James Doran (00:06.19)

So hello, welcome to the Expat Pod. My name is James, your host, and today I'm joined by Trent. And Trent, you and I met via, I guess, a guest servicing for podcast hosting or podcast guest appearances, whichever way you want to call it, But if you give a quick introduction about yourself, where you've lived, where you're from, and what you do. Yeah. Well, I'm originally from North Louisiana, just a regular city, Shreveport, Louisiana. I all the regular comforts of life, but nothing really special.

Went to college, went to university like most people do. Graduated, moved to Dallas, lived there for a while. Was an IT consultant guy. Got burned out on that a little bit. Wanted to do some of the things I wanted to do with my life. So I moved to Spain, tried to learn Spanish, which was a disaster. Yeah, and then taught English, which was a really cool experience for me.

Basically ended up broke after about a year and went back into IT, started doing world wide projects and things like that. Ended up at the bottom end of the world in New Zealand. Wanted to try to get into Aussie, couldn't because of the visa thing and all the stuff I was ready to rock so I got a visitor visa into New Zealand. Had a few interviews, got into IT there again doing stuff. Traveled to different projects from there.

And then I started a kettle corn manufacturing business on the weekend. They didn't have kettle corn there. I met an American guy that had done it in his home state of Washington. We had an opportunity started on the weekends. It blew up. crazy did that for 14 years, actually got out of the IT thing and did the Popmore for full time for 14 years. then in the last three, four years, I've moved back to the state. So I'm back here again.

Nice. What a journey you've been on and I'm sure we'll unpack that as you go through the podcast.

James Doran (02:13.496)

So hello and welcome to section one of the podcast about getting there. So Trent, this is essentially everything you need to do before you got on a plane or left the country you living in. So it started from the US then. So obviously you finished college, you wanted to go and live in Spain. So why Spain? Why Spanish? What was the link? Was there something in your childhood which made you want to go there or in college or whatever? What made you want to move?

There was kind of two things that I was interested in, well, really several in college, but it was like, I got a chance to do the IT thing, right? So was like the IT thing or learn another language. 20 years ago, was like, what are you gonna do? You gonna kind of do the Spanish thing? Or is it gonna be some sort of an Asian language, probably Mandarin or something, right? And I'm like, there's no way. There's no way with that. So I had that...

desire to try to do that and I'd done the high -tea thing for several years and I got burned out man. It was hard work, it was tough, it was a pressure cooker kind of environment. I just needed a break. So I took a break. I took the summer off and I was working with my buddy in Dallas at his lawn business and he had decided, you know, we worked all summer together. It was good. It was fun. And he, you know, one day he just came in. said, look, I'm moving back to New Orleans.

and to be with my girlfriend. You know, we've been talking for months, we're gonna work it out, and it's like, what a surprise, I didn't even know I'd been talking for a year, you know? And he's like, we've decided we're gonna try to make this thing work, I'm leaving in a month and I'm doing my own thing down there. And I thought, well, I can't stay here and I'm not going back to IT, so what's my next thing on my agenda? And I had always wanted...

to try to do the Spanish thing, right? Learn Spanish, learn another language. I thought that would make me more versatile. The other thing was I always wanted to see if I wanted to be a teacher of some sort. know, not kids, maybe college. And I thought a nice way to do that would be to try to teach some English and see kind of in that setting without committing to another going back to school and several years of that. And then, you know, the whole thing about Europe, man, you know, we see all that stuff in our history books.

James Doran (04:35.928)

You know, all this, and I, you know, it's like, I wanna see that stuff for real. You know, I wanna see the Eiffel Tower, man. I wanna see Big Ben, you know, I wanna see the Coliseum, I wanna see Rome. So, you know, I looked at going to different places with the Spanish, you know, South America or Central America, and I thought, let's go where it all started, right? Where it originated, and then, you know, I found a school that I could get certified with the English, and then,

You know, have students in the school and then take some Spanish classes all kind of in the same area. put me in Madrid and I thought, you know, man, I can just take the train or the bus wherever I want to go on my holidays. So that's kind of how I decided to do the Spain thing. No, I seen, and when you were looking for, for companies, then what did you guys search for? What did you have advised? Did you know anyone who didn't fall?

God, you know what? I didn't know anybody, I didn't know anything. You know, I showed up, you know, and I couldn't even speak Spanish. Now that was bad. Really bad, you know? But we've all been told is that if you want to learn a language, man, you have to immerse yourself in it. You have to just go and drop yourself in it and eventually you'll learn. Well, that's easier said than done.

