Answering Your Questions LIVE on YouTube

Discover Cars

Kristin:    00:00:00    Hi guys. Today, I wanna tell you about a website called Discovercars.com. I came across this site because I was looking for a rental for an upcoming trip to California, and I was finding exorbitant prices starting at around $500 per week, up to a thousand dollars per week. It must be the spring break travelers. So I checked for the same dates on Discovercars.com, and I found a one week rental for only 275 on Discover Cars. You can save up to 70% on rentals. There's no hidden costs. It's really quick to book a reservation and there's free cancellation. It was also really easy for me to add an extra driver to my reservation for only a hundred dollars. The whole process only took two minutes. I paid half the price, and they even have custom arrival guides for each destination. So I downloaded a free 25-page travel guide for San Diego, and so I wanted to share this website with you guys today. You can save up to 70% on your next rental by  using our link in the show notes and find your next car in more than 145 countries and 10,000 different patients.  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.  

Kristin Wilson, Host:    00:01:43    Hey there, Kristin, from  Traveling with Kristin here, and welcome to episode 201 of Badass Digital Nomads podcast. Now, if you are a regular weekly listener, then welcome back and if you are joining us on YouTube for the first time, then welcome to the 201st episode of my weekly podcast, which I launched in 2019, to help share more stories about people who were living unconventional lifestyles and living on their own terms, traveling around the world. So if you're new to the show, we uh, we publish a new episode every Tuesday in the morning around 6:00 AM Eastern time. And, uh, we, yeah, we've been doing that for 200 episodes now, and half of them are interviews and half of them are deep dives with me on different topics, sometimes different destinations, uh, different countries, sometimes personal stuff. So I wanted to do something different and do a live stream because a few of you might know this.  

Kristin:    00:02:51    I think Scott knows cuz he's been subscribed to the channel for a really long time. He's been a patron for a really long time. And this podcast actually started on YouTube as a live podcast, but it turns out that it's really hard to get guests to show up at that specific time every week. So now we just record it and then upload it. But it actually started as a live podcast. And I think that, um, I think that the last one was with Johnny FD. Do any of you know Johnny FD from either real life or YouTube or his podcast? He doesn't have it anymore, but it was called Travel Like Boss. Uh, we had a live stream with him. I think that was the last one in like 2019 or something like that. So since I haven't done a live stream all year on YouTube and to celebrate the 200th episode, I wanted to do a live stream today.  

Kristin:    00:03:45    So welcome to the party and what I'll do is I posted in the YouTube community page the other day about the, this live stream and the podcast. So people left their questions for me there. So we'll answer some of those. We'll kick off with some questions from my Facebook group, which is also called Badass Digital Nomads. And then we'll do livestream questions here. So, um, we'll save the best for last. Well, everyone's great. <laugh>. Okay. Oh, the other thing is that now YouTube has podcasts. So that was another reason why I wanted to do this because I've created a podcast feed on YouTube of Badass Digital Nomads. So you can actually subscribe, uh, on YouTube and get those episodes here. So we're gonna try to get every single one and maybe we'll do more video podcasts since it is on YouTube now. So if you, uh, are on the livestream and you want more video episodes of Badass Digital Nomads, whether it's just me, uh, talking to you or talking with a guest, then let me know in the comments.  

Kristin:    00:04:56    And let's see, wait, Johnny's living in Dubai. Oh, I did not know that last I saw he was in Ukraine. Interesting. You learn something new every day. So we did have a question from Marvel who gave the super chat. Oh, and Eric's here, thank you, Eric. Eric is, uh, my, one of my top patrons and top super chat providers, also one of my top DJ livestream contributors on Twitch. So for those of you who don't know, I'm a part-time DJ and I sometimes do DJ sets on Twitch. So thanks Eric for being there. And, um, Marvel was asking, how many languages do I speak? And the answer is two, English and Spanish. And we actually have a question about languages today, so we'll talk about that. I, I learned Spanish through a study abroad program and an immersion program, uh, when I was, I think I was 20 years old and I did a three-month study abroad in Costa Rica.  

Kristin:    00:06:07    And after about, uh, maybe a month or so of full-time classes, I felt like I, the language clicked. Like it was like, oh, I actually understand what people are saying. I couldn't necessarily speak back as well, but I think after doing a month or two of just really intense immersion, that's a really good way to learn a language. And actually we have an episode about the fastest ways to learn a language. So you can check those out on our website on badassdigitalnomads.com. And I'll also drop the link, I'll also drop the link in the show notes and in the video description. So I think we are good to go and get into this. Another thing I wanted to share with you guys is, as you know, I'm a really big reader and also writer and a author of Digital Nomads for Dummies, my first book.  

Kristin:    00:06:58    So I'm always reading books, whether they are on Kindle or Apple Books or Audible audio books. And so I wanted to share with you guys lovers of travel and lovers of the word, this new book from Rolf Potts, who is a good friend of mine, a mentor, an amazing travel writer and author. He's actually the author of the book Vagabonding, which if you haven't read it, it's the book that inspired Tim Ferris to write the 4-Hour Work Week. So many of you have probably heard of Tim Ferris. So that's the connection there. And he has this book called The Vagabond's Way, and it's 366 meditations on Wanderlust Discovery and the Art of Travel. And if you're familiar with the Daily Stoic, uh, or the Daily Laws by Robert Green, so The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday, and I think it's The Daily Laws by Robert Green, where they have a daily meditation where you just read one page per day or a couple pages per day and that gives you something to think about for the day.  

Kristin:    00:08:09    It's very, it's the same format. So I don't know, maybe he worked with Ryan on this book, but, um, I actually didn't have it at the beginning of the year because I was traveling, so I missed a little bit. But I'll just read an excerpt for you from April 1st, which was yesterday. I haven't read today's yet, actually, I've been reading it. I usually do these in the morning, but I've been doing it at night lately. And I really liked this one because it's about how to not be a tourist. So it says April 1st, don't limit what is possible to do as a traveler. And it starts with this quote by Elizabeth Bowles, who wrote a book called Travel Writing 1700 to 1830, which I really wanna read because that sounds interesting. But she says, most travelers, even those who would scorn to think of themselves as tourists, actually move about within predetermined quite limited circuits and itineraries.

Kristin:    00:09:07    And this really jumped out at me because of, you know, like the top places to go and see and do lists that I also put out there. Um, but sometimes it can be hard to get creative about where to go next. And so something I'm always reminding myself of is to get off of the beaten path. Like, of course, you wanna see the most, uh, famous landmarks when you're traveling, but there's also something to be said for creating your own itinerary. Um, and so I will read a little bit of this to you here. It's just one page, and this is in Rolf's words, he says, as the Continental Grand Tour developed as a kind of peripatetic finishing school for British aristocrats in the 17th and 18th centuries, young travelers were expected to abide by specific routines as they went from place to place.  

Kristin:    00:10:04    When English traveler Thomas Coryat went to Germany in 1608, for instance, he visited 15 cities in less than three weeks, climbing each of the town's highest steeple for an initial overview, then systematically seeking out local courts, libraries, treasuries, warehouses, museums, and theaters, tallying statistics and copying inscriptions into his notebook as he went, Coryat had been subjected to these travel protocols in part to structure his learning, but also because England's aristocratic class feared that it's young, reliable to have too much fun if they follow their instincts in foreign places. In 1731 an editorial in London's Gentleman's magazine argued that Grand Tour itineraries had become inadequately structured, they said the rational design of traveling is to become acquainted with the languages, customs, manners, laws, and interests of foreign nations. Instead, our young are immersed in all manner of lewdness and debauchery and have brought home dancing, gaming and masquerades. 

