This week, we'll meet Kimberly Rude and Eymard Amoroso, who finished their undergraduate studies and were looking for a new experience and a change of scenery. Inspired by the idea of living abroad and immersing themselves in a new culture closer to their Filipino origins, they decided to take the leap and move to Seville, Spain, in 2022. The couple welcomed the realities and opportunities of their new life and work in Spain and shared their journey in this week’s episode of Audio Alumni.
Emily Harrington: Before we begin, we would like to recognize that this podcast is hosted from the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg. We at CBIE are grateful to have the opportunity to learn, work, and live on this land.
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Welcome to Audio Alumni, a podcast that features both Canadian and international voices sharing their lived experiences of going abroad. These conversations offer insight into the opportunities, the challenges, and the transformational impact that an international experience can bring. In this season, we are talking about working and traveling overseas. You'll hear personal stories from our guests about what inspired their travels, what obstacles they had to overcome, and ultimately, how their time abroad shaped their lives today.
This podcast is brought to you by the Canadian Bureau for International Education, or CBIE, in partnership with International Experience Canada. CBIE is a national non-profit association dedicated to supporting the Canadian international education sector in its global engagement through advocacy, capacity building, and partnerships. International Experience Canada, or IEC, gives Canadian citizens aged 18 to 35 the opportunity to work and travel abroad. IEC provides youth with a path to a work permit or visa to work and explore one of the 30 countries and territories. Taking part in IEC allows youth to gain valuable international work experience while exploring the world and finding inspiration.
My name is Emily Harrington, and I am so excited to be your host this season for Audio Alumni. Today on the show, we have Kimberly Rudd and Eymard Amoroso, who finished their undergraduate degrees and were looking for a new challenge and a change of scenery. Inspired by the idea of living abroad and immersing themselves in a new culture closer to their Filipino origins, they decided to take the leap and moved to Seville, Spain in 2022. The couple embraced the challenges and opportunities of their new life in Spain and are here today to talk about stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing new experiences. Welcome to you both. We are so thrilled to have you join us today. Let's start the conversation with a quick intro from both of you.
Kimberly Rudd: My name is Kimberly. I'm originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I moved to Spain in December 2022 with Eymard, my partner. We are now living in Seville, Spain and we've been here since January. I'm currently working at a publishing company, an independent academic publisher here in Seville. I love to rollerblade, I love to eat new foods, and just stay active, and go outside and go to the beach. Those are some things I love. I really like reading. I do a lot of reading in my spare time. [chuckles]
Eymard Amoroso: My name is Eymard and I'm 29 years old. Me and Kimberly moved to Seville, again, back in December. So far, we've just been traveling this whole time, but basically, I recently got a job as an English teaching assistant here in Seville. I just started two weeks ago. I really like it. I basically teach English from grades 6 to 10, so about 12 years old to 16 years old. Couple of things that I like: I like to play sports, I like to go to the gym, I like to be social, and also I like to travel.
Emily Harrington: Did the two of you meet at the University of Calgary while you were studying?
Kimberly: Yes, we met-- I guess I was in my first year and he was in second year maybe.
Eymard: We've been in a couple of classes together and then we ended up switching into the same program. Yes, I guess that was around 2016.
Emily Harrington: Then you graduated trying to decide what's next. What prompted you to look into the international experience and take that leap of faith to move abroad? What was that whole process like to get from A to B?
Eymard: Actually right after university, I was working at a company called Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. While I was working there, I had met a friend of mine who introduced me to the idea of International Experience Canada. He basically had told me, "Hey, you know what, I'm actually leaving in about a month because I'm looking to go to Barcelona and actually become a photographer there." At the time, we were working in the financial services industry. I basically brought it up to Kimberly and that's basically how we got the idea to move abroad. At the time, it was COVID, so that was about 2020. We had made a plan to start saving so that by the time the lockdowns are over, we can start the process into applying for our visa as well.
