 18th episode. Jill has forged her life and professional experience between the United Kingdom where she was born and grew up, France and Luxembourg. Along her way, she has developed strong beliefs in causes worth defending. She created circles of leadership and her expertise is highly valued. 

Building herself and managing her time differently were the first lessons she had to learn upon arriving in France. Then, making new connections and thinking about her professional orientation came naturally in her adaptation process. She became more aware of the world around her and accepted that things and people change everywhere, which was not always easy. Nothing stays the same and the decision you make is the best one you can make at the time.

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For my 17th episode of Women Abroad, I am pleased to introduce you to Diana Araújo. As a student in architecture, she first left Portugal, her native country to follow an Erasmus program in Flanders, Northern Belgium. 

After some time of adjustment, she then decided to start her professional life and settle in Belgium. 

With her, we will explore notions of stability, time, sustainability, or double personality and the comparisons she makes between Belgian and Portuguese culture.

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For this 16th episode, my guest, Jessica Peart, was born in Ireland and lived in India. She currently lives in Leipzig, East Germany.

She is offering us a larger perspective of the countries she lived in exploring the historical, social and economical backgrounds of these countries.

Between storytelling and academic debate, Jessica is expressing her alternate voice with sincerity and conviction and explains her choices as an immigrant.   

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Sofia Busquets is joining me for this 15th episode of Women Abroad. From Argentina, her native country to Mexico where she was raised, Sofia experienced what it means to be a third culture kid.

From challenges to communicate in the English countryside, to connecting with others in Los Angeles.. to expressing herself through filmmaking in Rome…

She tells us how women can speak their voice through films and how their talents are slowly better represented in the film industry. 

Future belongs to you if you dare express who you are. If not you, who else? 

Let’s now listen to how her openness to other perspectives has shaped her identity and has inspired her as an artist.

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For my #14 episode of Women Abroad, I am pleased to host Jenny Amelia Rönnblom. Amelia is Swedish, she navigates around the globe as a First Officer on cruise ships.  

From Sweden where she was born to Finland where she spent some years, she then settled for two years in the south of Belgium near Luxembourg. She has now moved to Spain. Very active, sociable and with an entrepreneurial spirit, she created a Luxembourg chapter for the volunteer powered global and local community called Girl Gone International whose mission is to connect, represent and empower women who live and travel abroad. From then on a fantastic human adventure began for her. 

She is explaining to us her work aboard the cruise ship and how she manages her multicultural team. Living and working abroad across the oceans has broadened her perspective on life and is part of her journey of self-discovery and others.

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Today I am hosting Nathalie Gricourt. Nathalie was born in France, she studied marketing in a business school in France and then graphic design in Australia. She has been living in London for 10 years.

Living and working abroad is a big change in a life and is often the start of a long transformational self-journey. It goes with its ups and downs, navigating between challenging times and joyful moments.  

Many doors can lead to Entrepreneurship and an international experience reveals unknown parts of ourselves. And because we are evolving in an unfamiliar environment, we surprise ourselves to develop projects we would have never thought of before.  

I let Nathalie tell her story and how her decision to go to Australia first, and then her move to London made real changes in her life.

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Hello everyone, welcome to this special episode of Women Abroad podcast! Today we celebrate the first anniversary of the podcast with nine ladies I interviewed this year. We will go around the table to answer four questions:

1) How does living abroad and immersing yourself in other cultures help you grow? 

2) How do you think women (all over the world) can express their voices to contribute to a more united world?

3) How can your experiences be a source of motivation or inspiration for other women whether they live abroad or not?

4) Is there any dream you would like to achieve or, any wish for the communities around you in a post-covid world?

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Hello everyone, today I am hosting Estefanía Martín on Women Abroad. 

From Venezuela where she grew up to Tenerife where she started her university studies, she experienced a first culture shock. Same language but different culture, she had to adjust and making friends was challenging. 

