James Doran (00:06.126)

Hello and welcome to the expat pod. My name is James your host and today I'm joined by my friend from Liverpool for a long time ago I think 2013 14 we met very 14. So yeah, he was originally from Bulgaria. Do you want to give yourself an introduction mate? Yeah, as James said, yeah, I'm from Bulgaria. I did my bachelor's in Liverpool. That's how we met. I've lived in the UK for

about seven years before going back to my home country of Bulgaria. At the moment I live in Sofia.

James Doran (00:44.558)

Hello and welcome to section one of the podcast all about getting that. So Stoyan, we know you've lived in the UK, but why did you choose to live in the UK to study? What was the reason for it? Yeah. So originally, I did my high school degree in Bulgaria. So you need to decide where you want to go and live abroad, for example, and in which uni. So Bulgaria joined the European Union in about 2008. I think that was the right year.

But essentially after that, everything in the, we could go to all universities. So I chose the UK for, you know, I don't know, it's quite a big country, wealthy, good education. I found Liverpool. It looked kind of nice. I thought of the city, heard of the football teams and the music. And I thought like, I know, I'm going to try. So that's how I ended up there. And what research had you did?

had you done before you kind of moved? What did you look for? Well, very limited. So I mean, I was just going off going off stereotypes about England about its, you know, Empire days and yeah, I just, I just didn't know much about it in general. You know, Bulgaria before, I mean, traditionally, Bulgaria is quite a closed off country. So recently, we just started kind of integrating with the

the European Union and things like that. So I think there was a lot of cliches around it. I didn't expect what we're going to see. And just I knew I just saw the rankings. I just saw, you know, the degree, the qualification would get. And I thought, yeah, it looks good. So might as well give it a go. Perfect. And then when you when you when you were looking to move, as you said that Bulgaria,

the European Union, I guess it was quite easy for you then to come across because at that time the UK was still in the European Union so there was nothing you had to do in terms of visas or documentation before coming. It was just like a ticket income? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That was one of the very big benefits. To be honest, it was harder going to the UK, for example, than going to Germany. At the time I had like debates with friends, I went to different European countries.

James Doran (03:09.358)

But essentially, just because of the UK still had the fees, so the education was quite expensive. But with the student loans and things like that, you didn't have to pay a front. It's fine to just go in and at least initially not get that burden. But everything else is quite no business, nothing, you just go in freely. I know that's... I have changed now, but...

at the time it was... perfect and then so you've what other choices you had in the UK for schools over Liverpool so yeah I go accept it I can't remember anymore I think I go accept it into a couple of other unions but I think Liverpool was the best one I can't think of the other ones honestly I think one was in Manchester the other one not the University of Manchester the other the not so Manchester Metropolitan? yeah I can't

No, even that one. It's outside, starting with S or something. I don't know. Yeah, that one. So this one and a couple of others, I know I had like five choices. I got accepted into three or four of them. Liverpool was the best one in terms of ranking, in terms of the degree I wanted to do. I obviously wanted to do civil engineering. I was quite academically driven when I was going to that uni.

And I kind of wanted to, yeah, it was mostly about, you know, with me at least, it was mostly about getting the best that I could at that point. So yeah, so we didn't know much about, you just literally look at the marketing of the university, you look at the rankings, you look at this and you go, okay, what's the best I can do at this point? So that's how I ended up in Liverpool. Nice. And then before you moved, did you...

How did you sort out your accommodation? Was it all helped from university or did you have to choose that as well? I know when I was moving to university, there was like a ballot for which halls you got. Yeah, it was a combination between actually talking to a couple of people and asking them what what are your accommodations. But also it was like some standard university that recommended standard recommendations recommended from the university. So I think.