It really is. You know, it was very difficult for me to learn Spanish. I had to study a lot. I realized with some of the other people like, you know, like the German girls in my class, for example, you know, they had grown up, you know, speaking German, obviously. They had already, they had been learning English all through, you know, as they had grown up. And I think that people that do that when they're younger, it's easier for them to learn a language. And so, you know, like in class, they would speak

German to each other, they would speak English to me because they know I could speak English because I couldn't talk to anybody. And then when the teacher came in, we would do Spanish. You know, and that, so, I mean, I did okay. I did okay. got, know, after a year, maybe kind of intermediate -ish, but God, man, it was tough. I really had to study a lot. It was a tough thing to do. It probably the second most challenging thing I've ever attempted to do in my life. So that kind of gives you an idea.

James Doran (06:54.366)

of how hard it was. you know, I really, man, I just did my research. I was like, this is what I want. I want to be in a school where I can get certified, that's going to give me some students and that I can maybe work a deal with them where I can get some Spanish classes as well. And that is what happened. Right? That is what happened. I got certified, I got students, you know, and they would give me options of going out. I kind of got to do...

I kind of had a niche in the business English area. you know, because I'd had five years corporate experience. And so I got to teach, you know, some, some people that, you know, were in the corporate world and some things like that. So that was kind of neat. You know, and then the Spanish thing, man, they actually, you know, since I had done all that stuff, they just let me tag along in a class for free. So I didn't have to pay any tuition for my Spanish class. So, you know, that was a good deal for me.

You know, that worked out really good. Yeah. And it was in the heart of, heart of Madrid, you know, right in the middle of Spain, in the middle of, of the city. And so, you know, I could get me where I needed to, you know, on the subway and, know, I looked at all that kind of stuff and everything, you know, in my research, I, I looked hard a lot. looked for a couple of weeks every single day, you know, like a, like a job trying to figure out, the schools, comparing the places, comparing where I wanted to go. And, know,

Over time, know, if you study and you just keep doing it, you'll narrow things down and you'll narrow it down. But it's just hard work, right? It's hard work. you want, if you want what you're looking for, which what I, what I was looking for in that regard was hard to find, right? Some, you know, a school that did all these things. but you know, I found it and, and it was definitely in the end, the hard work was worth it. It was the right choice. And, know, I was happy with, with, you know, working with them for the year that I was there. you were doing all that research, all the...

the kind of work up front. How long did that take from going, I want to live in Spain to actually making it happen, getting the job? I would say it probably took me, it was pretty fast actually. Probably about, you know, probably about four or five weeks. Because my buddy, yeah, I mean it was quick, right? Because my buddy said, look, you know, I'm giving you notice. I'm out of here in a month. And I'm like,

James Doran (09:14.242)

Well obviously, and I'm not gonna stay around here, know, there was a house that was attached, you he had a house and I had a room with him in the house and I just thought, you know, this is my deadline. I just gotta make something happen. So, yeah, but all the stuff, right, you have to do all the things. I had to get my passport sorted out. I'd already had a passport, but I had to get it renewed.

You know, I had to sell all of my gear, know, all of my furniture, you know, all of my stuff. I had to wrap all that up and prepare for that. You know, I had a motorcycle, I had a car, you know, I all my, I mean, I had a lot of things, right? And, you know, had to coordinate getting rid of all that stuff and organize that I was going be gone for a while, you know, at least a year. So, you know, the things that I didn't get rid of, you know, I packed

packed up in my in my forerunner and loaded up and went to mom and dad's house and put it in the attic and drove to North Carolina and gave my brother my truck and you know got on the plane and that was it. So it was it was a lot of preparation but it went quickly you know I moved pretty quickly on it. So. when you had got certified to teach them was that in the US or was that in in Spain? That was in Spain.

Okay. So you had time, you said it wasn't part of the five weeks. Yeah. The five weeks is getting ready to get over there and go, know, and obviously I had to get my finances in order and, and, you know, wrap a lot of things up like that. And, you know, with, with my company, I had to, I had to deal with him. was like, that was when it was cool to kind of do this one year sabbatical thing. you know, and I kind of knew, well, if I'm going to go over there and do Spain, I'm probably not going to go back. So, you know, wind down on the job situation and.

And, you know, just, just kind of the typical things that you, that you do. you, when you moved, was that on a tourist visa then, or was that on a student visa? You would know you would get all a work visa. What did you need? Or have you got a European heritage, which you made it easier for you? You know, back, back then, man, you know, I, just had, we just had like a reciprocal agreement, like to just show up, you know, like as a tourist.

James Doran (11:33.926)

And, you know, that's what I did. mean, you know, that's when, you know, the EU, everybody was, you know, the EU had come in and people were able to travel freely between the countries and all that kind of stuff. there wasn't too much. And really, you know, with going over there, they weren't concerned about my visa status in Spain, You know, a lot bigger fit to fry than worrying about American teaching English, you know, quite frankly.