Kimberly: To go off of what he said, I guess we were thinking about it for a while. I always wanted to move abroad for a bit, at least temporarily, just to travel. I've always really liked traveling. I never really traveled Europe, so I thought Spain was a good idea and the International Experience program seemed really nice. It gave the opportunity to work in a different country so you could save up a bit of money and then also work abroad as well while learning the language and experiencing the culture a little bit. That was something that was really appealing for me. I was really just stressed at my job [chuckles] to be honest, when we were back home in Canada, so it seems like a nice change and something fun while we didn't have too much stuff holding us down in Canada.
Emily Harrington: You said you started the process in 2020 and you only moved in December of '22, so what was that like? What was that planning process like? Two years is a long time not only to plan that move, but really stay committed to that dream.
Kimberly: For me, we had to plan quite a while because we wanted to make sure Spain was the country we wanted to go to. We looked at other countries that had a similar program and we wanted to see what opportunities were in those countries. After doing a lot of research, we thought Spain would've been the best option for us. I personally really wanted to learn Spanish. Also the weather. Coming from Canada, it is very cold in Canada, [chuckles] so I think that was-- Spain's super warm, I shouldn't say the whole year, but super warm for more than in Canada. That was a factor for me at least.
Eymard: When we had initially talked about it, it was about maybe end of 2020. I believe my colleague had left my previous job November 2020 and we basically had talked about it as a couple and we decided, okay, for now until everything is fully opened up and we know exactly where we're going to go, basically what we're going to do in the meantime is just try to save as much money as we can, try to pay off as much debt as we can in Canada so that by the time we are ready and we know for sure that everything is going to be open, all we have to do is basically go through the process of applying. I believe by the time we actually had started the application process for the working holiday visa for Spain, that was at about May--
Kimberly: May, 2022.
Eymard: 2022, yes.
Kimberly: We didn't actually start doing the application process until May, 2022. It didn't take us two years to get the visa, but we wanted to make sure we were prepared financially, mentally, so that we were ready to go. I think it was a lot of doubting are we actually going to do this? Is this something that is even a good idea? We were both in pretty good careers that had a good future, I guess you could say. It was a risk in that sense where we were a bit scared to leave the comfort of our jobs and our apartment and whatnot. It was a lot of thinking about it, making sure we really wanted to do it, but in the end, we were pretty confident that we wanted to do it. It wasn't too hard of a decision when it came down to it.
Emily Harrington: The two of you managed to pack up your lives, get through the whole visa process, and figure out what goes in a suitcase across the ocean in only six months. That's absolutely incredible. What were all of the emotions you went through in those six months?
Eymard: Definitely a lot of back and forth at the time, especially when we started the visa application process. I was starting my second year in a company that I was working for and it looks like I was getting a lot more responsibilities and also I was just starting to get a feel for the job and I started thinking, "Hey, is this really what I want to do? Do I really want to disrupt my momentum?" When I brought it up to my team, they did nothing but supportive, so that helped me make a decision for myself.
Kimberly: For me, I was really stressed about it. Again, it was a lot of back and forth like, do I really want to take this step? Is this a good idea? What if we fail? I think that was a big thing. Trying to figure out what to bring, how much to bring across the world. Should I bring furniture? Do I bring like home décor? That was quite stressful. I think if I were to go back and do it again, I would've given myself a lot more time to move out of my apartment and get rid of my stuff because that was quite stressful but it was a lot of work I think especially in the last few months. I think there was a lot of, not procrastination, but it was almost-- it was just a lot of work I think. There's a lot of documents you need to get and a lot of things you need to take care of before you leave, so I think that was something that was a bit stressful.
Emily: I want to go deep into a little bit more of the whole experience of what the heck do you bring, how do you decide where to draw the line, and what actually makes it into this new life you're building? A couple of questions I want to ask. Did you find any useful blogs or tools that helped you make those tough decisions? Did you put stuff into storage or sell it? How did you navigate that part of the process?
Eymard: For that part of the process, we basically put at least my stuff and Kimberly's to my parents' house. We just used their basement as a storage unit for now, so yes, they're expecting us back, and thank you.