James Doran (05:26.254)

You remember that one, close to the engineering building, to the electrical engineering, literally right across the road. That's where we went. Cranport or something? Yeah, I think something like that. They're moving them away from Smith Down Road and away, they're all moving them into this centre of Liverpool from what I understood last time I went. Okay. Yeah, I found it quite, the accommodation was quite easy to sort out. I found it quite expensive coming from Bulgaria.

at that point. But I mean, but looking back, I think when I went to like different units, so like in elites, when I had friends from Dutch Union, obviously forming period, like it's such a Liverpool was very well sorted in student life. Just everything was well put to not care about anything other than your study. Yeah, that's great. And was there anything else you needed to think about before you moved?

Yeah, I don't know. I think it was such a rush. So that was the first time I flew to Liverpool. That was the first time my parents have flown to anywhere. They came with me for a week or so. And they were so confused. I was so confused. I don't think I'm prepared. Well, definitely not. I think nowadays people from Bulgaria coming to different countries, they're much more prepared than that.

and it's just more settled down to fly places and things like that. About that point, I felt really anxious. I heard everything. That's great. Well, perfect. I think we at least we know now how you got to England. So we'll join back in section two.

James Doran (07:19.246)

Hey everyone and welcome back to section two of the podcast all about being there. This is where I asked my guests, you know, what the first impressions were of where they've lived, what day to day life was like, and then any other kind of silly anecdotes or kind of visions you thought of or observations you've seen. So please share them. So story, you know, you left Bulgaria then your first time on the plane, you land in, I guess, John Lennon Airport or Manchester. What is your...

first impression of Liverpool or England? Well, obviously it was a very long time ago, but you know, I think my impression up until that point of England was the stereotypical posh people in Northern London. So I thought, okay, so that was my kind of...

Yeah, I even thought like there are people with monochromes like I was imagining a Korean era by England. It all happens down there. So I was very much out of the loop in everything going on in the country. So when I went there, I think first impression was that apart from like a couple like of the two set up for tourists, nothing else was how I imagined it. So obviously the black ops.

example I was like I think I know this okay so I was there. About life I was so it was so interesting because obviously Liverpool is also a very artistic city very musical so I didn't know about all of it. When I did my research for example I thought about Liverpool being this industrial world and I can't imagine it rough like you know industrial rock scene you know kind of very

a lot of ships, a lot of... I just, I didn't even know what I was thinking, but I just knew that that's what I thought about the industry. And then I go in and he obviously had the Beatles and the Beatle culture and the football, like everyone talked about football all the time, which I couldn't relate to. And they talk in this weird, like, accent that nobody fully understood and had the answers at places.

James Doran (09:39.47)

So, if you remember Martin, he did like, amazing, he was studying the accent, he replicated it, like that, and stuff like that. So, overall, I think with Liverpool, first impressions were that you didn't really learn the place from stereotypes, and that's not great, you know, you go in and there was this relaxed people there, this very...

youthful culture, artistic culture, calm people that are very interesting. Yeah, I think people seem to... the accent I fully understand, well, I don't understand it fully, but I understand where you're coming from, in that I'm from Liverpool, and I don't understand the accent fully. I might not have the full accent. I know I do often speak inaudibly at times, but not to the same extent. But...

Yeah, I see what you mean about the artistic culture and everything. It's a really beautiful city to walk around. The architecture is amazing. I think your original starts this week in Liverpool, which is pretty cool, which is the music bit as well. Yeah, absolutely. and I remember, I remember like the first, I think for you actually speak, yeah, obviously more, you don't have the full accent, but two months of the twist, okay, I kind of like, I got a couple of words and like,

Most of the things I say tend to be a joke, so you just laugh and that's the response, but no.

So I probably speak too fast, especially, and I certainly have actually learned living abroad is the skill and my dad always taught me and my parents as well, about slowing your speech down for everyone to hear you. But more so when it's people who don't speak English as a first language, until you maybe leave or get immersed in a culture which is full of English as a second language, then you don't fully understand how the impact of

James Doran (12:05.677)

not slowing down hinders you moving to Sweden. You know, I think my speech has become a lot calmer and slower and I'm enunciating more words. There's still times, yeah, still times I get really excited and speak really quickly. But most of the time I use American English sometimes as well because it gets the point across because people don't know English English. It's really upsetting. Okay. That's very disappointing for me because I just thought I was getting better with the language. Like, you're slowing down.