Kristin:    00:11:18    Though we mar –oh–end quote, though we modern travelers aren't required to check off a systematic list of activities, we still tend to constrain the journey by falling back on accepted routines. But in spite of the trendy attractions, social media, certified photo vistas and routes that tell us what we're supposed to do and see in a place, don't let other people's priorities constrain the spontaneous possibilities that you find along the way. And that is his entry for April 1st. And again, it says don't limit what it's, what is possible to do as a traveler. Do you guys like that? I love this entry and a few things stick out to me here. First is the Continental Grand Tour. So as Wolf mentioned, the Continental Grand Tour was like this rite of passage for the wealthy back in this was the 16 hundreds. And just even thinking about the Continental Grand Tour makes me very grateful that today travel is so accessible to everyone.  

Kristin:    00:12:28    Um, you didn't need to take a year to travel around the world in luxury, which I think a lot of the time would've probably included horses, boats, and I'm not sure how they got around back then, but um, the other thing was the, this concept of having a group of people waiting for you back home, whether it was teachers or mentors for them to basically be reviewing and grading your travel for you. Like did you go to enough places? Did you learn enough? And then to be complaining and writing about it in the newspaper that these wealthy men, I'm sure it was mostly men were off gallivanting around having too much fun. But on the other hand, I think they do have a point when they say that traveling, like the point of traveling is to become acquainted with languages, customs, manners, laws and interests of foreign nations.  

Kristin:    00:13:27    I think that that is a really important part of travel and I think that's probably part of the reason why you listened to this podcast or why you're subscribed to my YouTube channel because we're not just concerned here with leisure travel. There's channels about cruise ships and, you know, luxury resorts and things like that, which we know I like to go to a nice hotel as well, but there's more to the fulfilling experiential side of travel than just having a good time or a good meal or sitting on the beach for a week, which sometimes we do need to unwind and sit on the beach for a while. But I think keeping in mind that back in the 16 hundreds, the general accepted reason to travel was to learn. And so now we have this opportunity to have fun and learn at the same time <laugh>, which is actually the point that's actually in the summary of my podcast, laugh and learn because, uh, learning is more fun when it's fun.  

Kristin:    00:14:30    And so yeah, thinking of that learning languages, learning the customs, learning about the interests of foreign nations, that really means learning about the people because a country is a group of people and that is a reflection. The people are a reflection of the culture and the people are also directing that culture and cultures change over time, right? And we're in just a very interesting place right now where, where cultures are blending together because of the ability to travel and because of technology. And so, you know, you might be able to go to KFC or McDonald's in an area of China where there was never a fast food restaurant or you know, before fast food restaurants even existed. So that's really interesting to me. And then also where he says, in spite of trendy attractions in social media, certified places to go and see, don't let other people's priorities constrain the possibilities of what you find along the way.  

Kristin:    00:15:35    So be spontaneous when you travel, it's so much easier said than done because we really want that certainty of, okay, I have a place to stay, I have a plan, I know what we're gonna do when we get there. But as you know, if you've ever gone anywhere, flights get delayed, plans change, reservations get canceled, like all sorts of things can come up and quite often you end up finding something different that you wouldn't have found. And a lot of the ways that you find those things off the beaten track is by talking to the people. I just actually had this situation where I was going to Dublin, Ireland, so I was asking all of my friends, you know, what should I do when I get there? I only have a few days, what should I see? And I didn't end up seeing any of the things that people recommended, but I did go to a place called the Powers Courthouse and Gardens, which was recommended to me by a local, uh, older gentleman who was sitting next to me in a coffee shop.  

Kristin:    00:16:38    And so I took the bus down there and it ended up being one of the top gardens in the entire world. So sometimes, you know, like I would've never known that that was there and I would've never found it if it weren't for him. So this again, if you're just joining us, is the Vaon, The Vagabond's Way by Rolf Potts, the author of Vagabonding. And I'll drop a link to get it in the show notes. And then I'll also drop a link to, uh, my interview with Rolf from, I think it was back in 2019. And we have the video version as well as the audio version. So maybe we can have Rolf back on the show too. And he also has his own podcast called Deviate with Rolf Potts. So shout out to Rolf. Oh, John says that Johnny FD just dropped a new video right now.

Kristin:    00:17:26    I'll have to meet up with him. I haven't seen him in a few years, I haven't seen him since the pandemic. So Johnny, if you're listening, let's collab. Okay, so let's go ahead and start. I see some questions coming in. Uh, Grand Master UV asks, what's my DJing channel name? Traveling with Kristin. And it's actually just my name, it's Kristin Wilson, but I don't know if it's even visible cuz I don't have any videos up yet. Uh, it will be, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start publishing some video sets this year, but let me see if I can find it for you. And the other best way to stay in touch with music goings on is on my Instagram, my DJ Instagram, which is @Kristinwilson.dj. I found the link. So any of you electronic music fans who want to subscribe, my DJ YouTube is at like the @ sign Kristin Wilson dj.  

Kristin:    00:18:35    So I'll add that here in the chat. Let's start with some questions. My first question, I don't actually know how to share my screen on the YouTube live, so what I'll do is I'll post the link to this in the chat. This is in the Badass Digital Nomads Facebook group. So if you just search Badass Digital Nomads on Facebook, you can join our group. There's about 7,000 people there. And this question is from a new member and her name is Rachel, she said, this is Rachel Woods. Hi Rachel. She says, my name is Rachel and I'm new to the group. I am nine days away from completing my first year in the digital nomad lifestyle. It's been a heck of a year living in seven countries throughout Asia and Latin America. It was only supposed to be one year, but I'm now at a point where I've become comfortable in this situation and I want to keep growing as a digital nomad.  

Kristin:    00:19:39    So I have a few goals for, uh, my goals after a few month break in my home country are number one, find a better process for making friends. She said that she mostly met people through local ex-pat Facebook groups and tours, but she's open to other ideas if I can share my methods. The second thing is planning for more outdoors experiences and adventure travel. Third is driving in different countries, and fourth is how to learn a language better. So let's start with the process for making friends. Uh, I do think that ex-pat groups are a good way. It depends on how long that you're going to stay in a country and what kind of people you're looking to meet. So there's been a lot of times in my own personal travel experience, especially when I was living in other countries, that I didn't know what an ex-pat was.  

Kristin:    00:20:39    So an ex-pat is basically someone who's living in another country voluntarily for a short period of time, not immigrating permanently. Um, so I didn't know what an ex-pat was to start off with. And then I just met people naturally through the activities that I was doing there through work, which I'm sure you can relate is a really common way to meet people through sports. Um, through running. There's a lot of, I was living in Costa Rica at first, so there was a lot of trail running and a mountain running through surfing. Um, so meeting people in the water and, and through just like general going out, um, going to restaurants, going to activities in the area. But there's a few ways that you can make more friends and there's so many more ways now than there were when I first went abroad and was living in a place with very few people.  

Kristin:    00:21:34    Now there are ex-pat groups called Internations, which is one of my favorites. I think it's the biggest in the entire world. And even when I'm in a place for just a few days or a week or so, I'll often look at their website. They have chapters in thousands of cities around the world and you can find different activities that they're doing. Another, uh, option that I use a lot is meetup.com because I find that meetup is more local people and Airbnb experiences a lot of times is with other travelers. So if you're gonna be somewhere for a long time, you can do something like Airbnb experiences or going on tours, but you might just meet other tourists. So going on meetup.com, you can choose any number of interests from people interested in wine to meditation, uh, sports, I mean like anything is there. And then she mentions Facebook groups and tours.  

Kristin:    00:22:33    So Facebook groups are good as well. I like to use Facebook for looking up specific people that I know that have been to a destination. So what you can do is go on Facebook and put in the search bar my friends who live in uh, Mexico City or wherever it is that you're going. And then you can actually find people that you know that live there or that have been there. You can put my friends who have been to or my friends who traveled to, and then you can ask them, Hey, do you know anyone who lives here? Are you still here? Do you have any recommendations? And you know, when it comes to friends, like quality over quantity, right? Like we can have a lot of acquaintances, but when you wanna, uh, just make real friends and go deep, you can't be friends with like 10,000 people. 