And then once you'd lived in Spain, you then got the chance to move to New Zealand? Yeah. So I did the Spain thing, you know, like, so I got certified in English and I did all that. And I'll just touch on the Spain thing a little bit, right? You know, Spain was awesome. And on my summer holidays and my Christmas holidays, you know, I traveled or on the weekend, you know, if there was something like, you know, running of the bulls, man.

me and one of my teacher buddies, we would get on the bus and we would go. Or, know, Los Falles, you know, the big thing where they do the, in Valencia. And, you know, we would go around to try to hit stuff. I didn't get to do Oktoberfest, which was one of the things I would have the awesome excuse to go back and do sometime. You know, but that was cool. you know, the thing, Europe is very easy to get around.

You know, they have those super cheap flights, right? You can get those super things like Ryanair or whatever. But also, you know, getting the Euro Rail Pass is a good idea. You know, it a couple hundred Euros and you get the thing, you know, maybe back then it was for a month or something. And I like to ride on the train, man. You get to see the countryside. You you get on a plane, you get there, you get up in the air, you land. You don't get to see all the changes in the topography and the people and the stuff and, you know, stop at the stations. I mean, I...

I would encourage people to go over land, you know? That's the way to do it. And the bus isn't too bad either. But you know, you're cooped up on a bus, right? Sometimes they don't have a bathroom. You on the train you can get up, you can walk around, can go to the viewing car, you can go to the food, you know, cart. I just, I love traveling on the train. It was really easy. It was cheap. We did, you know, stayed in hostels a lot, met a lot of cool people that way. Because you know, Americans like to in hotels.

James Doran (13:57.23)

You know, we stay in the hotel. You go in your hotel room, you close the door, that's you. You're with whoever you're with. You don't get to meet anybody. You know, in a hostel, a lot of those situations are, you you're in a bunk room with, you know, could be six people, could be 26 people, right? But it's all part of that experience and part of that thing, you know, of doing that. And, you know, I wanted to get my, part of my worldly education doing that.

meeting people, understanding different cultures, trying their food, having the issues with communication. You you learn stuff with all that kind of things. And sometimes, you know what? Maybe they do it better than you do. Maybe they have a better way of life than what you do and things like that. You know, one of the funny things, people are always like, well, you you moved to Spain and immersed yourself in the language, right? You'll learn it. Well, not really. Okay. Because you take the easy way, right? You know,

I hung out with the English teachers on the weekend because I didn't have any Spanish friends. Now here's the other thing they would say, if you're learning Spanish, you gotta get a Spanish girlfriend, right? Well here's the thing, if you can't speak Spanish to them, they won't talk to you. So it doesn't work, right? Yeah, here's kinda, here's one, this was my introduction to traveling internationally on my own, the first thing, and this was pretty bad, this was pretty tragic. Second day was there, go to orientation.

We do our thing and the director said, you know, he led the meeting and he said, look, we told you guys to bring travelers checks over here and you know, not cash, cash your travelers checks to come and pay your tuition, right? Cause it was several thousand dollars to do that. And you know, if you need anything from us, we're here for me. was the guy that was from California.

He had lived in Spain about 20 years, man he had a Spanish wife, he was fluent, very nice guys like, look, we're your family away from, if you need anything, we're here for you. So, we had the orientation and I had a day in between. So was gonna go cash my travelist checks, pay my tuition and I had gotten into a flat, I had met a guy that had like a English father and a Spanish mother.

James Doran (16:19.288)

So he was fluent and his job was, I found him in one of these expat, like online newsletter things, and his job was he placed people in flats, you know, and he kind of brokered the deal, right? Because I couldn't speak to him. So I ended up where I wanted to be, but not necessarily who I wanted to be with. I just wanted to get into a place and not be in a hostel when I started my course, you know?

I need to, you know, I need some stability, right? So I got in, this guy brokered this deal for me and I got into a flat with three Bulgarian dudes. They were like construction workers, right? And they'd come over, you know, and immediately people were like, my gosh, you know. It was a bit silly living with Bulgarian guys in Spain, but one of spoke Spanish, one of spoke English, and the other one couldn't, you know, he could speak Bulgarian. So we all could talk.

You know, and everything. But this guy told me, he said, look, you know, be careful the first couple days you're here until you know these guys, right? Take your belong with you. Things have happened where potentially you could show up. The locks are changed. They took all your stuff, took your computer, took your cash, took your credit cards, anything. This could happen in anywhere in Europe. You know, just be vigilant until you know them and trust them, until they're your friends.

Okay cool. So I went out, I took all my stuff with me, everything I had. Computer, laptop, everything right? In my backpack and I went around that morning to cash my trailer checks, go to the school, pay my stuff on the Friday, start class on Monday. I'm going around to the banks on the main street in Madrid, man walking in there with my broken Spanish trying to cash these trailers checks.

