The Bittersweet Life

Latest Episodes:

Bittersweet Moment #192: Gifting Someone their Past Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

The art of letter-writing is not lost! Not if you, like Katy, choose to keep it alive.

On this mini-episode, we hear from Katy's mom, who describes an wonderful keepsake from someone she wrote letters to for decades, and now she's passing on the tradition. Also, Katy reads some postcards she wrote to her mom while she was living in Rome.

And remember, anyone who donates to this podcast—once or regularly—receives a hand-written letter from Katy.

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NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 465: You Will Never See it Again Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

There's something poignant about knowing that you will never see a particular painting again, even if you don't even really like that painting.

Today, Katy shares an excerpt from a book she's reading The Victorian and the Romantic, by Nell Stevens (known under the title Mrs. Gaskell and Me in the UK), about a woman in the the Victorian period who had been in Rome for three months, and as she prepares to leave forever, she contemplates the fact that she will never ever see the painting she is looking at again.

We muse on the topic of the privilege of living in Rome and being able to see amazing works of art at any moment—or living in Seattle and getting to see the Puget Sound any time you want.

And when you travel to a place and fall in love with something there, and know you will never be back, how do you come to terms with the fact that you may never see that thing again?

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #191: The Horror and Misery of a Brand-new Expat Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

Today we time-travel back to 2004 when Tiffany was a newly arrived expat in Rome. Believe it or not, those first few weeks and months were not exactly idyllic. Far from it.

Tiffany reads some excerpts from her journals from 2004, entries that she has not looked at in almost 19 years! One thing that she hadn't remembered: how thoroughly miserable and homesick she was upon arrival. Laugh and cringe along with her on this mini-episode.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 464: Diving into the Past through Journals and Letters Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

Are you brave enough? Why is it that reading one of your old journals can be so terrifying—or often so cringe-worthy, depending on how far back it goes.

Last week we talked about the dilemma of what to do with the piles and piles of old journals many people have. (Make sure you listen to that episode first!)

Our listeners had lots of thoughts on this topic, and they wrote in to tell us their opinions and experiences. On this episode we read letters from a few listeners who spark an entirely new (though related) conversation. If you listen all the way to the end, you'll even get to hear some snippets from a letter Tiffany wrote to Katy way, way, way back when she was a brand-new expat. The horrible living situation she found herself in was brought back in vibrant detail live on the show, most of which she had long forgotten. Which is one of the greatest benefits of writing things down.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #190: Journaling with Seagulls, Sharks, and Desmond Tutu Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

Would ever read excerpts of your personal journal live on air? That's what Katy's doing on this mini-episode. She cracks opens some of her old journals (including a diary from when she was 11) and reads some of the most interesting snippits.

From bird- and duck-watching as a wee girl (yes, she's been going out to see what the birds are doing for a very long time), to an early mention of her "friend Tiffany Parks" and the 100-page letter she received from her, from her observations upon arriving at the Cape Town airport to minute descriptions of white sharks when she was in a shark cage and an encounter with the late great Desmond Tutu.

It can be deeply revealing to read our old journals, and sometimes very, very funny. Also, so many valuable memories would be lost if we didn't write about them at the moment, so dig back into your old journals (if you have any) and discover something about yourself that you wouldn't remember otherwise. And if you've never kept a journal, why not start now?

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 463: What Do I Do with All those Journals? Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

A few weeks we did an episode about downsizing, inspired by a voice message sent in by a listener.

We both love the idea of downsizing and the topic sparked a passionate conversations, but it got us thinking: what do we do with our journals?

If you are an avid, life-long journal writer, you will find yourself with a growing stack of journals, that might even surpass your book collection when you start nearing the end of your life. What do you do with them all? Do you destroy them? Leave them to your kids for posterity? Hope someone will care enough to read them—or hope they WON'T?

We discuss on today's episode.

Remember, we welcome your thoughts and questions always. Send us a voice memo of something you are thinking about. It might just inspire an entire show. Record yourself on your voice memo app, then email it to us at bittersweetlifepodcast@gmail.com.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #189: Baptized by the Pope Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

Every year in January, the pope baptizes a group of lucky babies—the offspring of his employees born in the previous six months—and he does it in the most famous chapel in the world, the legendary Sistine Chapel.

Back in 2016, our own little Aurelio was one of those fortunate kiddos. Tiffany recalls the details of that special day, what it was like to be a part of a papal ceremony, the elusive art she got to see, and her emotions watching Pope Francis baptize her son.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 462: Promises Kept and Promises Broken Jan 09, 2023

Show notes

It's our first new full episode of 2023, so of course we're here to share our New Year's Resolutions with you! We also listen back to last year's resolutions and fess up on whether we managed to accomplish them or not!

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #188: Aurelio's New Year's Resolutions Jan 05, 2023

Show notes

What happens when kids make New Year's Resolutions? Find out on today's mini-episode when we're joined by Aurelio to hear if he has set any resolutions this year—or if he even knows what resolutions are. But what it all boils down to really (for kids as well as adults) is this: what do I want to do more of this year?

And don't miss Monday's episode when Katy and Tiffany reveal whether or not we kept our resolutions from last year, and set new ones for 2023.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 461: What Did We Promise to Do Last Year? Jan 02, 2023

Show notes

It's that time of year again! Ready or not, it's time to listen back at our New Year's Resolutions from last year. Most people don't even consider their resolutions past January or so, but we are masochists and we go back and listen every year to see how we did. Listen in with us, and don't miss next Monday's episode when we will make our resolutions for 2023! (We never learn apparently.)

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

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