Kristin:    00:23:19    So I've found that going through your personal network or kind of going deeper with somebody that you meet at a meetup or an event or something like that and then getting introduced to their circle of friends is a really good way to meet people in other countries because one single person can be like your entryway into a whole new cir— social circle in that place. And then she asks about planning for more outdoorsy adventures and exciting experiences like camping, climbing mountains, skydiving. She says that in the last year, she mostly stuck with the easy and quick cultural experiences. So probably things that Rolf was talking about in his book, right? Staying on the beaten path, doing those touristy things. Uh, I am not the best camping <laugh> reference ni– I don't have any urge to do like skydiving or cliff jumping or bungee jumping or anything like that.  

Kristin:    00:24:21    I am really into hiking and mountain climbing. So I would think that, let's see, with camping you might be able to go to sites like hip camp and like places where you can rent campgrounds and meet people that way. And I'm also sure that in forums or by going to even other YouTubers pages that are like really into camping or are really into van life or things like that, that could be a way to meet people. Even if you did, like let's say you did a camping or skydiving Airbnb experience, talk to the person that's the guide or talk to the teacher or the instructor and then ask them how to get in touch with more local people. And, um, for hiking and climbing mountains, the best way that I've met other people that want to do that is through co-working and co-living spaces in the area.  

Kristin:    00:25:13    So that's actually a really good way to make friends as well. If you join up with a travel tribe or a group like Wifi Tribe or Remote Year or Hacker Paradise and um, I think we have some referral links for those, I'll drop in the show notes, but that way you can do one week or one month or two weeks with people that live in that place and are co-living together or that are traveling through a destination and they're traveling as a group and then all of a sudden you have instant people to go on hikes with. Um, when I lived in Norway, which I have some videos about living in Norway at the Arctic Coworking Lodge, we had people that were like, let's go eat together. Let's cook breakfast, let's go foraging for mushrooms, let's go surfing. And so I found that that's a really great way to, uh, meet other people that wanna go on hikes.

Kristin:    00:26:03    And I'm still friends with a lot of those people and we would go drive three or four hours and go hiking. That was up in Lofoten in Norway and it was so much fun. Um, driving, she asks about riding a motorbike through Southeast Asia or places to go for road trips. I would never <laugh> ride a motorbike through Southeast Asia. Actually Rolf who wrote the Vagabonds way, he had an accident there and lost his sense of smell. I'm not sure if he completely healed from that, but if you've ever been to Bali or Thailand or Southeast Asia, you you may have seen or met somebody who got in a scooter or moped or motorbike accident. So I find it to be too dangerous. I have done it in Bali, but going long distances, I don't have the desire to do that. I'm not that adventurous.  

Kristin:    00:26:56    But for renting a car and exploring remote areas, I think Northern Europe and the Balkans or really like anywhere in Europe I think is great for that. Whether you're doing an RV van life or if you, um, just wanna go by yourself and just run a car. Like it's very safe. There's plenty of places to park, plenty of places to camp. You've got internet connection like 5G everywhere. So I think Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia very beautiful places. Estonia's great cuz it's flat <laugh> so you don't have to worry about driving up any mountains or curvy roads or anything. And I also have gone on some great road trips through Eastern Europe and the Balkans because you've got these really like wide open spaces, people drive really fast. So if you like to drive fast, then it's good. I'm not trying to speed or anything, but I do like when people are driving fast and not like driving slow in the left lane.  

Kristin:    00:27:57    Maybe <laugh>, maybe you can relate. Uh, the next question she has is, oh, making more effort in the local languages, like learning the local languages better. And she said, I think I can do this now that I feel less shy and nervous in new environments. And I do have a whole podcast on the fastest way to learn a language with a lot of different resources. So I do recommend that anyone interested in that, check that out. You can just go to badassdigitalnomads.com and click on episodes, all episodes and just in the search bar type in languages or learning a language and that will come up. Uh, we'll also link to it in the show notes, but I think there's two ways to really effectively learn a language. One is the incremental approach where you are just committed to learning a language and you're gonna do it 15 minutes a day for like the next 10 years <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:28:53    And that way when you're just familiar, familiarizing yourself with it so much you can learn. And there's a lot of apps that I actually link to in that other episode where you can talk on Zoom or you know, on video call with other people that speak that local language and they will practice with you and it's quite affordable. So you really don't have to leave your house de despite which language platform you use to start or which books you use, as long as you're consistent with it and that you are talking to locals there. And I think it does help to eventually go to that country so that you're surrounded by the language. And that leads me to immersion, which is a way to learn a language really fast where you go to a country for a few months and you're not, not working full-time, you're not really doing as much sightseeing as you would if you were just on vacation or as a tourist.  

Kristin:    00:29:47    And you go specifically to that place to learn the language. Now it might take longer if you are, you know, trying to learn Mandarin versus trying to learn Spanish, but there are a lot of, uh, schools where you can do an immersion in a homestay and actually live with people that speak that language and you know, just try to stay off of social media and, and stay off your phone and speaking your home language and try to learn it that way. And, um, I think that's harder now than it was before because there's so many distractions. Like you can be doing an immersion program and then watching Netflix at night <laugh>. So, um, yeah, so I think that that's a really good way as well. And um, also a tip that helped me was to learn verbs instead of trying to memorize vocabulary words.  

Kristin:    00:30:39    So if you've ever taken a language class in school, you know that it's based on memorization and you don't really learn that much or you don't remember what you've learned, right? So when you're focused on learning the conjugations of verbs and how to communicate actionable words, that vocabulary will fill in the blanks. And so I used to always look up words that I didn't know and just write them down and write down the definition and just writing down the words instead of asking someone, oh, how do you say this? How do you say that? I retained it better. And I think that that's because we retain more by doing things and writing things than we do by listening. So li– I don't know what the stats are, but like listening, we might retain just a lower percentage of the information. So it's almost like setting a goal.  

Kristin:    00:31:27    Like if you think about a goal, it's still a real goal, but if you say it out loud, it makes it more real. But if you write it down, it makes it like really real. And so I think that that helps with languages too. So we'll do a few of the questions from the live stream and then also from the YouTube community page. Looks like we have some people who are in cold places. <laugh> Florida is hot right now. I'm like sweating in here, but I don't wanna turn on the air conditioning because then it will be loud on the podcast. Uh, this is kind of a preference question. This is Sam asking which non Schengen country is the best to live as a digital nomad during summer? So non Schengen countries could be, uh, the United Kingdom countries and Eastern Europe. I think it, it's really all about preference, you know, uh, I would say somewhere that the electricity bills aren't gonna be really high, like somewhere that you don't need to use air conditioning.  

Kristin:    00:32:38    So maybe in the UK, um, maybe Scotland, something like that. You could do some hiking. The weather's really nice. I've also spent, well now Croatia in the Schengen, but um, the Balkans like, well Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, really affordable places to spend the summer and places where you have mountains and you also have beach, um, or you also have like different climates somewhere else. Albania could be a really nice place to spend the summer cuz you've got beautiful beaches there. Montenegro, this could be some good places. Uh, Scott is asking where am I looking to travel to next? So I actually am going to the United Kingdom next, and that will be around mid-April and then I'm going back to Ireland and I think I'll just be in Europe for the rest of the year traveling around. So stay tuned for where I'm going next. A lot of people saying, congrats on your 200th episode. Thank you guys. 200 seems like a lot, but then sometimes I see people that are on episode 1,431 and I'm like, wow, that's a lot. I guess it's all relative.  