Won't do it man, I can't understand what they're saying. I can't understand why. It was just a disaster and I had walked around for hours and these long queues in the bank. You're waiting 30 minutes, an hour, you get up there, you talk to them. No go man, mean this took me four or five hours all morning to around. I'm like, I'm never gonna get this done. Finally this guy said, he spoke some English, he said,

James Doran (18:44.61)

you have to go to the American Express Office.

They're American Express checks. And I'm like, okay. All right. Okay. So I went there, right? And, and I thought, you know what? This place is so far away from, from my flat and you know, it's going to take forever to get down here again. You know, I'm worn out. I'm tired. I've been, I've been walk around. I'm cashing it all. Okay. It's like 5 ,000 euros. Cashed them all. Put my backpack on, headed to the school. Right. I was going straight to school.

pay my tuition and then pay my rent, you know, and have this thing done, right? Well on the way there, right, a couple blocks from the the American Express office, I'm walking, you know, beeline in it. Something wet comes over the back of my head, my hair, back of my shirt. And I'm thinking, somebody just threw their dishwater, dishwater, water out on me, you know, their mop water over their terrace.

You know in Spain, especially when they have these little terrorist things, you know, and people just put their plants on them, but a lot of people just throw their crap over the side, right? And if you're in the street, man, and gets on you, you're a problem. So I thought that's what had happened. And you know, I kind of stopped and then I started like, what is this, you know? So this giant, this big man came up to me, he wearing a suit, looked super tidy, you know, big guy like, you know, like a big rugby player or football player.

And he had a napkin and he kind of wiped me and he's like, pooh pooh. And I'm like, what? Is this poop? And I'm like, my God, it's like diarrhea poop. It's horrible. And I think, my God, I can't go to the school like this. That'd be embarrassing. So I had his shirt in my bag. Put my bag down, take my shirt off.

James Doran (20:43.63)

And while I'm cleaning myself off, this guy, I didn't realize he was so big, he changed my bag on me. So had a black bag, similar to mine with a backpack. I mean, looked like, at the sight of your eye, you would have never realized. You would have had to look at it. It was basically identical, So he changed my bag. I didn't realize that because I had taken my shirt off. So in the middle of me taking my shirt, he just

real quick and he talked to me for a minute you know he's really nice and he walked off then a lady comes up to me that was dressed like a police lady right has a note has a little pad writing things down starts talking to me in Spanish asking me all these questions you know like I don't know I can't tell I'm like I'm sure I look weird standing here in the street you know my half shirt off you know what am I doing right and then kind of it talking to her I looked down

And we were kind of had been in this doorway, you know, I kind of stepped in the doorway off the sidewalk and it was right in that corner. And I looked down and I was like, they got me. They got me. And a lot of times in Europe, right, they don't want a confrontation. They don't want violence. They don't want to fight. They just want your stuff, right? And they don't even want your passport really. They just want, you know, your jewelry, your watch, your phone, you know, something small of value.

And I had seen it and I had known and I had read up about all these scams and all this crap and everything, you know, because I knew something could happen. And I knew that a lot of times, right, they'll just take your bag, they'll take their stuff, they'll throw it on the side and they'll just run down the road and then whatever. You don't care because all they got was your cash or whatever, right? At least you got your passport or your credit cards and all that stuff. Gone. Everything, okay?

This is my passport, my credit cards, all the money, my computer, my house key, my driver's license, everything, dude. I mean, and I sold all my stuff, right? I sold all my stuff, I'd it into these trailer checks. I I'd sold my motorcycle, all my furniture, all my crap. That was everything I had. You know, I mean, I was in like meltdown mode, I went straight to school, straight into the director's office, you know, and I told him what happened.

James Doran (23:09.922)

I was very unstable, very unstable at the time. And I was just like, man, I mean, that was everything I owned. We were on the third floor and I said, dude, if you don't help me, I'm gonna jump out that window. You know, like I was just off my rock for a minute, right? And so, you know, we called my parents, we canceled everything, you know, he took me to the police station, we canceled everything we could, he called my...

flatmates. He told them what happened, took me to my house, gave me some money, you know, until my parents could wire me some. And you know what in the end, man, this guy gave me my tuition for free. You know, when he said, you know what, there's somebody that has done this to us once before, but he was lying. He was trying to trick us. And he said, I know, because I said, look, I'm going home. You know, I was on the phone. My parents crying, you know, I'm going home. I'm coming home.

I'm done, I don't have anything. I'm broke, what am I gonna do? My parents were like, just stay through the weekend. You got enough money to get through the weekend, we'll fix it up, we'll help you out. And I'm like, no, I'm coming home. They're like, no, you're not. You're not coming home. Stay the weekend, talk to us on Monday. So then, and then it was like, I stay, and I was just, man, I was so, so disappointed with myself. And then I talked to my folks a week later.