Kimberly: Yes, if they're listening, thank you. Yes, I think that was something that was really nice is Eymard's parents, they're hosting our stuff while we're gone, but I did have to sell a lot of my stuff. We were living in a studio apartment, so a lot of furniture. I had to get rid of a lot of clothes. It was a lot more than I thought I had. I thought I lived pretty minimally but I was wrong as soon as I started moving out. That was one thing that I wish I gave myself more time to do. When you start doing it and packing up your stuff, it takes a while to actually get that organized. I did watch a lot of YouTube videos of people who just went backpacking or other people who have moved abroad, whether it was Spain or somewhere else.
I found that really useful because you actually don't need that much when you're moving abroad. At least in Spain, most of the apartments that you can rent, especially for foreigners, they're fully furnished and there's a lot of stuff I miss from Canada for sure that I wish I had here with me. It also really teaches you how you can live without a lot of stuff. Everything is replaceable in the sense where you can buy it in Spain or wherever you are. That was something that was a bit hard for me. I was attached to a lot of my things back home, but now I don't really think of them anymore. I guess it's been a few months.
Eymard: Just the fact that we did graduate university in 2019 so it was still pretty fresh. I had a lot of stuff that I did miss. In terms of having too much furniture or things that we've already bought in that sense, we didn't have too much. We were just starting out our post-graduate lives so we did have a couple of furnitures, a TV, but other than that, it wasn't that much of things to get rid of.
Emily: When you were still in that prep stage, were either of you job hunting before you went over there or apartment hunting? How did you navigate that phase of it because I know you mentioned you've been doing a lot of travel since you moved over there, so how did you make those decisions in terms of balancing the desire to see Europe and explore this wonderful new country but also plant your roots while you're there?
Kimberly: This is a funny one because we didn't really prepare on that end. We just wanted to wing it. We ended up traveling for our first month because we wanted to really see Spain, get to know the country to see where we wanted to settle down. We had a few places in mind like Valencia and Seville, and Barcelona as places we were thinking of moving to long-term. We didn't have any jobs lined up, no apartment or anything like that.
We thought it was going to be really easy to just get an apartment and settle in and whatnot but I think that was our biggest challenge when we got here is it is quite different from what you're expecting. That was something we couldn't research. That one was fun. We spent a while looking for apartments, looking for jobs, and I think that was probably the most difficult thing. It was really stressful while we were in it, but I'm happy with how we did it because we got to travel a lot around Spain. We saw a lot of the country and it ended up working out. We got lucky. Oh, I guess we did work hard to apply for jobs, but we got lucky in the sense where it worked out for us in the end
Eymard: With us traveling for four weeks, it allowed us to actually visit those cities that we wanted to visit and actually make a decision instead of having a place that we've already locked down on a contract with and then ending up not liking the place or not liking the city. When we had gotten here, we actually landed first in Barcelona, which was nice. We stayed there for a week, but as soon as we went to the next city, which is Seville, something just clicked on us and we instantly liked it. We stayed here for a week and then we went to two more cities, but we knew Seville could be a place that we would settle down to.
Emily: What are some words of advice you'd give someone trying to navigate the job market or the house hunting market in Spain and specifically in Seville? I'm sure you've gotten to understand the market a little bit better now that you're settled there and someone who's looking to make the same move and try to navigate the fact that everything works so differently than it does in Canada. What's some advice you could give them?
Kimberly: Networking is a huge thing, don't be scared to make friends, and join internet groups like Facebook groups. I guess that was mostly what I joined is a lot of Facebook groups and just trying to meet anyone you can. We were not Spanish speakers when we arrived here. I mean our Spanish, we're still working on it, but obviously learning the language of the country is very useful. You'll be able to speak to a lot more people and ask a lot more questions and get more answers. I think networking is a big thing and also just being really patient and patient with yourself and not losing hope.