Kristin:    00:33:58    Okay, we have someone asking about income. If a person doesn't have regular income to document, to qualify for a digital nomad visa, do you recommend going to that country for three months and then switching countries as an approach? Appreciate your in input. So yeah, that's tough. A lot of digital nomad visa programs will allow you to show savings accounts or some sort of proof of income. It might not have to be the exact same amount per month. You might be able to show work contracts or other ways that you're gonna get that income. But it's also good to remember that digital nomad visas have only existed since 2020 to 2021. And there were plenty of people traveling this way before, but we were mostly traveling in a gray zone where we didn't have official approval to be able to work in that country. And then the definition of work was kind of a gray area.  

Kristin:    00:34:58    It's like if you work on your laptop, is that the way the laws were designed to prevent working in that country? Is it or is it working for a company, you know, in a physical workplace? And so a lot of people would just travel around as tourists on a tourist visa and a passport, and then they would, um, change when their visa was up. So it's it's a gray area. <laugh>, oh, we got a super chat from Eric. 49.99. Thank you Eric. Oh, he has to leave <laugh>. I thought it was a question you said headed to Whole Foods for groceries. Have a good day. Thanks Eric. Eric's the best. So generous. So Sam, thank you. Okay, let's go to some of the questions from the YouTube community page. The first one is from Matt Kay and he says, how do you make friends and keep connections when traveling so much?  

Kristin:    00:35:55    I went nomadic for the past three years, but I was slow traveling, spending six months to a year in each country landing in a place that I don't know anyone has been pretty lonely honestly. And I feel like it takes nine months to make friends. So he says, okay, that's the question. How do you make friends and keep connections when traveling so much? If you want to keep the friends that you have in those countries? It can be difficult if you're just making friends with locals because they don't have as much as of an incentive to really invest a lot of time in creating a friendship with somebody when they know that you're just gonna be there for a couple months. And I, this is a problem I've had with dating as well, so I don't know who, if anyone's figured that out. I think it just depends on the person and where you meet them.  

Kristin:    00:36:46    But it's really quite easy now to make friends with other people in the remote work community and keep those connections. And the best way of doing that is to attend conferences and events. Um, if you attend a remote work or a digital nomad conference or join with one of those travel groups that I recommended, then that's the best way to meet people. And you're also meeting people that want to meet, meet people and make friends. And then you can travel with those people, you can meet with them in other countries. Uh, nomad Cruise, we had, um, the co the founder of Nomad Cruise, Johannes on the podcast will link to that and that was something that they did before the pandemic and now they're starting to do it again. But it was basically a cruise ship with 200 to 500 digital nomads on the cruise ship with like other people that were on the cruise as well.  

Kristin:    00:37:41    But now what they have is Nomad Base where you can kind of be on the nomad cruise on land and they'll do meetups in Ply del Carmen in South Africa in Cypress. And so you get to see those same people and you just become friends with them over the year. So the first time I went to one of these conferences was in 2018, and you could end up working with those people. You could end up living with those people, you could end up dating people, get getting married. I mean we've seen it all. So I think that's the best way. And then you're keeping connections with people that are also able to move around and be location independent. And then what do you do when a city or culture just isn't your vibe if you don't like it and you don't find people or crowds or anything that you're looking for?  

Kristin:    00:38:30    So there's two things that I do. The first thing is I give it more time because I've often found that the first impressions of a country might not be so accurate and it could also depend on your mood and your perspective and kind of what you're going through when you arrive. So this happened to me when I went to Athens, Greece where at first I was like a little bit in culture shock. Uh, it was, it is a little rough around the edges there. I wasn't in a good neighborhood. My air conditioning didn't work, it was really hot, I was sick with the flu. It was like all of these things, uh, the, yeah, the internet was slow. Uh, but after staying for a few weeks, I really started to like it and I started feeling comfortable and I didn't even wanna leave to go to Santorini.  

Kristin:    00:39:13    So first give it more time and then I'll also appreciate those differences and see what you can try to learn from there and ask yourself like, why don't I like this place? What don't I like about it? And is that opinion valid? Is it justified? And you might find that you know, maybe it's something personal and it really doesn't have to do with that country, but it also can be information for the next place that you go. So if you go somewhere and you're just not feeling it, maybe it's too strict or too religious or whatever, too hot, too cold, then that's information for you to know the next time. Like, okay, maybe I need to pick destinations that, uh, fit more of what I'm looking for. But I, I do think it's good to go to places that put you out of your comfort zone anyway because that's where the real like stretching and growth happens from travel. Now there's people that go to every single country in the world and I don't necessarily have the desire to do that, but I can imagine that after going to every country you would have, uh, a interest, very interesting perspective where, you know, you feel like you've experienced a little piece of each culture. And so I like to keep an open mind. Um, but there's also, you know, probably places that I wouldn't go back to given that there's so many other places to go.  

Kristin:    00:40:37    Uh, Red Puma says that, oh, they just wanna know if I've been to Puerto Rico. So they just moved down to Puerto Rico to convert a house into an Airbnb and add another income stream. And he says that the amazing thing about living in Puerto Rico is its accessibility to New York, New Jersey and Florida and tax advantages for living there year round. I would have to agree. And he said, uh, have you been to Puerto Rico? Yes. So I used to be really into surfing. I was a competitive surfer and I spent some time every year in Puerto Rico, usually in the winter or around spring break. And a lot of the time on the west coast, uh, Rincón area, Jobos, Isabela. So I really love Puerto Rico. And after living in Miami, like half my friends were Puerto Rican, Puerto Rican or Colombian or –Venezuelan.  

Kristin:    00:41:36    We have a super chat from Mr. Carin for Canadian $11. Thank you so much. He says, I wish I could live abroad, but I have a kid, she lives with her mom and is 13. Seems like the people who are digital nomads have some high profile diploma. What advice could you give me to start? Ooh, this is a great question, <laugh>. So I have talked about this topic a lot. Um, we do have a whole, uh, category on our website. If you check on badassdigitalnomads.com where you can listen to episodes about traveling with kids and traveling as a family, you might need to be a part-time digital nomad where you know, you're spending time at home with your daughter until she goes off to get a job or go to college. Um, and then, you know, travel part-time. So maybe you could rent your house out or sublet it when you're gone to save money and just travel part-time and or you might wanna wait or just go on vacations at first and just wait a few years.  

Kristin:    00:42:41    But the good thing about being a digital nomad or being, I don't know, nomadic or location independent, is that anyone can do it and you don't need any sort of special diploma or certification. It's just a decision and it's just a mindset. And I do have, um, some entire episodes on like getting started as a digital nomad and also highly recommend Digital Nomads for Dummies because it'll it give you step by step how to become a digital nomad. And, um, it has, the first two sections of the book are like, are three sections are dedicated to getting started. Like how do you start, where do you start, what kind of jobs could you have? Where do you find these jobs? How do you create these jobs, et cetera, et cetera. How to fund the lifestyle. But, uh, I think the most important thing is having some form of remote income stream.  

Kristin:    00:43:32    So I've done some videos on the channel about remote jobs, about passive income streams. The one thing that all of my relocation clients have had in common and all the other digital nomads that I know is that most of them, the, the vast majority have a recurring income stream, whether it's a pension, a salary, a money from freelancing, very few are just living off of savings. Maybe some of them are living on interest or some sort of, you know, passive income. But um, to just live on savings would be like a part-time trip where, you know, you're just going on a sabbatical or something like that. So the most important thing is to have a job <laugh> or have some income and then you can keep going. Oh, Walt is here. Hi Walt, thanks for joining. He is our moderator. He said, Mr. Crewman says I live in an apartment and don't own a house.  

Kristin:    00:44:30    So sometimes renting an apartment you might have restrictions against subletting it. So that's where the decision to go. Nomadic, you might need to wait until you can actually give up that apartment so you don't have the caring costs of paying rent every month. And that's exactly what I did. I had a really expensive apartment in Miami and I didn't wanna pay for it when I wasn't there. So I put my stuff in storage when I went to travel because I wanted to travel long term this year. We also have some just random, um, personal questions. 