And they're like, just stay, we're sending you a laptop. You you got enough money, you know, and so over that year, man, you know, I didn't have much cream. I didn't have much cream to play with, man. You know, it pretty tight for that year, but you know, I made it, man. I made it for a year on, you know, 15 euros an hour, you know, working part time. You can't work 40 hours a week being a tutor, man. You don't have enough time, you know, going from there and everything, and the money was tight and...

You know, I had to live like that for a year, but you know what? I wouldn't trade the experience. I wouldn't trade anything that happened. I met some awesome people. I went everywhere I wanted to go in Europe. didn't, you I had to do it on the cheap, but I found a way, man. I figured it out, you know? This story will mean something when we get down the road, you know, when we get into some of the stuff later in New Zealand.

James Doran (25:33.58)

So, you know, I stuck it out and it was worth it and I'm so glad that I did, man. I never would have gotten the opportunities, the friendships, the people and all the stuff because one bad thing happened. I was going to hang it all up, right? Go, you go somewhere like that. It's cool. But dude, be very careful about your stuff. You know, like if you have a bag, you better have it wrapped around your leg all the time. You better have something in it. Only take what you need for the day. You put your wallet in your front pocket. You probably know all right, but a lot of people don't.

that are, you know, they're like an American like me that hadn't traveled much, right? And in the States, no one worries about stuff like that. Yeah, it's, you, you hearing, going to holidays, especially from, the UK, we're probably quite used to it. We don't have as much, pickpocketing, maybe as Spain, but it's still something we have to be vigilant for because so easy to just take something or swap something and you are, you put your foot back for your foot or

Because this is Last Ramblers, Ian Barcelona is quite famous for big buckling and then my friends had a phone stolen there and a passport stolen there. I've not had anything stolen in touch with but it's something which people have gone through unfortunately. is one of those things that happen, know, and the people that are doing it, you know, they've justified it to themselves because they size you up and they see, you know what, this guy's better off than me and I'm taking whatever I can get, you know, and they're not going to miss, right? Not going to hurt.

Well, it's desperation as well, right? It's like in most countries, you know, friends from Brazil and they say, you walk around with your phone, there's a chance it gets stolen. And a lot of places where there is inequality, which is probably why it's going worse in the UK, because we've got a lot of inequality at the moment. Thefts are happening more. There's lot of scams going on. There's lot of things going on which aren't necessarily in your face or in person, but a lot of people trying to be opportunistic where they can because desperation, it's hard to

and a living which is you comfortable anymore and or not as easy as it used to be anyway so if you're desperate you will bend the rules or you will justify it because you know a family defeat you have things to do so it can be greed completely but a lot of it's probably just desperation. Staying on Spain then should we talk about like our culture outside of that awful event which happened to you but once you kind of settle down then what was it like to

James Doran (28:01.9)

to live in Spain and to experience it, how long did it you to start to be able to talk some Spanish? It was so awesome. You know, I did, you know, I did, did spend a good bit of time alone, you know, and not being able to speak to people, which was kind of cool at times because when I go home and I'd be on my own, I do my own thing, right? I couldn't talk to my talk to my roommates. I mean, after some time, right, I was like, you know, I love these guys. They're awesome dudes, but I'm moving in with some Spanish dudes, right? And that's

did to facilitate and help my Spanish but you know I mean the people are awesome you know it's a different way of life they're very laid -back you know it's it's you know it's just Europe man you know the Spanish people are awesome they're happy they love life you know most of them you know it's not like you know the typical American you know they they live life if they've got enough you know money to do what they want they're happy they don't need

The the the material things they don't need all the extra in they love to go out man It's about relationships and you know enjoying each other and you know sitting you know sitting around man And you know you have your little know pair of Tivos and you nibble on things and you have a beer and you know they don't you know they like to party they love to party, but you know like and Some of them you know they go out and get hammer, but in general man. You know they like to have a drink

But they don't go out and just get smashed up, sloshed and act a fool, right? Some people do. That happens everywhere, right? There's exceptions to everything. You know, generally, you know, they're gonna have a couple glasses of wine or a couple of beers and they wanna hang out and they wanna talk. It's part of the, you know, of the going out. It's not the reason you're going out, Or doing things. I mean, I loved it, man. You know,

I felt welcome in most places, you know, and once I did get a little bit of Spanish and I showed some effort, that, you know, they were helpful to do that, you know, no mercy, like, with the speed, you know, like if they, you know, it's like, can you repeat that for me? You asked to repeat it? They just say it in the same speed they did, and it's like, I can't, you know, it's so fast, I can't get it right. But I got okay with like reading and writing and doing that kind of thing, and, you know, so could do that pretty well.