And I'm sure it's like a convergence of both. Yeah. Cause Andre said the same thing when I interviewed him. Like, yeah, when we first started listening to you speak, like it was really quick. And I'm like, yeah, it's parts of, I guess the, the accent of where I'm from to some extent, but also my, my laziness to slow down and want to say something really fast is probably a combination of both. I'm improving it, I think.

It helps for a podcast because if you speak too quickly and inaudibly it kind of ruins the environment for people listening. So hopefully overdoing this I get better as well at least presenting my voice. I'm your foreign feedbacker. I'm saying that I am able to do so that's fine. Perfect. And then I think the memory you had a very funny story of getting into a taxi when you first arrived in England. I mean I had lots of those.

I think you're referring to like when I just tried to go somewhere and I just couldn't understand again, I just couldn't get my master's degree. Is that the quote? Yeah, I know. I think you were trying to get to where you were meant to live and you ended up being dropped off somewhere completely different. right. I think I've forgotten that story, but it totally makes sense that this happened. I can go there to see it in the beginning. That's what happened. Liverpool was probably the...

a very stressful situation. I put myself out there by law. But there is a quite big debate when you go to see whether you should surround yourselves with people from your country, whether you should go in and find the biggest book in the world. And you know, lots of people do that. You remember, for example, Chinese, they always wind together and there was this group of people from this...

James Doran (14:27.405)

So I decided with you guys, I want to be like, weren't, I want to try to integrate in the society and I'm very happy I did that, even though it was storyline. But that's really, well, open up my questions on things. I think when you bring the Rokia with you from Bulgaria, we all just flock to you like, yeah, we'll hang out with Stoyan as well because he's brought this very like strong Bulgarian drink, which...

left a lot of people worse for work. Yeah, that's a I still regret doing that. I think everything is a little bit too strong. You've got to learn from somewhere, right? So that's great. And I guess it's a good point you make about finding who to hang out with. I think you have you do have the choice of like, since moving to Sweden, I wanted to speak

or hang out with more Swedish people. It is difficult to do that. I tend to find myself with more internationals. I still have some really good Swedish friends, but especially going out in the week, the international people living here are more likely to be free, maybe because they haven't got the depth of social network that people who've lived here all their lives do, which is kind of one way of thinking about it. I know that in Liverpool as well, I was somehow part of the Brazilian society.

because Felipe and Anderle just invited me along. So there was some photographs from like on Facebook from the Brazilian society and I was always in them. I'm an honorary Brazilian person, but it's how we grow as people. You have to immerse yourself with diverse cultures, countries and backgrounds. So that's great. And then going on to the next point, I guess, you went to Leeds after Liverpool. How did Leeds compare to Liverpool? Very similar in terms of both Northern cities, both industrial cities.

Obviously Leeds is not by the coast, so it's not as nice. Yeah, I think Leeds is very similar to be honest. I mean, I worked there to work. I did my first engineering job there. So it was a different experience kind of working. You're like somewhere else, it's not a student. But I got a platform that was more integrated. I spoke the language much better.

James Doran (16:47.501)

I could understand what was going on and I also thought the code was important. But for example, everywhere I went, the reason kind of, I don't know, what really kept me there in the UK, especially in the north, volleyball, that was the one where I felt like, okay, that's something I get a lot of the time. So that's how I integrated.

people and kind of felt like part of the... Lids was the same thing. I played for the main team in Lids after the Liverpool and the volleyball. So that's what kept my social life. Lids had bigger girls, so I just met the guys and the girls from the Lids volleyball game.

There was a guy in the volleyball team that was Bulgarian and he started hanging out with them and that's my best friends are from that school. I think I also found volleyball again since moving to Sweden because where I lived in the Midlands there was the nearest, there was only one team near me and it was really expensive to play. There's two in the city I'm in now and a huge indoor beach volleyball place. So I'm playing like volleyball four times a week.