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Kristin: We also have some just random, um, personal questions. Brian Sussex asks, what shows do you like to binge-watch or stream when you have downtime on the road? I really love documentaries, even if it's something like Drive to Survive where it's about sports. Uh, formula One, there was a series I really liked about the winter classic of hockey. I I just like knowing how things happen, how things work, how people do things, and I also love mysteries, uh, things like that.  

Kristin:    00:46:35    I just watched the MH 370 documentary series on Netflix and it was so sad. I don't recommend watching it if it's gonna make you really sad. Did anybody see that? I was just like, I think everyone wanted to know what happened to that plane that went missing in, um, either the South China Sea or I guess they don't even know where it went missing, but you know, spoiler alert, they haven't found the plane, they don't know where it is. So watching that documentary just made me really grateful for just being here today, um, because I think that's something that I can't even imagine going through. Like any time there's a big disaster like that, whether it's a plane crash or whether it's um, a tsunami or an earthquake or flooding, like any sorts of things like that, I don't know. I, I think sometimes it's important to know how these things, things happen and what happened, but it also can be sad.  

Kristin:    00:47:31    But I just watched that this week on Netflix, so that's top of mind. Um, oh, and also, yeah, just any kind of documentaries like when I'm on the plane, I'm always watching the travel documentaries or mini videos on Delta about different destinations. I've been watching a lot of music documentaries lately cuz I've been getting more into music. So I just watched one about drummers. I watched one about a band, like the people I don't know about like rock and roll stuff. And I just find anything that, uh, people are doing that's outside of my area of expertise, I find that to be very compelling. And I love seeing the different ways that life overlaps. Like whether you're an artist or an engineer or a business person, you can get inspiration and ideas from looking at either adjacent fields of study to what it is that you do or just looking in completely different places, <laugh> and you'll end up finding certain kind of laws like physical laws or laws of the universe or things that are consistent and hold true across boundaries, borders, people, industries. And I, I just find that very compelling.  

Kristin:    00:48:53    Dave has a question about, @thisisDavem, I know we have a lot of Daves on the channel. It's about how I manage work-life balance. So he says, I remember earlier videos where you mentioned doing things like going skiing with the growth of your social media content. Has this become a 24/7 job or can you actually relax and do you use any software that helps you manage all of your social media? Uh, yes, yes and no. I think as my social media channels have grown, there's obviously a lot more comments, like I used to answer every single comment, but now it's become that maybe one video can get more comments than I might get in an entire year before. So obviously, like you can't answer after a certain number of comments. I don't know how many, like I used to answer like tens of thousands of comments per year, but if it's like a hundred thousand or a million, I don't know if I could even answer all of them.  

Kristin:    00:49:57    So you've just gotta be okay with not answering every single comment. You know, I'm sure like Selena Gomez or Kim Kardashian or like, I don't know, people that have like a hundred million followers, I guess they can't answer all of the comments. So there's a lot of software that can help you automate social media, but for me, the real value of social media is just connecting with people and not doing automated posts. So I don't use those tools, I've just been okay with not doing a hundred percent of, of that. And I also have an assistant named TJ who helps with messages on social media and also on LinkedIn emails and things. And so if if there is something that she doesn't know or that needs my individual attention, then she'll let me know. And I think with the growth in social media and also like getting older at the same time, I think maybe it would be different if I was, you know, 21 versus 30 versus 40.  

Kristin:    00:50:59    But I guess like just getting older, I really value my time more so I, I'm less apt to waste it. Like I'm, I still waste time, <laugh> don't, I'm still a human being, you know, don't get me wrong, but I think if I was doing this when I was 20, I might spend more time like scrolling Instagram or something. And now when I have free time, I decide like, okay, this is gonna be my free time on this day or this weekend or whenever it is, and I want it to be quality time with friends and family or doing a workout or cooking a nice meal. Like I just try to be more present and the time that I have and I don't take anything for granted. You know, I think having traveled when you see the differences in how people live and you just, you become more aware of, of the how many blessings that you have in your life, then you're just less apt to like take that for granted.  

Kristin:    00:52:00    So yeah, I still like to kick back and watch Netflix or watch like I love the Food Network, I love Chopped, I just went to the Miami Wine and Food Festival. Um, so I like do things like that. Um, but yeah, you just have to be okay with not being able to do everything. And that is the same whether you have a social media channel or you have kids or you have three jobs, like you just can't do it all. And so you gotta prioritize and that's always a journey. Like I think once you feel like you have your routine set or you have your priorities set might like life might suggest to you, like maybe do it a different way. And so that's always a learning experience. A book that has really helped me with that is the book called 4,000 Weeks, I think that's what it's called.  

Kristin:    00:52:52    Yes, 4,000 Weeks. And he talks about the author talks about that a lot. And I actually got that book for my mom because she's always really busy. So if you feel like there's not enough time to do everything, if you feel like you are just too busy all the time, then that book helps. But also stoicism, uh, Marcus Aurelius's book meditations and you know, just looking at people that like the Emperor of Rome probably had a lot of stuff to do. The president of this country or the Prime Minister probably has a lot of stuff to do, do and just kind of like keeping it all in perspective that it's okay to work hard, but it's also okay to take time off and you need that. Like you can't work a lot of hours a day, every day forever without burning out. And I've burnt out a few times and I have podcast about that.  

Kristin:    00:53:41    I have medium articles about that. So, uh, that's my perspective on that. Hello to everyone who's joining us live. Denny says, late to the party, wanted to stop by and take a listen and say Hi to Kristin and everyone. Hello. Uh, so yeah, if you're just tuning in live, this is a live episode of my weekly podcast, Badass Digital Nomads. Um, we have had a lot of questions about my relationship status <laugh>. So Kirk asks, how do I feel about long-distance relationships? And Paul Anthony, uh, Hi Paul. He asks, are you single lol as a digital nomad, is it tough for you to find romance? There you go. That is my question. We all love you, Kristin. You inspire us, stay happy always and have a great laugh. So I think there was a few other ones. We'll just go with these two save on time.  

Kristin:    00:54:40    So how do I feel about long-distance relationships? Uh, not a fan, not a big fan. Um, probably because so much of my work is long-distance. You know, so much of my work is remote that when I'm not working I probably don't wanna be in a relationship with someone remotely too. Now have I done it before? Yeah, yeah. And I've spent a lot of time on the phone, on FaceTime and on texting and messages and I just don't wanna be on my devices that much. So I would probably rather be single than be in a long-distance relationship. But I do know a lot of people that are in five-year long-distance relationships and they make it work. But I think eventually you need to decide are you gonna do this forever or are you gonna come together in the same place and make that decision and possibly the sacrifice of one person or the other having to move or stop traveling or whatever.  

Kristin:    00:55:40    And, uh, Paul asking, is it hard to find romance? Mm, it's personal, but I mean, I–I think it is for different reasons. Like, I think part of it is the time that we live in where there's so many options of who to date and there's so many dating apps and websites and there's so many ways to meet people, but it can also be overwhelming and people can maybe not be so apt to commit because they can just meet somebody else. So I think that's a problem for a lot of people, whether or not they're nomadic as a digital nomad, there are a lot of solutions now. There's, um, Nomad soulmates, there's like dating sites and apps for digital nomads. And I think through these work and travel groups and also through conferences and events, you can meet other people that are also traveling and have relationships that way.  