James Doran (30:20.63)

It's just, and that could even speak what I wanted, right? Cause I knew my vocabulary. was, you know, listening to someone was really the hard thing. You know, and if they knew, if they, you know, if they kind of knew some people would kind of, they'll meet you, you know, where they can, you know, and then a lot of the older people, I mean, you know, they don't, they don't even realize they just keep, it's just the same thing. You know, you ask them to repeat it and what they do, right? They just say it louder.

I mean we're the same in English speaking countries to be fair as well. But God man, know, I mean I embraced it man. I learned how to make tortillas, you know, and I would sit around with my Spanish roommates on the weekend. We'd have a Sunday dinner. We'd all cook and we'd sit around. We would talk and you know people could communicate and get the feel of somebody without speaking the language, right? That's what I learned. You you get a feel for somebody and you know...

I can hang out with my roommates and we can have limited conversations, but we all, you know, we knew, right? You know, they were good guys. They were quality dudes. You know, I knew I could trust them. And even, you know, my Bulgarian roommates, man, I mean, they were tough, tough guys, man. You know what mean? Like some of them bounced, you know, were bouncers at the club, right? And that was cool. Cause when we would go out, we could get in for free cause they were all the doormen. You know, I mean, they were nice guys, man, you know?

They treated me like their brother. You know, they would go with me like after that happened, you know, it like if I needed to go down to the bank to the ATM, one of them would go with me. He would walk with me, you know, and make sure nothing would happen. mean, you know, and you know, they just, you know, it's just, it's all about the value of the person, man, you know, and, shared our food, we cooked for each other, you know, we, we, we, we did things, you know, it was just like he would do for your friend, you know.

A friend is a friend, know, that's all there is to it. You don't necessarily have to be able to speak the language all the time to communicate and build a friendship. is in communication language is about 20 % of communications, body language is tone. It's all the other stuff you do that started could be messing me out with to don't quote me on that. But I know it's a small, smaller portion of how you communicate is, is from that to what do you use or language you use in that sense kind of going forward then. you, you kind of

James Doran (32:41.71)

It's been a year in Spain, you left, you then went to go live in New Zealand. So what was the reason for living in New Zealand? What was the purpose for that? know, my long -term plan was to kind of to come back and work with my dad. My dad was in the oil business. You know, I wanted to eventually kind of maybe take over his position. That was kind of the idea. And he said, look, you know, I need somebody. You you've done your year in Europe, you you golf and had your fun, right? You know, and, you know, now you want to

Go somewhere else, I'm not gonna wait forever. So, you wanna go down under? Go do your thing for a year and come back. Okay, alright, I gotcha. You know, and you know what, I mean after that year, you know, not having much money and living tight and everything, you know, I was kinda broke. And I needed to get back to making some money. And I knew I wasn't gonna do IT in Spain. you know, the next best thing wasn't I, you know, again man, I went back to my research man, I poured myself into the internet looking.

You know, where can I go that the dollar's good, that they respect IT stuff, and New Zealand is a bit of a test bed for new innovation and new things and stuff like that because the country's so small, right? So they'll release new products and new things, you know, nationwide and test them out. If they were, they'd blow them out to the rest of the world. If they don't, well, then they shut it down and here's the thing in New Zealand, you don't have another choice. So you're just gonna live with what you got, right?

I mean, it's in the middle of nowhere. There's not a lot of choices of things. And so, you know, I knew that reading it and I knew I could get a job. And plus I was on the skills shortage list. So I, you know, I went in and automatically, you know, I had my resident thing, my resident visa deal going and, and the, you know, the clock was ticking for that. So I'm glad I went to New Zealand over Australia. You know, in hindsight, it was a better place to go. The country's awesome. The people are wonderful.

You know, it was, it was, it was great, man. I lived there, you know, 17 years. then your, your first impressions of New Zealand then when you, how long was the flight or did you, and how many flights to take? You know, that was the longest flight I'd ever taken in the beginning. And now, man, you know, an international overnight flight, I'm, I'm all up, I'm all up for that. Right. I get fed, I get to sleep, you know, you get a couple of meals, you know, doing domestic here in the States, man, you got to buy your own, you know, snack now. So.