And that's how I'm making friends. Again, some of them are some, there's some Swedes, but a lot of them are internationals as well. I mean, it's yeah, my, my, my level has gone up quite a bit since the start of the year, which has been good. I was gonna ask, did you, did you become good now? Did you? I still play middle. I can block really well and I can now hit quick through the middle, but I can't pass.

Okay, okay, good. Good. Good. Now I'm already sticking with it. Yeah. Right. No, it's a really good thing. And yeah, sport everywhere I've lived, I've always joined a sports team, whether it's volleyball, hockey, basketball, the three I've tend to play. I do like playing a lot of tennis, but it's a lot more like one on one or doubles. So it's not as popular. Paddle is huge in Sweden. Stop playing a lot of paddle.

James Doran (19:00.461)

But again, it's like smaller teams. So you don't have the same kind of group dynamic you get from like a team sport. What's Padal? Padal is like tennis, but it's indoors. And there's like glass walls, kind of like squash. But it's a net. It's very popular in Spain. I've seen it. Yes, yes, I remember. In the GIFs. Yeah, it's really good fun. But you should definitely try it. I think you'd really enjoy it. Maybe. Because I joined an international like racket sports group.

in Sweden and that's how I found out about Paddle and started playing it and actually I interviewed one of the people who runs it for this podcast as well, Eunice. So you know through that I'm making friends and finding really cool interesting people as well who've lived and traveled in many places. So going forward from Leeds you moved to London and I guess you moved through a mass. Now what was that like because London is its own kind of micro country in itself where in fact it's got more people than Sweden so

87 countries. Yeah. Yeah. Well, London is like, obviously London, the cost is really different. Everything else, it was so much to be an X button. It's in this, in London, because like, for Center, our international island, just the whole extremely costly. It's very, it's just, it was extremely again, first of all, like it's because I stopped my studies.

two years to work and then when I went back to London, being a student there is interesting there, but yeah, I don't know, it was so lovely, really, really fun. And that's why I started seeing myself as, you know, because they never really fully integrate. They kind of accept that, you know, they're there, that's the society there, and it's a little bit old though, it's just depending if you have to find ways to become part of it.

Whereas in London, it's like, you are from where you are, like, just everyone's from somewhere and you have these interactions. So it was completely different. I kind of, well, if you think it's better to kind of be in this city, in a big city in general. Yeah, I know. It's a very good point of you, you have, you haven't got to conform to, I guess, a personality in London because it's made up of so many different cities in itself.

James Doran (21:25.389)

And then you just said you'll find someone who has the same kind of interests as you somewhere in that city. There's like, there's something for everyone because it's so well populated, which is, I guess, quite comforting if you are international, but also you're not alone in being international. You're not okay. You'd probably ask the minority, but the percentage of international addresses locals is significantly higher, which will probably make you feel more comfortable.

Yeah, having said that, I still played volleyball, it was still the same thing. It was still the same and grooved. I had, but outside of it, it was a reality. Did you play with Joe's wife in Richmond? I did, I did. I played some beach there with him. I didn't play indoor, I don't think. I think he was scared at that point because I became better and he...

fun to know. He's playing a lot of volleyball now though, I think. okay, then I won't play him. I think he played for England in Gothenburg, so I went to go watch him. I mean, he lost, but he represented England. Yeah. my God. Yeah, I didn't know that. Called Nebs, which is a Northern European volleyball something. Wait, Joe plays for the national team of England? Well, no, he's like the fifth or sixth pairing.

Like the really good people were somewhere else. So he stepped up. I'm probably doing a massive disservice, but yeah. And so when listening about all this volleyball talk, but one of our friends played in an international tournament, which was pretty cool. Yeah. And then, going back to like living in England, what was your favorite parts of, of British culture or British life? I think I'm very, I don't know if I have a favorite part. I think everything is a very proud to have been there.

like for these seven years, we're proud of having lived for that and having learned. I went to learn, I went to kind of experience something else. And, you know, after, you know, Bulgaria is obviously not you catching up with kind of the rest of the European Union and the European countries. So, you know, I think there's stuff in our culture and stuff that we're trying to iron out. And I really love...