Kristin:    00:56:45    And I know a lot of people who are in committed relationships or who have gotten married and had kids because they met somebody when they were traveling or through one of these events. Um, I, I think for me personally, like it's, it is just been rare that I meet somebody that I click with that it's like, okay, this is my person for the next five years or life or whatever. And so, I don't know, I think it has to do with just chemistry with people and being in the right place at the right time. So, uh, I don't have a a good answer for that one <laugh>, but I do have a few live streams on dating as a digital nomad and I also have a podcast episode dedicated to that. So just search dating and Kayla who's doing our podcast show notes will add that to the show notes. We've got another super chat from Jeff Wright. Hi Jeff. Long-time subscriber on the podcast or on the YouTube. And I don't know what this question is, <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:57:50    Um, it sounds like an NFT actually what you're describing, Jeff, but thanks for the ch super chat. We have a new question from Nadia, who says, how do jobs with location flexibility mix with visas for digital nomads? So to get a digital nomad visa, you just need to show that you either have a source of remote income that's usually in the majority of cases from outside of the country where you're applying for the visa. So the main thing that they want to see when approving you for a digital nomad visa is, are you working for a company that's outside of our home country or do you have clients that are outside of this country and do you have enough money to stay here without getting stranded and needing to get a job that would take away from our locals. So if you have a job that's remote or location independent or flexible, you can use your income from that job to apply for a digital nomad visa. 

Kristin:    00:58:54    Now, every digital nomad visa has a different requirement, just like with any country with a residency permit. Um, but I do have, let me see if I can find it. Digital Nomad Visa database and I should have the link for you here. We'll link to it also in the show notes, but this is, is $47 and you can get access to the digital nomad visa requirements for almost every country. Now it does need to be updated for 2023, so we will do that, but um, that can kind of give you a lot of the information in one place. And it took us about a year to put this together because there's so many countries with digital nomad visas and there's so many different rules for each one. While I'm getting that link, I will read another question and this one is from Ataa, Ava Sharma.  

Kristin:    00:59:59    And he says, how do you deal with the loneliness that the digital nomad lifestyle brings? And that is, uh, another topic that I've talked about. Do I, I think I have a YouTube video about it. I definitely have a podcast about it. And I wrote a medium article about it. Oh yeah, here's the video. But my main conclusion or my main takeaway about loneliness is that you can feel lonely anywhere. It's just part of being human. I personally don't feel like I'm more lonely when I'm traveling than when I'm not I think it's quite easy to just feel lonely in your house, in your home country. And so none of us are exempt from feeling loneliness. It's just something that connects us as emotional beings. But knowing, you know, knowing your kind of boundaries, like how much social interaction do you need? How introverted are you, how extroverted are you that can help guide you to, you know, looking for those ways, like we talked about earlier in the podcast, ways to meet people, ways to make friends, and somehow traveling makes me feel more connected even when I am not physically with friends or family members.  

Kristin:    01:01:27    I think just being here on YouTube, being on the internet, talking with people helps me feel connected, but also observing other cultures and, and people and talking with them, it just kind of makes me feel like we're all in this together. And you can be at a music festival or a concert with like 80,000 people and you can feel lonely or I, what I say in this article is that you can feel lonely in a relationship. You can feel lonely while sitting on the couch or laying in bed with your significant other, like loneliness can hit at any time. So I deal with it by accepting it and then thinking, you know, just being curious about why am I feeling lonely and what do I need? And you know, what, how can I adjust? Because life is just, we're constantly adjusting. We're adjusting to our emotional state, we're adjusting to our desires, our dreams, our goals.  

Kristin:    01:02:28    Um, we're adjusting to out– outside external things that happen to us, good and bad. And so, yeah, it's part of the journey. Um, @Wolfgang asks, what is the main reasons why digital nomads fail? They all appear super happy sitting with their MacBooks close to the beach, yet a solid number of ex-pats lack success. That's an interesting question because I wouldn't necessarily call digital nomads ex-pats. These are two different things. So a digital nomad is just somebody who can work remotely or who can support themselves with finances that come from a remote source, bank account through the internet, whatever it is. And that allows them to live nomadically without having to stay in one place. Now, ex-pats are just people that live in another country for a determined period of time, A few months, a few years. Not all digital nomads are ex-pats and vice versa.

Kristin:    01:03:30    You can be a digital nomad in your home country or in another country and lacking success. That's very subjective, everyone has, you know, a different definition of what success means to you. But I can say a reason why digital nomads fail. If we are to conclude that failure is quitting the digital nomad lifestyle, which I don't think it is, because you can take breaks, you can have a phase of your life being a nomad and then not do it again, just like you might play basketball in high school and then never play again. You know, it's just something you can do, it's something you can experience. But if we are to say, okay, if people fail, they don't want to quit the lifestyle, but why do they fail? What is that basically saying? That's saying that, um, probably they ran out of money or that something happened that they were unable to overcome.  

Kristin:    01:04:29    Maybe a feeling of loneliness, maybe an injury, something that causes them to go back to square one. So I think it's normal to go back to where you started, go back to home base, regroup, make changes in your life. But I think that the people that fail through lack of income were people that didn't have a stable recurring income when they first started, or sometimes when they moved with like a thousand dollars in their bank account and then they ran out of money before they could make a remote business work. So that doesn't necessarily mean failure, that just means we've gotta save more money, we've gotta work on that business longer, we've gotta find a new job, we've gotta find an, you know, alternate income stream. So hopefully that helps.  

Kristin:    01:05:17    @Derick asks, what's my favorite place in the world? And I actually have a video on my favorite places in the world. So you'll have to watch that to find the answer. And @Mohammed asks, are you an extroverted introvert or an introverted extrovert? How do you handle culture shock as an introvert? Uh, I think an extroverted introvert and an introverted extrovert could be the same. I don't know, is that an ambivert when you're both? I think all of us can, can be both. There's obviously people that tr–trend more, uh, outgoing and extroverted. The interesting thing is, I was actually voted most outgoing in high school, but I would probably call myself more of an introvert, but all of my friends, and you guys might think I'm more extroverted, so who's right? We don't know. Depends on the day, right? And then how do you handle culture shock as an introvert?  

Kristin:    01:06:11    I think the best way to handle culture shock, whether you're introverted or extroverted, um, is to learn more about it and learn why you're experiencing culture shock and be, just be curious about it. Culture shock just means that you're in a place that feels different to you than what you're used to. And the longer that you're there, the more you might start to adapt to that culture, because we do become a bit a product of our environment. And you might then think your home country is actually quite weird, which results in reverse culture shock, which is also a thing. You can't escape the culture shock. You're either getting it on one side or you're getting it on the other. And I was just talking about this in the, the video where I'm talking to locals in Belfast, and this is actually a part that got cut from the video, but the woman at the beginning that I was talking to about moving from Texas to Northern Ireland where her mother was from, she was saying that the longer she's in Belfast, the more she finds the US to be weird.  

Kristin:    01:07:15    And I was saying how I just that day watched a rugby game at a pub in Northern Ireland and I thought rugby is such a weird sport. So I start googling the rules of rugby and I'm, you know, I do think it was still a bit weird, the rules of the game <laugh>, but then I started thinking, why do I think rugby is weird? Because I grew up in the US with American football. And actually, when you look at the rules of, of that sport, it's quite strange. If you were to never have come across football before, you might think it's weird if someone just told you like, Hey, there's a bunch of people running into each other, <laugh> trying to throw a piece of leather down a field. You know, like, we can make anything just seem kind of funny and weird when you really look into it.  

Kristin:    01:08:07    So it's like, if you grew up in England, you would think rugby is normal. If you grow in up in Australia, you think Ozzie rolls, football is normal. If you grow up in Florida, you think an American football is normal. If you grow up in Brazil, you think soccer is normal, like we are just, um, exposed to something long enough, it it normalizes for you. Uh, so handling culture shock is kind of leaning into that and thinking like, okay, what is this? And learning about it. And then you get a better understanding of it. And also, uh, using one of the tools, uh, that I've mentioned before, um, the Hofstede index, the Hofstede website, where you can actually look up the cultural differences between your country and the country where you're experiencing culture shock. And that can rank the country side by side and help you determine where are the areas of great disparity and difference in the cultures and help you fill in those gaps.  