I think with us, we went through a lot of ups and downs with just being really frustrated not having things go our way because of course it's not the exact same as how things go in Canada. You don't really realize how many connections you have in your home country until you're somewhere where you don't know anyone. For example in Canada, I would feel pretty confident I could find a place just asking around or chatting someone up or something, but here, we really had to make an effort to find jobs, even find out how the job market is here, how the housing market is here.
One tip, especially with Spain would be to not book anything in advance and to actually look at the places in person. We got lucky with where we booked. We have lovely landlords, but we also live quite far from the city. We actually live in a smaller town and it's because we booked it in advance and we didn't really look at the area. I would say do your research when it comes to location, try asking around, joining as many groups as possible, being patient. Those are, I guess, my biggest tips because those are the things that were the biggest obstacles for us, I'd say.
Eymard: Yes, I think for me, my biggest tip would be especially if you're looking to settle down in south of Spain in Seville specifically is to at least try to learn the language beforehand and at least have some basic Spanish with you. In places like Madrid and Barcelona, for sure, you won't have a problem speaking English and somebody will be able to help you. Let's say if you were looking for a place, somebody would be definitely able to help you that is only an English speaker. In south of Spain, everything is a lot more traditional and there's a lot more people that would tell you, "Hey, I actually do not know how to speak English." A lot of the times, these are your landlords, these are the peope that --
Kimberly: The government office.
Eymard: The government office as well. It would definitely be a challenge if you do not have any clue of how to speak Spanish or understand a couple of words.
Kimberly: Yes, you could definitely get by without Spanish for sure, but I think people just appreciate you trying and it will make your life a lot easier and be less frustrated. Of course, there are things like Google Translate and there's a lot of language apps that help out in scenarios like that so it's not the end of the world if your Spanish isn't good. We arrived here and we took a basic Spanish class before we came. Also, another thing I would say is don't be shy to speak Spanish even if you're not good, especially if you're trying to learn. That's really the only way to learn is to practice and not be scared to make mistakes because it will happen even if you know Spanish. [laughs]
Emily: That was going to be my next question. How the heck do you navigate that language barrier and what are some of the setbacks it presented? I think we've already dived into that a little bit, but are there any good stories we need to know?
Eymard: Before we actually had gotten to Spain, we took an introductory Spanish class in university but that was very basic. From then on, we have just been using Duolingo to practice our Spanish. Funny thing is when you come over here, Duolingo teaches you Latin American Spanish and it's totally different from Spaniard Spanish. On top of that--
Kimberly: There's different accents, depending on what region you're in.
Eymard: Exactly. Northern Spain, places like Barcelona and Madrid speak a different type of Spanish than the people in the south of Spain, which is the Andalusia region.
Kimberly: I guess that was a difference for us as well because where we are, for example, they use a lot of slang as well, so a lot of the words are shortened from what we learned. It is a bit difficult because regionally, Spanish is different. That's another thing I guess I learned. If you compare it to English like in the UK they speak different English than we do in Canada and Australia and whatnot. It's, of course, the exact same in Spanish. There's different accents but I guess one funny story, now it's funny because it's been a while but the first time we had to pay our phone bill, we were so lost. We went to I guess the phone store here in our town and it was kind of like a strip mall.
We couldn't find anyone that spoke English and we were just so confused on how to pay. A lot of people pay their bills here through the bank or through an ATM. Because we didn't have our Spanish bank card yet, we really didn't know how to pay. We kept going up to random people to see if they could help us because even though we were using Google Translate, a lot of the words weren't translating and we didn't really know how to get our point across. We finally figured out, we went to different phone store and got help from a guy who spoke a little bit of Spanish.
He explained the process to us. I just remembered we were just standing in the strip mall just so frustrated, I'm like, "Why did we come here? This is so frustrating. We can't do something as simple as paying our phone bill." Now I can laugh and now I can do it in Spanish. It is something that where things are super frustrating and embarrassing sometimes but now you can laugh about it. I have heard worse stories from others that have come to Spain before they knew Spanish and have gotten a lot of words mixed up that are really rude in Spanish. That hasn't happened to us yet, I don't think, maybe it has but no one's corrected us or laughed.