James Doran (35:08.526)

It was a long flight and you know I was on the cheap so you know I had to connect in in Fiji and and so that was so I flew from you know the middle of the country to LA then LA to Fiji and then Fiji to New Zealand that took me about 24 hours in total and You know flying time it was about what for? Probably about 16 hours, you know broken up the big flight

You know, the flight between LA and Fiji I think is like, I don't know, maybe seven or eight or something maybe? I can't remember. And then the flight in between there is like three hours, some three or four. So, but you know, I never did that again because, it killed me. You know, I got off in the middle of the night, you know, it's like two or three in the morning. They lock you in this terminal. Can't leave, can't get on the flight to New Zealand for four or five hours. There's nothing there but a snack machine, man. You know, I mean, it is just a

dead bare bones terminal of nothing. You that was back then. That was back then. You know, I'm sure they've changed, but I was like, you know what? I'm paying an extra couple hundred bucks next time to go direct. It just wasn't worth that layover, man. That killed me, know? So, you know, you live and learn, right? You figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. When you're younger, you have less money, but more time. So you can make that choice, right? And then you get to New Zealand. Whereabouts in New Zealand were you based? Was it North, South Island? I was in Auckland, big city, you know?

that has the most business. And so, you I landed there and ended up working there in the city. And that's where I started the kettle porn business thing. And, you know, it was the most opportunity, you know. You know, I got like three big cities in New Zealand and, you know, the most things happen, the most opportunity, the most whatever is definitely in Auckland. So, you know, that's where I stayed for the entire time. But man, I traveled all over the country.

you know, from top to bottom, went everywhere on my holidays, on my weekends, everything did that. So, you know, I'm a citizen, you know, I got my passport, you know, I'm half Kiwi, if you will. I don't really sound like it, but, you know, I believe very firmly in New Zealand made and we, you know, bought all our ingredients and our stuff from New Zealand and I hired, you know, you know, people that were legally in New Zealand and did that, you know, and, you know, I just...

James Doran (37:33.836)

I believe firmly in supporting your local economy and your local people and paying the taxes to do that. So let's keep it here, right? But after some time, we saturated the country. That's part of the problem. It's so small that the marketing costs weren't bad to get the stuff nationwide and to cover the country for people to know what our product was. But you ran out of real estate, man. Five million people is not that many. So then the international.

opportunities like Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East that we service as well. When you first arrived in New Zealand, how long until you then started this business? What were you doing for that first period? were a new IT consultant. First four or five years I was working in IT, mainly the telecom deal down there. But I was a contractor, so I was just a hired guy and I wasn't employed. I would get opportunities.

to go on these other projects. I worked in Australia on a project for three or four months. I got a deal in Indonesia that nobody wanted to do. I went to Jakarta and worked there for five weeks on a project and did an install with these guys and helped them get a system up and running there and had some opportunities like that from New Zealand. But I always kept circling back, circling back. The first four or five years.

And you know, again man, know, was like, new place, different deal, but it's still the same thing. Sitting behind this desk doing a lot of the same stuff and I started getting tired of it. And I met this guy, this American guy, he'd come down, this manager with a couple of boxers. I happened to be in the boxing gym training. These American dudes showed up. They were training for some fights. They'd been there several weeks and their manager...

I really liked the guys, man. They were cool dudes. I did some training with them. I trained with the manager and he said, look, you know, in our home state of Washington, I do kettle corn, popcorn at farmer markets and you know, outdoor events and stuff in my home state of Washington. Do they have kettle corn here? And we started looking around, went to you know, supermarkets and looked and I know from living in the States.

James Doran (39:51.79)

that this kettle porn thing, know, it's at all the craft fairs and the farmer markets, man, and that kettle porn, dude, people just go nuts for it. And I was like, yeah, okay. So we started a weekend business deal. going out to the local markets and it just blew up, Over 14, 15 years, we grew. We started on the weekends and then the cinemas got interested and we had to go from.

mom and pop weekend deal, making popcorn at the local fair, hawking down and dirty and rusty and sweaty and all that to getting a real bag and buying production equipment. And we got to be the number two popcorn in the country doing that. And they had a couple factories and 14, 15 staff members. eventually the weekend and the market stuff

bought the equipment for the manufacturing plant and wait, was, know, that was relative to the weekend cash money was big. So we stopped that after a few years and that was kind of my thing, you know, I was doing that, small business, that's what I'd always want to do, do my own thing, have my own opportunity, you know, back, you know, 20 years ago, the definition that everybody called success was, you know, you had to do your own thing, you couldn't work for somebody, right? That's the only way you're ever gonna...

get rich and make a lot of money and whatever. So, you know, I bought that whole thing. And in 2019, I started limping around my factory. Went to two or three doctors and it wasn't getting better, just kept getting worse. This is the spring of 2019 and I had to go into the hospital to get some blood work done for something totally unrelated to me limping around and...

and the hematologist, know, I was, you know, I was on a pretty frank, you know, kind of relationship with her. She's very direct with me. You know, I liked her a lot. Super cool. I actually had her mobile number, you know, to like, for setting up appointments and things like that. We just kind of got on, you know, it happens sometimes that she said, look, Trang, you're getting an x -ray today. And I said, I don't need an x -ray. You know, I just got a torn butt muscle. You know, I've been to three doctors about this. She's like, it's something more than that.