James Doran (23:46.989)

how good the British culture is in terms of work, in terms of habits, in terms of discipline, in terms of... A lot of stuff that I found very useful later on in life, I feel more prepared for life having been there. So that might not be the answer, it's not one thing. It definitely isn't tea, it's not... It's not Yorkshire pudding. No, it's not Yorkshire pudding. Definitely food was a minus, but overall...

I mean, it's haven't found good food fish and chips fish. I give you that fish. Yeah, I like them Yeah, I mean I just mean because England in general in most big cities anyway, you have you know, this is a stereotype of English people don't have food English style British food doesn't really exist It's all potatoes and and I mean I get why you'd say that we do have food very good food but what we do really well is we Have a lot of like international restaurants in our cities

again, because we've got quite a diversity with different people from all over the world. So you don't have to have like beans on toast for dinner every night or fish and chips. Yeah. No, no, I mean, like the lifestyle when the and just in general, I mean, everything like it's I'm trying to bring it back here. I feel like I'm trying to, you know, it's so the first Liverpool when I was when we were we know each other because we knew each other just for the first year, right? It's a

went off, you started your life in the industry. But I think after that I just started integrating, getting the habits of living in Britain. I don't think it's something that I will, it's always going to hurt me. Except for food. It's the one thing you can not take away with you. We do good beer though.

Yes, beer. I started drinking beer actually, yes. I like beer. And I like the British beer. I do. Yeah, we make up for it. Like a food with good alcohol. Yeah. Perfect. Well, I think that's... Yeah, unless you've got anything more to like talk about, about your life in England, we can go on to section three.

James Doran (26:07.565)

So hey, everyone. Welcome to section three of the podcast, which I still haven't actually named. But it's like a review of my guest's time, it's a friend's time in the UK. So I guess the first kind of question I would ask, if you can go back seven years, well, sorry, not seven years now, no, 10 years, would you, it's a long time, right? Would you have did anything differently? Would you have told yourself, hey, you should do this thing? No, I -

I would have been more relaxed and tried to do a better job in existing in social life. I don't think that was possible at that time, but definitely for some people it is. I don't know if you'd rather do that when I wouldn't change 7 years. I mean, it's a good point you mentioned about like...

wanting to be open, but I guess you went on a journey to come open by being abroad. So for going, you push the snowball down the hill, which slowly gained momentum for you to be able to open up. For lack of a better analogy of snowballs down hills. But you gave yourself the momentum by leaving, and then it just takes time for you to get to the stage of being comfortable enough to, or brave enough to immerse yourself in the society.

which is only a benefit or a success that you've had yourself. And then, I guess, kind of to hop this new bat, would you give any advice to other people leaving Bulgaria for studying? Yeah, I think definitely, firstly, I think I definitely like here and I'm happy to come back, but going somewhere means that you're changing yourself very intimately. You know, it's...

Well, things is very hard to get all of your heart and soul to change who you are, to change what you're feeling. At the end of the day, go out on the other side, like, so much more, much more. Also, be more against suppression for the world and stuff. I don't want to... No, but that's great. And yeah, as you mentioned, we grow based on our experiences. And if you can make...

James Doran (28:34.861)

expand the different types of experiences you are open to or you kind of have in your life, then you're only going to grow more. And that means leaving where you're from, be that to a different city or to a different country, then you're only going to, I guess, learn more or me, it's gaining some empathy of being an immigrant because I'd never lived abroad and everyone always speaks my language. So I've not had to learn another language. Whereas like now I'm

trying badly to learn Swedish. I'm very elementary with it. I know enough to food and drinks and do shopping. I still come to my job in Sweden, but you can do a job in English, but I can, I guess survive and get a taxi to the airport. I can say, young, no part of English scout, which means like speak English. I have speaks English. It's pretty, as you, as you know, cause I see three things. It's just like sidebar. when I came to Gothenburg,

for work. Doyum was actually here. Yeah, that's true. With one of the universities. So we went for a beer, which was like the first time I'd seen him in about seven years, which was also quite a funny anecdote we've shared. Yeah. What do you think of Sweden when you visited out of curiosity? yeah, I love Sweden. I think it was really nice. Really nice city. Well, this was there for like, I don't know, a couple of weeks. So overall, nothing like anything.