Eymard: For me, my only funny story is I'm known as the buenos dias guy in one of the supermarkets here. Every time I would come into the supermarket, there's a cashier that I always pass by and I would always say buenos dias, which is I believe it's good morning.
Kimberly: Yes, it's like good morning or good day, but you say it in the daytime, not afternoon.
Eymard: Exactly, not the afternoon or not at night. It just so happened that I've been saying it at night every single time. Then one day she just laughed at me and I'm like, "Hey, what's going on? What's wrong?" Then I totally remembered, oh, my gosh, buenos dias is for the morning, "Sorry, buenas noches." Then ever since then she just calls me buenos noches.
Kimberly: That's how you can make friends as well just messing up the language. [chusckles]
Emily: Was it an easy process to get all those basic things set up when you moved over there, like your banking your phone, just even to hear that people go into a bank and pay their bills, compared to the way everything is, so electronic in Canada, that seems crazy. Was it complicated to get all that stuff set up?
Kimberly: We could have been more prepared. I'd say we could have done a little bit more research, but at the same time, we had a list of all the things we had to do with very detailed instructions and it's different wherever you go. One thing about Spain is the culture here is very relaxed and that's not something we were used to coming from Canada. In Canada, everything's very prompt, customer service is very good in the sense where people are willing to help until the very end even if they don't really have an answer but in Spain, it's very blunt.
There's just a bit of cultural differences. It's very blunt. You just work on Spain time, I guess is what they like to call it. Everything is not super on time, not super early. People take their time doing things here. It was a hard adjustment and I think we're pretty used to it now. For example, especially I know some big bigger cities don't do it anymore, but the siesta is a very normal thing here in Andalusia. A lot of stores, for example, are close from, I believe, 1:00 or 2:0 0 to 7:00 PM or 8:00 PM. There's a huge gap where stores are closed every day.
On Sundays, everything is closed. You can't go to the supermarket, you can't go to a clothing store, do any of your errands. You have to time things within not siesta or a day off. I think because we came here in December, there was so many bank holidays or stat holidays. It seems like every day was just a holiday when we got here so it was a bit hard to get anything done. We were really confused on the process. Even though we were aware of it before we came, it doesn't really hit you until you're here and you actually see it for yourself. I think we didn't really believe it until we actually got here and experience it for ourselves.
Eymard: For sure because especially coming from Canada, it's one of those things that you just expect the customer service agent or anybody that is serving you to do the best that they can to accommodate for you. Over here, again, I guess it's not that they have bad customer service but it's just more of you're going on their time and they will not go super above and beyond just to please you specifically.
Kimberly: They just are there to do their job and that's that, which is completely fine. I think that was a big culture shock for us. Getting our government documents was an experience. I think it just runs differently in every region. Even though we looked up everything, it was a lot of trial and error and just everything happens, everything goes to plan, it just takes a little bit longer sometimes. I'd say we went through a lot of ups and downs of getting things set up.
That was another thing that was a bit stressful when we got here. Now that we have everything pretty much set up for us and we know the process and how everything goes. That was our first three months. I feel like that's normal for moving to a different country is having a bit of a hiccup for a few months just getting to know the culture and everything before everything falls into place.
Emily: That's great advice. Hopefully, both have been able to slow down your life and adjust a little bit. One thing we haven't touched on yet is just, we talked a little bit about that cultural shift, but how do you navigate that homesickness and that questioning of your decisions that comes with that initial transition period?
Eymard: I can't really say that I've gotten homesick yet but I do find myself talking to my parents a lot more now than I did back when I was in Canada, when we were living in the same city. I find myself talking to my brother and my parents at least once a week or maybe sometimes two or three times. We'll go on a video call and all of that. For now, I'm not really that homesick.