But as often the first step matters... once you have mentally enlarged your inner borders you become more ready to view and accept others as they are, different from you. As her story unfolds, she feels more comfortable with talking about her passion for fashion. Her stays in Rome and Antwerp have contributed to model the contours of her style as a fashion designer.

Whether we may sometimes consider our freedom of movement as a taken for granted right, Estefanía evokes however how safety remains a major factor to consider when it comes to choose the country where she wants to live or travel. 

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For the #10 episode of Women Abroad, I am pleased to host Camila OSORIO.

As a young immigrant, Camila left Colombia to first study and now work in Toronto, Canada.

She is sharing what she has discovered about Canada so far, her perception of its people and the role women play in society.

Immigrating is a learning process. It transcends boundaries and questions life choices beyond the limited time frame of studies or an expatriation mission.  

What is the value of building relationships when living abroad? Making friends does not mean the same everywhere. After a few years out of your native country, you sometimes come to realise how infinite possibilities and paths to grow as a person are. Living abroad, away from your usual codes leaves you free to choose your own life.

What does freedom mean for Camila and how would she like to embrace it? let’s discover what she has to tell us about immigration in Canada. Let’s now listen to her story abroad.

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For the #9 episode of Women Abroad, I am reconnecting to Luxembourg, my hosting country since the summer 2018.

My guest today is Cherine Makram. Born in Egypt, Cherine has been living in Luxembourg for a couple of years. 

We are discovering her expatriation life in Luxembourg through the woman, wife and mother’s eyes. Very sincerely she explains the good and challenging moments you can face when living abroad.

However amazing opportunities can also arise for those who accept to open their mind to the unknown and to give a try to out of the box activities. 

Because everything happens for a reason her first expatriation ignites an intentional self-development journey.

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My guest for today is Stephani Widorini. Stephani is Indonesian and she is currently living and working as a consultant for the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Moving from London to Seoul and now to Geneva led her to adjust to various cultural challenges. 

What she first perceived as a career disruption turned out to become a very rich professional and cultural experience as she grew more aware of her environment. 

Mental and cultural agility have also allowed her to better accept the unknown and the uncertainty. For sure there is room to self-fulfil abroad. The road to success is interconnected with a self-development journey.   

Let’s now meet her and listen to her story abroad!

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Ania Banach is my host for the #7 episode of Women Abroad podcast. Ania is Polish and she is a university teacher working as an assistant professor in linguistics.

In a very introspective way, she reopens very dense pages of her life first in Northern Ireland as a PHD student then in Oman as a College teacher.  

She explores different aspects of expatriation such as the freedom of movement as a woman abroad, the importance of the religious environment in our cultural adjustment abroad and the beautiful bridging connections beyond cultural differences.

As she says later in the interview, It is not always so easy to talk openly of an experience abroad. 

Looking back in time, this transformational journey of being abroad is still resonating in her. She reflects how these experiences abroad raised her awareness about other cultures and allowed her to better put her own culture into perspective.  

Her living abroad deeply questioned her motivations, her contributive presence to the world and is still a source of curiosity nourishing her wish to step on to her next move. 

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Our 6th episode of Women Abroad will give you the opportunity to get to know Haiqin HUANG. Haiqin is a young Chinese PHD engineer living in Luxembourg. She was born and brought up in the south of China where she completed her bachelor degree.

Eager to live and discover Europe, she made the decision to pursue her Master’s and PHD studies first in London, then in Nantes, France, and finally in Luxembourg.

Haiqin is now following a two-year MBA program at the Luxembourg School of Business to acquire the necessary management skills to integrate industry. 

Haiqin tells us about her professional path with conviction. She shares how her determination to study abroad paid off and how her experiences abroad helped her develop as a more mature and independent woman.  

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Women Abroad, the Podcast that invites young professional women to share their experience abroad and reveal the wonderful women behind these stories. 

Our #5 episode brings us today to meet Chloe Peebles in Bogotá, Colombia. Chloe is a French-American early-career woman in international development who decided to temporarily put her career on pause to accompany her husband on a short-term mission in Colombia. 