Kristin:    01:09:11    So it doesn't matter if you're introverted or extroverted. That's my tip for you. Henry. Good to see you longtime subscriber, Henry Orea– Super Chat 4.99. Thank you so much, Henry he says, Kristin, congratulations on your 200th episode of Badass Digital Nomads. As I would say in Spanish, Muchas Felicidades. Henry, thank you so much. Really appreciate that. Uh, <laugh> IC says, sports equals weird. See, you might even think that sports in general are weird. So here I have a link to you for the Digital Nomad Visa database for anyone who is asking about that. And let's see if there's any other questions in the YouTube live. We have a question from Stefan who says, how long have you been traveling or calling yourself a digital nomad? What's the biggest lessons that you've learned on your journey? I've been traveling, I think, since being a kid and going on, uh, like Griswold family vacations, <laugh> style trips, like driving to Tennessee or Kentucky or New York or something like that.  

Kristin:    01:10:37    Uh, as a little kid, uh, going to Disney World, things like that. But traveling on my own. Well, I graduated from college, no, I graduated from high school when I was 17, and I, as soon as I was free <laugh>, I started traveling. Uh, so I was pretty independent from a young age. I started working when I was 14 years old as a lifeguard, and then in retail stores and, uh, teaching surf lessons. And then I also worked at restaurants, waiting tables, things like that. I worked at a sushi bar and, um, just started, you know, worked from a very young age. So as soon as I had money and then I had independence as a 17, 18 year old, I started traveling. And first, it was for surfing to go to surf contests on the east coast of the US and to go to California and to Puerto Rico and Mexico.  

Kristin:    01:11:33    And then it was, uh, studying abroad. And then, uh, yeah, the journey continues and I think after you start traveling and if it resonates with you, you just do it in some form, some way, shape, or form your entire life. And what's the biggest lesson I've learned on my journey is that the world is, is a mystery. It it's always changing. It's always new. You don't know what you don't know and what you do know always has different answers. So I, I would say that's a big lesson for me. And also that people are nice, there's nice people everywhere. In general, the human race, the human population is pretty awesome. There's a few bad apples, but like 99.9% of people are, are pretty great and everyone has good intentions. And even if they seem maybe, you know, not quote-unquote friendly or standoffish, it could just be that they feel self-conscious that they don't speak the same language as you or they could be shy or something like that.  

Kristin:    01:12:41    So don't judge a book by its cover and just have patience and compassion, uh, when you're traveling and people are pretty cool. Like pretty much anyone that you talk to, you're gonna learn something new. And sometimes if it's, you know, even –even if it's a little kid, I think anyone that has kids or nieces or nephews, you probably learn a lot from them too. Uh, we have another question from Christine on romance and dating. So you might have just joined the stream, but I just answered a similar question and will also link to my videos and episodes on dating while traveling there. And it's also a chapter in my book on Digital Nomads for Dummies.  

Kristin:    01:13:28    And a question from Ben on cell phone coverage. Any tips for determining cell phone coverage? I'm worried about poor connections at a rental that I can't visit in advance. Uh, you could ask your landlord or host for a speed test screenshot if you're worried about the internet. And also ask them, you know, what their cell phone provider is and how do they, you know, how many bars do they have? One bar, five bars when they're in the house, the, um, construction can make a difference. So let's say you go to Malta and you're staying in a house that's made out of rock or stone-like, and you're on the ground floor of a, a building like that could actually affect your service. And I've also seen that happen at the beaches or in places like valleys. So if you're going somewhere where you're gonna be between mountains or in a really weird spot, that could affect your signal. But a lot of companies have cell phone coverage maps and we actually use that when, uh, doing relocations to very remote places will check for their cell phone coverage map. And that's how we know which sim card to buy. But I also have a video on traveling with a cell phone and what to do about that. Talks about sim cards, talks about cell phone coverage. So just head over to my channel and um, and check that question out or check that video out. <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:14:59    And let's see, uh, Ronald has a question on LGBTQIA travel. He says, any gay men with input about a friendly attitude toward gay expats abroad or not, or not safe destinations? Uh, yes, I do have, I'm not a gay man, but I do have, um, my friends Brent and Michael from Brent and Michael are Going Anywhere. That's their website. They have a lot of resources on that. They are digital nomads from Seattle and they have been traveling the world for many years now. So you can look up their episode on our pod on our website or go to their website. I also have a section on that in Digital Nomads for Dummies. And we're also talking about safety there as well. And people say great advice, keep it coming. Thank you. And do I worry about getting sick while traveling?  

Kristin:    01:15:59    I don't worry about it, but it does happen sometimes. I was just sick. I think I got food poisoning and I, I get sick once in a while when traveling. But the, the best way I found to not get sick is to just take care of your immunity year-round. You know, make sure you're getting enough sleep, exercise sunlight, eating healthy foods, um, restricting, you know, alcohol intake and just keeping your immune system healthy. Uh, yeah. Oh, we have more super chats. Thank you guys. Josh Rodriguez, Florida realtor, $20 from Josh. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. I don't think I've seen your picture before. He says, I'm a single dad and my daughter is about to graduate from high school and doesn't want to commit to a long-term. I think it got cut off career. Okay. We're missing part of your question. Josh posted there, <laugh>, we'll come back to that one.  

Kristin:    01:17:09    But if that, if that's part of the question. If, if you are someone who doesn't want to commit to a long-term career, I think now is the best time to be alive because you don't have to commit to one career. You can have side hustles, you can have multiple income streams. You can be in the gig economy working as an independent contractor or a freelancer. And with each of these experiences, you're building your life resume and you can ultimately get a job with a company even without going to university if you just go from high school to working. I do think it, it would help to do an internship or something, try to get some experience in the workplace first, but it's certainly not necessary. There's plenty of people that are just, you know, learning online, doing online courses, learning through trial and error and experience and, you know, teaching themself the skills that they want to earn money doing.  

Kristin:    01:18:07    And it's really just about doing a good job, getting a few case studies, starting with one client, maybe doing work for free or at a discount and then just building your Rolodex of clients and you can have a location and, uh, freedom for from the beginning, which wasn't always the case. And we have another super chat from Henry. Thank you so much. Double super chat from Henry today and he says, can you talk about some of the cruises you've been on throughout your travels? Would you ever like to go on a cruise to Antarctica? I've only been on the Nomad Cruise twice, so I did one, I have some videos on my channel about Nomad Cruise, where we went from, um, where did we go from Spain to Greece. And then I did one from Spain to Brazil. And I liked the one going to Greece more because I like to get off the boat more often and see things and go on day trips during the cruise.  

Kristin:    01:19:11    I didn't like the one that went across the Atlantic so much because um, I just felt like I wanted to get off the boat. It was, I think two weeks long. It was, had pros and cons, like it was cool to cross the equator for the first time and you definitely have a lot of experience to bond with the people on the boat because no one can go anywhere. But I, I personally like to get out and hike and explore more, but I, I love seeing the sunrise on cruises and, um, there's just, it, it's weird, there's like a lot to do on a cruise somehow, but now I'm more, I don't know, I'm more hesitant to go on the cruises because of some of the research I've done on, on the downsides, especially environmental impact of cruises, the health risks. You know, we saw a lot of people get stuck on cruises when there was an outbreak of something or covid and people getting locked on cruise, like that's my worst nightmare, getting like stuck on a cruise ship that's just floating that can't go anywhere because everybody's sick or like the toilets stop working or the water or like something like that.  

Kristin:    01:20:18    That's like my worst nightmare, um, <laugh>. But uh, I've also been on a cruise from Florida to The Bahamas. That was kind of, it was kind of generic, but I think there's some really cool ones that go to, uh, like Alaska or like Antarctica as you mentioned. But I think those cruises are different. The ones that goes that go to Antarctica, I think they're smaller. But I have seen in my research that, you know, cruise ships also can be guilty of dumping trash in the ocean, contributing to like the plastic that's out there in the water. Uh, they're not held accountable for that. And the sounds of not just cruise ships, but other types of large ships, the, the sounds of the motors can interrupt the communication of animal life in the ocean. So I don't know if maybe there's another way that they can power these ships that they're not polluting so much and they're not making so much noise.  