Kimberly: I'm not super homesick yet because it's winter in Canada. I think I'm not really jealous of the snow, like I see on social media my friends are cold. That's one thing I'm like I'm not super homesick about but definitely the friends and family part, I do sometimes get a bit sad thinking about, like, "Oh, what are they doing? Are my friends gonna forget about me?" Even though it's only been a few months, you have those ideas in your head of, like, "Will everyone forget about me while I'm here, or is everyone having so much fun without me?" type of things.
I realized it's only a temporary amount of time and we're always a flight away. It's not the shortest flight but it's not that big of a gap because I always know I can call my friends or FaceTime them when I'm feeling homesick or chat with them on the phone or on Messenger or something like that. I just think of it as an experience where I'm also meeting new people and making new friends and having a very unique experience. I just always try and think that if and when I go home, I'll just remember and look back on this experience and probably not remember those times I was homesick.
Eymard: I think social media helps a lot too. I wasn't a person that had social media accounts back in Canada. I actually just created my first Instagram account in October right before I left. It was strictly just to connect with the friends that I had met there and also my coworkers, my parents. It's something that I utilize all the time to kind of stay connected. At the moment, I don't feel so homesick because I know for a fact right now in Canada, everyone's most likely spending time at home. I'm actually spending a lot of my time outside and meeting people just because it's so hot in here right now. For sure, around the summertime, that's when I'll start looking at social media and thinking and feeling, "Oh, my God, I wish I was there."
Kimberly: I think once all the summer fun activities roll around and everyone's outside on patios and at music festivals and whatnot, I think I might get a bit jealous because there's definitely some things about Canada that I miss that are not in Spain.
Emily: Have any of your friends or family made plans to come and visit and enjoy all that magical non-Canadian weather that Spain has to offer?
Eymard: Both of our parents are coming in June to celebrate my birthday and also-- [crosstalk]
Kimberly: They're coming all together [laughs].
Eymard: Yes. They're coming all together and a couple of my friends,
Kimberly: Then some of her friends are coming in June as well. June will be a busy month for friends and family. I've also had some friends say they want to come in in the summer as well. I need to warn them about the heat here. Apparently, it gets up to 50 degrees in Seville, so I need some sunscreen and whatnot. We do have some friends and family coming. I'm really excited for that. I think that'll help with the homesickness too, just to see people, I guess midway, midpoint.
Eymard: Yes, and that's a good halfway as well because I feel around the sixth or seventh or eighth month, that's when I'll start getting homesick and that's basically when they're coming, so that'll be great.
Emily: Now that you've gotten a chance to sit and get settled, you've got plans for all these guests who are coming. Are you planning on only staying a year or are you thinking more long term or is it all still up in the air and just trying to enjoy the moment for right now?
Eymard: I started teaching English at a school here. Basically, the school year only goes until the end of May. What they mentioned was that after May, they'll basically evaluate me and if they like me, they will love for me to come back for the next school year, which is basically from October until May 2024. If it does come, I'm not sure yet, at the moment I am leaning towards, yes, I can definitely stay here for another school year, but we never really know.
Kimberly: Yes, I think for me, I'm in the same boat. I received a really cool job opportunity here to work for a publishing company and that's something-- even in Canada, I was working in a completely different industry when I was in Canada. I've always really liked books and just very curious about the publishing industry. It's a job that I would love to stay in and just gain more experience in if I had the opportunity. I think it's a fun opportunity and especially when you have a job and you get to know the place.
I don't know, it's really fun. I think a year feels so short once you're actually in it. I think we're maybe a quarter, a bit more than a quarter through our visa right now and it's felt like we've been here forever now at this point. At the same time, I still feel so fresh and I'm learning, every day is a new experience. I think just taking it day by day things might change of course. I feel things change so quickly here. [laughs] While we've been abroad, it's been a different week every week.
Emily: Now a question for you Kimberly, about your experience in publishing. I know you've got your podcast and your books and social media. Did that play into your desire to get into the world of publishing or is it just a fun coincidence?