I just, I think it was like fun. I liked, I definitely liked the people. I think the people are very friendly there. Pacific culture, very like... So you came in the summer, right? Like in the UK in the summer? Yeah, no, yeah. So in the summer, everyone is super friendly and nice and open. In the winter, they stay at home and hibernate. The summer, the free days of like the sun in the UK, that's... Yeah. Well, you get a lot more here in Sweden, but yeah. No, that's...

I found that it's so that's the one thing that's because after I moved back to Bulgaria, I started traveling around Europe like just to win from like Montmartre. I go to a different country and what I like a lot of the time I just meet like this parallels between Bulgaria and England and everything was Bulgarian. We are just in we are just in this and like the huge benefit of like Europe at the moment is that you so from.

James Doran (31:00.109)

So wherever you go, like you see like a different perspective. That's, that's what I thought. For example, Austria, you know, was like, it gave you like the different perspective of that, you know, it's not just, you know, those perspectives. Yeah. No, it's a great point. And you're right. It's understanding what each culture or country do is to focus on more. What day, what we in any, anyone's life really, but what, what the.

the mass of our country seems to want to prioritize. Well, in Sweden it seems to be equality is extremely high in terms of the priority. And that means there's a higher tax or there is better welfare because you want to have a playing ground or playing field. Obviously there's still some inequality, there's still privilege, but there's less privilege, it feels like.

Mainly because education is free. As you said, you can get loans and bursaries, but you still have to live. And it's expensive to live in England, expensive to live in Sweden. But in England, you don't have the luxury that I think you get here so much with help for studying. And I guess it's similar in a lot of European countries. You get a lot more assistance from the government or from the government body to study, as you mentioned, about Germany being cheaper than England for tuition fees. It's, yeah.

That's a fact. How is your German if you're going to live in Germany? my German is non -existent. That's why I didn't want it. But you could go along with the English speaking degree. That's why I considered it like everyone. Yeah, yeah. But you'd have to speak German in Germany because the day -to -day life. yeah. Yeah. But that's why I was not... Is it a time fact? yeah. It was easy? Fine.

Yeah. Perfect. And then I guess, okay, so you've, would you have ever wanted to live going back to Germany? You wish you went to Germany for your studies or are you happy that you stayed in England? No, no, like, as I said, I think, I mean, when I went there, you made a good point, like when I would wonder that the language was a very big thing. So, so the fact that I would be speaking in English to everyone in all of Germany, for example, to go there.

James Doran (33:26.669)

I was like on point, I think that's really good because yeah, I think, yeah, I think I think that's true. I don't know, as I said before, like England now is, you know, I know some reason why I can make like, why I can make sense is because I'm closer now to culture. So go back and say, no, like, I'm going to Germany. Like, I don't know, like it's everything has like its own culture and

It sounds good, sounds bad, but at the moment, I guess I've just got closer to the moment. Let's change it. I mean, we have some of the best humour you can get on the European continent. That's true. It's like, multiply. I think that's one of the things I've done that I'm very happy with. When I was working and stuff like that, I watched a lot of British TV humour.

So like the shows that you have that like, I don't know, like these questionnaires and the thing, you know, we had like oil and like these English comedians, like I watch a lot of them. Oddly enough, what would I lie to you? What I lie to you is so good. Yeah, we have really good TV and really good like, I guess comedy satire where it's like for me, Have I Got News For You is like, it's a TV show where they just take, take

Shots that I've been using last week and so is what the week and it's like the news is so bad right now And also and also like the the old stuff like Monty Python for example is So definitely a humorous absolutely It's all our best exports. I think I'm British TV Monty Python and mr. Bean Perfect and then I guess

Would you ever live in England again? Now you grew back home and I guess you're happy and into fear. Yeah. You ever go back? Maybe to London. Like, I mean, I think London is a good city if you have money. So I mean, there's definitely some, you know, it has to be the right opportunity. It wouldn't go back to the north. I don't think. I mean, it's good to have it as an experience, but I wouldn't imagine myself living there. But definitely like London and...