Kristin:    01:21:17    So I don't really know if I wanna support the cruise industry anymore, but I would like to go to Antarctica at some point, but I also would kind of feel guilty of going to Antarctica cause I don't wanna, you know, like create more uh, emissions by going to Antarctica. So it's like what do you do? Um, Matt is recommending a book that says Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it. It's very good. Thank you. Thank you for the book recommendations. I also have, if you Google Traveling with Kristin Amazon or Amazon store or shop Amazon Traveling with Kristin, you can come up with my Amazon page where I have a lot of the gear that I use and I also have books and a book list on there. Um, and I see is recommending supplementing D-three for your immune system, 10,000 IU per day, how much I was, I was taking vitamin D supplements at one time. 

Kristin:    01:22:17    I can't remember how much it was. And glutathione is great for the immune system. I have gotten that in those hydration IVs before. Um, but I never really felt a difference but I'm sure it was doing something. Okay, we have Josh back with his question. Okay. It was, I'm a single dad, my daughter's about to graduate from high school and doesn't want to commit to a long-term career until she explores the world hoping to discover her true passion. I have the budget to spend three or four weeks visiting places with her. Do you have any suggestions? Hmm. So that's really cool of you. First of all, I think my life definitely changed when I was able to study abroad and I was thinking of doing an episode about a gap year. Whether you're doing an adult gap year or a study abroad gap year, I think that travel can really help you determine what career path you wanna go down and give you ideas for what you can do in the world.  

Kristin:    01:23:14    So if you have the budget to spend three or four weeks visiting places with her, it, I wouldn't want to suggest places for you guys to go because I think this is a really good opportunity for your daughter to express the places that she's interested in and they might surprise both of you. So I actually just found my scholarship application when I got to study abroad in Costa Rica and I was reading in my own application from 2001 that I wanted to go to Spain or Italy. And the reason I wanted to go to Italy was because I had been there before and I was comfortable with that, you know, comfort zone. And I had family from Italy and the reason I put Spain was because growing up in Florida I thought, okay, it could be very helpful to learn Spanish. And my city of 

Kristin:    01:24:10    St. Augustine is sister cities with San Sebastian in Spain. And so I wanted to learn more about that cultural connection between Spain and North Florida. I ended up getting assigned to go to Costa Rica, which was not on my list, but it was a, a destination that ended up changing my life. And even if I wouldn't have picked it first or wouldn't have necessarily been on my radar, I'm really glad that I went. So I, I recommend with my, with my relocation clients to do a meditation. We have like, um, a meditation or a visualization of your ideal day and like envisioning the type of place that you see yourself in when you wake up in the morning. Like what sounds do you hear, what temperature is it? And people come up with a lot of things that they wouldn't necessarily like spin the globe and pick that place on the map.  

Kristin:    01:25:02    So you can kind of start with what are places that just intuitively excite you and asking her that, like what are your top three places that you've always wanted to go? Maybe it could be like Belize or Egypt or South Africa, like who knows what could come up there. And then also doing like a meditation or visualization can help. I do also have a podcast with that visualization and you'll have to come back for that link cuz I don't know which, which episode it was, but it's on choosing a destination. So we'll dig into that. Kayla has a lot of work for these show notes cuz we're linking to so many episodes, but we'll if you go on badassdigitalnomads.com next week we'll put the link in there and uh, we have another super chat from Henry, a triple super chat this week. Thank you so much Henry, and thanks Josh for that question as well.  

Kristin:    01:25:58    And okay, he says, in your opinion, what is one country where you notice that people are always eating healthy? In the past you talked about how in Japan and Turkey you didn't really notice healthy foods. Thoughts on that? Yeah, well unfortunately people are eating less and less healthy it seems, and a lot of places where the standard American diet is becoming more accessible. In Turkey, I didn't actually notice many American or like US food chains. The thing I noticed in Turkey was that there's a lot of desserts, there's a lot of bread and there's a lot of meat and you can also get, you know, fruits and vegetables and things like that. But it seemed like when I went out to lunch there were five different kinds of bread <laugh> and I wouldn't necessarily say like eating that much bread at one meal is that healthy.  

Kristin:    01:26:50    And uh, same with Japan. I I, I mentioned in my Japan videos that I thought I would basically be eating, you know, raw fish or steamed fish and seaweed and stuff the whole time, but yet there's all of these convenience stores and lots of fast food restaurants and there's lots of um, um, machines like vending machines everywhere where you can get packaged stuff. So I didn't really feel it was that healthy, but yet the people still look pretty healthy. So I think the places that people eat the healthiest, if I were to say, okay, what constitutes healthy food? Fresh whole foods, right? Organic foods, that would be people in the Mediterranean that are eating the Mediterranean diet. And also, um, in Costa Rica, uh, they have a blue zone, which is where people experience the longest longevity. So that's people that live to be a hundred years old, so they have a higher number of people that live to be a hundred than in other parts of the world.  

Kristin:    01:27:54    I think Italy is also one, I think Greece, there's a few different, if you just Google Blue Zones, you can find a list of all the blue zones in the world. And uh, I think that they just tend to eat more fruits and vegetables and they also, um, have like a bigger range and variety of these fruits and vegetables. And especially in places like Costa Rica, they have all the exotic fruits that maybe have more vitamins and and things like that. So, um, those would probably be the places where people are eating the healthiest. But I also think it has to do with the commercial food supply and what's in it. So a tomato in 30 different countries is gonna have a different nutritional value depending on what pesticides are used and where it comes from. And I've also really noticed people throughout Europe that eat pretty healthy because they're buying fresher produce on a daily basis versus going once a week and buying in bulk.  

Kristin:    01:28:56    And a lot of times, um, in cultures where people shop more at local markets where the food doesn't have to travel as far, so it's not losing as much nutritional value and it's, you know, from that soil in that area, or maybe it's organic, I think that also helps as well. And so you'll find that a lot in every country. You can find these outdoor local markets. And the, the good thing about traveling, especially if you live in the US or Canada, like these markets can be more expensive than the grocery store, but in other countries, it can be more affordable than shopping at the supermarket. So that is a bonus <laugh>. Okay, I think we will finish with that question today. Thank you guys so much for coming. We've had around like 70, 75 people for most of this hour and a half that we've been here today.  

Kristin:    01:29:52    So if you're a long-term subscriber on YouTube or on the podcast, then thanks for being here. And if you're new to the podcast, then check us out every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts, and now here on YouTube, um, or on badassdigitalnomads.com where you can get, uh, deep dives on different travel and remote work topics with me or, or interviews throughout the year. And we're going into our fifth year of the podcast. So thank you so much everyone for your support. Thanks for all of the reviews, super chats today, everyone asking great questions in the chat. This has been so much fun. So we'll have to do some more live podcast recordings in the future. So see you guys next week for another YouTube video. We'll get this one up soon so you can catch the replay. And there's also, you know, hundreds more videos in my channel and 200 podcast episodes waiting for you on badassdigitalnomads.com.  

Kristin:    01:30:55    I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and if so, why not share the love? You can support the show by leaving us a five-star review wherever you listen. Or by sharing today's episode on social media or with your family, friends or coworkers, you can also make a contribution at badassdigitalnomads.com/support. There you'll find links to donate on PayPal, buy me a coffee, or by joining my Patreon, where for $5 per month, you get to preview my videos before they go live on YouTube and also participate in monthly private Zoom hangouts with myself and other patrons. That's at badassdigitalnomads.com/support. Thank you so much and see you next week.