Kimberly: I guess a bit of both. Definitely wasn't expecting to get this job while being here, especially since it wasn't a job I was looking for. I was really looking for anything that would hire me, especially since my Spanish isn't great, I had to rely on a lot of English-speaking jobs. This was a job for an academic publisher that publishes primarily in English, but they do bilingual texts as well, so Spanish also. I don't know, I've just been doing a lot of book content creation, I guess you could say, in the past two years.
That really made me want to go into publishing or have a career in books I guess because I just really like reading and I'm fascinated about the process of how books go from a manuscript to being published and being sold and whatnot. It was definitely a coincidence and I was looking into it in Canada when we were still there, but not too seriously because living in Calgary, that's not really a big industry. It's mostly on the East Coast like in Toronto New York-type places. Wasn't something I was seriously looking into, but then when it came up here, it just felt like a weird coincidence and also a really great opportunity to take. I'm very grateful for it.
Emily: Now that you guys have had this incredible experience together, do you find there's pressure back home for, okay, are you going to come settle here or are you going to stay there? I know you both have these incredible opportunities and you said you could see yourself staying longer and settling more in Spain, but do you get that pressure back from home of, when are you going to come back to us?
Kimberly: My parents didn't really believe me when I said I was going on this trip. They really only started wrapping their head around it maybe a few weeks before we actually left Canada [laughs]. I think there's a lot of pressure to come back home and even for myself, I think I have an idea in my head where I keep thinking like, "When I'm back in Canada, when I'm back in Canada," but I think there is, of course, I don't know, depending on what the future holds, of course, I would go wherever that way would be. I think that's something in the back of my mind. I think ultimately, if I find a future in staying here and really enjoy it, I would love to do that. It is a bit hard because our whole lives are on the other side of the world.
Eymard: My parents do put that pressure on me as well. They are in the most part supportive, but I think it's in a sense that they believe also that I will be coming back at the end of the year. I think if I were to get the opportunity to actually extend the visa and I were to say yes to that, it might have to be a conversation with my parents [laughs]. So far they've been very supportive. The people that I used to work with when I mentioned that I wanted to do something like this, they've also been very supportive.
Internally, I would say I do have that pressure as well because again, I was just gaining momentum from the industry that I was working at. I was learning a lot more about the industry and I was planning to study some more courses and basically move up. That's something in my mind that, okay, do I really want to extend it again or do I want to come back back home and actually get settled down there?
Kimberly: I think even as a couple, it's hard to think about as well because of course you have to consider the other person and also consider the future together and what to do. That's another tough thing. I think if you're a single person wanting to do this, [laughs] it might be a bit different. I don't know. There's so many different factors. I think of course when the time comes and things get a bit closer, it'll be a lot more to think about then. There definitely is pressure to go back home.
Emily: Kimberly, the fact that you've managed to get into the publishing world, I think it's so incredible to say that not only you've taken such a big risk in going abroad to a country where you don't speak the language, but you've done an entire career change for both of you at this same time. How has that enriched your life?
Kimberly: I think for me, especially since I wasn't expecting to get an opportunity like this, my standards were really low for getting a job. In the back of my head, I was just thinking-- I was previously working in the pharmaceutical industry, which is a pretty safe industry to be in. I guess healthcare in general in terms of getting laid off and always having a job, it's there. I just expected to come here for a year, work at a coffee shop maybe, or as a waitress or something like that, and then come back and probably work in the same industry.
I think for me, now it just opened my eyes to how many possibilities you can really have. We were just looking at so many different jobs when we were applying for jobs and we were in that process. I started a podcast while I was here too and I was just looking at understanding the podcast process and recording and everything. It was such a big step, and that was also a thing I was thinking about as well. I've always liked books and publishing. It's just cool to see that you can actually find a career in something you're interested in. I think I was just at home in Canada not really knowing if I wanted to continue with my career or if I wanted to move up with the company. I think this has enriched my life in a sense where I've just been more open to taking opportunities that are different than following the straight path that I was going before. Even though it's been really stressful, I think it's paid off in the end. I can anticipate it will probably be stressful of course moving forward, and there's always bumps in the road but the risk was worth it I'd say
Eymard: When we got here I wasn't really looking for anything specific. I wasn't looking for any English teaching jobs here in Spain. I was actually looking more for any labor jobs like a restaurant or a clothing store. Actually, what had happened was I had I got injured working out back in January, and I've been injured ever since. I've been injured for about two months, and that was at around late February early March, that's when I started thinking, "Okay I need to make some money so why don't I try to get a job that doesn't involve me using my body too much."