Very enthusiastically Chloe tells us how her exposure to living abroad since she was a child has contributed to develop her cultural agility. 

Let’s discover how she experiences Bogotá so far, the opportunities that this career break can bring her and also her former missions as Project Manager in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Latin America. 

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Pour ce quatrième épisode de WOMEN ABROAD, Tijana MAROVIC, jeune femme d’origine serbe de Belgrade nous emmène découvrir Sao Paulo au Brésil. 

Depuis toute jeune, Tijana est passionnée de langues et de cultures étrangères. De Strasbourg en France, dont elle nous partage avec enthousiasme son expérience d’étudiante à l’université où elle y étudie un Master en communication internationale, elle s’envole ensuite pour un premier emploi vers Sao Paulo, au Brésil où elle découvre les joies et les défis d’une acclimatation culturelle pas toujours simple dans un pays bigarré, créatif et foisonnant.

Avec clairvoyance et sincérité, Tijana nous partage ici sa perception des cultures qu’elle a côtoyées au quotidien en tant que résidente étrangère tout en mettant en perspective sa propre culture. 

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For our third episode of WOMEN ABROAD we are crossing the Atlantic Ocean and are stopping over in Montreal, Canada. Arya Rajurkar is studying business with a major in finance and a minor in marketing at the university of Concordia. 

I met Arya when I was living in Nigeria, she was then studying her IB in the same school as one of my daughters. Between dream and reality, she explains to us in a very spontaneous way how she adjusted to life in Canada, her major challenges as a foreign student and how she has improved her time management skills growing more autonomous and more responsible in her daily life. 

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Pour notre deuxième épisode de WOMEN ABROAD, nous recevons Axelle Salvage, jeune manager française qui vit actuellement au Luxembourg. 

Axelle a d’abord effectué une licence de géographie à Reims suivie d’une première année de Master en géopolitique. A l’université de Strasbourg, elle y poursuit un Master 1 et 2 en relations internationales, avec l’option Management de cluster et réseaux territoriaux pour ensuite bifurquer vers la spécialité Intelligence économique et gestion du développement international.

En quête d'un stage de travail à l’étranger à effectuer pour son Master 2 en alternance tout en poursuivant ses cours à l’université, elle découvre le Cluster Maritime Luxembourgeois qui l'accueille comme stagiaire jusqu’en octobre 2019.  

Une fois son diplôme en poche, le Cluster Maritime Luxembourgeois l’engage à temps plein comme Assistante Manager. 

Axelle nous explique son parcours, son acclimation au Luxembourg et sa perception du pays. Elle nous partage aussi ses passions, ses rêves, ses inquiétudes, ce qu’elle apprend sur elle-même dans le cadre de son travail. Elle nous communique son envie de voyages.

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Today for our first episode of Women Abroad, we are hosting Vladiana Apetroaie, a young Romanian who has been working as website Administrator and E-Learning Developer at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium since early 2019. After her bachelor degree in European studies she obtained from the university of Bucharest, Romania, she spent four years in Leuven, Belgium where she got a Master in Anthropology/Migration and Minorities followed by a University Certificate in social sciences at the University of Leuven. 

She explains to us how it all started for her in Belgium, how she perceives the country, how our mental representations can positively or negatively impact our perception of people of another culture. She presents her learning experience from a very holistic stand point and tells us how she has grown as a person from studying, living and working in Belgium. 

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Women Abroad, The Podcast that invites young professional women to share their experience abroad and reveal the wonderful women behind these stories. 

My name’s Françoise Falisse, I am an intercultural trainer and coach, I have lived and worked as an expatriate for more than 11 years in Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria (twice) and I currently live in Luxembourg. 

I meet young women who are studying or starting their careers abroad, and hear from them about their discoveries, culture shock, and the personal and professional challenges they face.

What surprises, amuses, even fascinates them?

How does their experience open up new perspectives and reveal new things about themselves? 

If you are curious about living and working internationally, this podcast will inspire you to consider new horizons.

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