James Doran (35:53.677)

and also mother. And yeah, I definitely go back and visit, but yeah, but I think it's a close. So I'm back here and maybe. I guess it's hard if your, your family and everything, you're all back in Bulgaria to them again. Like just on that, like, what was it like? I'm living this because you went when you were 18 away, right? First time. What was that like?

that whole experience of being homesick. Did you have any home comforts? No, no, that was a big thing. It wasn't. So it was very hard. Yeah, part of the reason why I'm back is essentially because I wanted to be closer to where I grew up and to kind of have some continuity in my life. Being able to kind of experience my, you know, I went to the last year.

and stuff in Bulgaria were obviously not great and it's not the most prosperous world. So it's kind of like, wow, getting some context on myself and my family and what's going on, it's the main reason I came back. So right now I feel like we need to stay here. And then in a couple of years, maybe I'm going to be okay. I know enough. Nah, it's good. I guess...

now you've got your kind of education it wouldn't matter where from being as clever as you are and as qualified as you are you'll be able to live wherever you want that's the reason why my parents pushed me to engineering is that you'll always be able to work somewhere so it's kind of it's a it's a privilege in itself is the education you you get yeah absolutely that's definitely certainly a big big point and how have you found working in bulgaria to working in england as a kind of my

ultimate question. I think I mean, I still work like I don't work with Bulgarians anyways, I work for an American company and like still work with European teams. So so it's not it's not too different. I don't think because anyways, it's I don't know, it's just the same or like if I work in Bulgaria, I mean, because the first job year that we have like, I did an engineering job where I worked three,

James Doran (38:14.541)

fine but still a mod or consultant and then there was for a university with Chalmers and that's why I went to Sweden and now it's just an American company and work on things. So I don't think at this point I think for work you're in like a global pool of talent anyways and you just have to see where you feel comfortable with your personal life to relocate, right? So that I don't find it

all that different. Awesome and my last question is what was your favorite British saying? My favorite British saying? Okay, I can't remember much of British things. Or Britishisms, something like some social commentary you might have of English. No, having other ropes, I don't know.

I can think of stuff but right now no. Like dilly dally? Dilly dally? Is that the thing? Yeah, you know I heard dilly dally. It means like faffing about, which is another one like taking your time and... Dilly dulling. Okay. Next time somebody asks me that question I'm gonna answer dilly dally. That's it. Great. So thank you, Stoiam, for, you know, indulging me in this podcast.

Sharing your your your experience of living in Britain or England I've really enjoyed kind of like reminiscing a bit of the times in Liverpool I didn't actually realize you hadn't been on a plane before moving to Liverpool which is because I guess it like shows about my My look I had as a kid just my parents prioritized a lot of foreign holidays growing up but yeah, I couldn't imagine the the

the fear or the excitement or the nerves you must have had, you know, moving initially. So yeah, thank you for sharing out with me. And, and as always, it's been really fun to catch up and, and focus on, on, you know, talking to someone as a friend, but only about one specific topic. I feel you learn so much more about the person. And as I've been doing this podcast, I've been asking my friends this one thing like, why are you here? Why did you move somewhere? And it's not something you would necessarily ask them normally. So

James Doran (40:29.773)

Thank you for being here and yeah, any closing statements from yourself? Thanks a lot for having me. It's great that you're actually asking this question. I think it's... Yeah, I think from doing that it builds stronger friendships because you have that kind of deeper connection than just making jokes and above or talking about water bowl. But yeah, thanks. And if you have...

enjoyed this podcast or you found something of interest or you want to ask any more questions please let us know in the comments or you know get in touch on social media and as always if you want to support you can subscribe on every platform you can even follow on Patreon now I've been proven which is all linked in the show notes and we'll see you next time.