We found an ad that had an opening for an English teaching assistant that they needed right away. I just applied and it basically fell into my lap, because to actually teach English here, you needed certain specific certifications and I didn't even have that. All I had was a bachelor's degree which I guess for them it was enough. Now that I'm in there, I would enrich my life maybe just being more able to adapt into different types of situations. Again, I've never taught anybody before.
Especially with English, it's different from when you're naturally speaking it than for you to actually teach it to somebody else that has no idea how to speak it. That's something I'm learning right now. Also, a couple of soft skills like public speaking is something that I'm improving slowly while I'm working as a teacher, just because I have to do so many presentations and my patience just working with children. Working with children that are teenagers, but also teenagers with a language barrier.
Emily: I love the fact that the two of you have been so incredibly candid through our time together. I just want to say a huge thank you first and foremost. Any last tips or tricks you would recommend to someone who's looking to embark on an international journey like you have?
Eymard: I would say for me is if you have the desire to go and maybe you're not sure if you should or not, I would lean more into actually yes do it, just because it will be a lot of ups and downs and it will be challenging, but it's something that you'll appreciate in the long run. Also as you're going through it, you'll also learn a lot about yourself. For me, I didn't know I was this resourceful until I was actually put in situations that I can't get any help from anybody else. For the longest time, it has just been me and Kimberly in Spain.
Now I was able to get a job, and I'm facing new challenges like the student's not really understanding me and I can't really understand the students. Even with that, it's something that I'm tackling every day and my understanding of the Spanish language is getting better. I can slow down the way they speak, and I can actually understand some of the words and just different things like that. I think I would regret it more had I just stayed in Canada and just pursued-- My career in Canada is good, and I was going through to a good path but I think I would regret it more had I actually just stayed there and not go through with this.
Kimberly: To go off that, I think you learn a lot about yourself. If you are thinking about going on a journey like this, I would say do it because you don't know what can happen. You don't know who you'll meet, what opportunities, or what doors will open for you, especially if maybe you want to change or you want to experience a different country for a longer time, rather than just going on vacation. It really immerses you in the culture. There's so many documentaries and YouTube videos and whatnot.
You can watch about a certain place, but you won't ever really learn about it until you're actually there experiencing it. It feels cheesy saying it, and every time I would watch testimonials or videos of people that have done this, they're like, "Oh, but your life will change forever, and you'll experience so many new things," but it's true. The things that I've experienced in this short time, I would've never had those opportunities or those experiences back home if I did not have done this, the good and the bad. I think it just makes you a stronger person as well in that sense because you're able to handle a lot more than you think.
Eymard: I think also it's such a different thing now that we've stayed here for however many months, because it's such a different thing for you to travel to a country for even let's say two months, knowing that you're just going there to travel. It's such a different experience than for you knowing that, okay, I have to survive here for a year maybe two.
Kimberly: Of course, if things don't work out and you really hate it, you can always go home. You don't have to stay here the whole year, but I think it just feels good. Personally, for me, it feels like a good accomplishment to have overcome the really hard things that we were had to deal with, and just all the factors because it does pay off when it works out, and when everything starts falling into place, it feels really good.
Emily: Oh, no that's absolutely fantastic. Again thank you so much to both of you for taking this time out of your day, especially when we're on a six-hour time difference.
Emily: That ends this episode of Audio Alumni. We want to thank our listeners for joining us today. We also want to thank our guests for their openness in sharing their stories and our partner, International Experience Canada, for collaborating with us this season. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast for new episodes and visit us at cbie.ca for more content about international education in Canada. Until next time.
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