James Doran (42:11.958)

I said okay, so I got an x -ray. A week later, I got that call man. You know, of those calls that changes the direction of your life knocks you over. And I'm gonna go lunch, take the call and she said, look, you have aggressive hip bone cancer. You have about a quarter inch, like you know, about four mil, of bone holding your leg on.

Every step you take you're in danger of breaking your leg off. We're surprised you haven't broken your leg yet. If you break your leg, it's coming off. We'll have to amputate it. We can't save it. You need to get to the hospital right now to the emergency room. We're admitting you and you gotta come in right now. Wow. Okay. So that's my old camp. That's where the cancer journey thing started.

So, you know, it's public healthcare, you know, and no one really has private insurance. It's just kind of how it goes, you know? And I was the same as everybody else. So here we go into this public healthcare machine. So they decided, okay, what we're gonna do is cut the cancer out and put an implant in. Okay, sounds all right to me. It would take them a couple months to create the implant. then they would be ready to do the surgery, but the cancer had progressed.

And so the implant wouldn't fit. So we had to start over, right? Third time, that's six months down the road, you know, in and out of the hospital, trying to run my business, know, frustrated with this whole, you know, takes forever, you know, to get a scan or whatever. And I'm trying to run my business. I'm, you know, it was a mess. It was a fiasco, you know, and my legs getting worse and worse, man. You know, I was in a wheelchair by then, you know, dragging my leg around. You can't imagine.

So third time I said, look, know, it's too far gone. We're cutting your leg off. Well, I lost it, you know, and by then my parents had been on the phone. You know, I my dad on the phone. said, look, you're not cutting this guy's leg off. You know, he's a fighter. He's not a quitter. You don't know my son. You better get, you have to give him a chance. said, well, look, I can't guarantee you think it's going to be shorter than the other because we're removing all this bone. And he's, you know, we suggest cutting it off. You'll have a better quality of life.

James Doran (44:38.014)

I'm not going to guarantee the functionality, the feeling or anything. But we'll leave the leg. Okay? That's it. We'll leave it. So they left it. They got the cancer, but it got infected. Several more surgeries, remained infected, four or five months in the hospital, got out, mom and dad went home. You know, I'm still trying to run my business and we're staying it. We're staying, you know, okay. We're staying afloat. Got out, mom and dad went home.

Next scan you have pancreatic and lung cancer. What? my God, are you kidding me? Okay, all right. So pancreatic is less than a 5 % chance to make it. So obviously that's the more serious thing. Between the diagnosis and the surgery COVID hit and they locked us down, right? Like animals in the zoo, man. Very lonely, no visitors in the hospital, nothing. Had that surgery? Okay, successful, all good?

When we had the debrief, they're like, well, congratulations, you don't have cancer, Trent. I'm like, why would we the surgery? What happened? They said, well, it was a misdiagnosis. It was actually a blood clot. So we removed half your pancreas and spleen accidentally. okay, great. Okay, all right. So then that happened. Next thing is lung cancer, right? So I get the lung cut out. They want to do another leg surgery to remove the wire. So they do that and...

I went to a couple of private doctors and they're like, look, Trent, there's nothing we can do. It's too far gone. We can't do surgery. It's too risky or anything. I'm like, what are my options? It's like you don't have any. I'm like, my God, we've waited too long and now I'm going to die. So then I talked to my parents and they'd given me a year to live. so I decided to come home and live with my folks. And in talking with them, I figured out I could actually get some insurance in the States. They changed some of the laws since I had been gone.

because pre -existing conditions man would exclude me. But I could find insurance and I did that and I got that done. you know, long story short, I got back, we zapped the tumor that had grown to the size of a tenis, a freaking softball by then. Zapped it, got over that, did some immunotherapy, got the infection cleared up, went to Mayo Clinic, all over the world, all over the country trying to find a doctor that would do this implant because I was told.

James Doran (47:03.394)

You'll never walk again. There's nothing left to bolt anything to. Nothing we can do. And I went to Mayo Clinic. That's one of the best clinics in the world. about six months ago, I got the largest, most complex hip implant ever done in the world. I'm a few months from walking, man. I'm on one crutch. so, you know, that's a little bit part of my story as well. I figured, you know, that's what got me back to the States.

I still would be in New Zealand if not, right? No, well thank you for sharing. It must be very difficult to still be in that situation you're in now, guess still on the journey to recovery. Going back to your thoughts then in terms of when you were in New Zealand, how did you find a healthcare system compared to what you were expecting based on growing up in the US? You know what? mean, it's very different. It's very, very different. You know, most people are in private healthcare here in the States. You know, and the thing I just, I say is...

You know, anything that the government is involved in, it's nice because, you know, it's kind of free, but it takes forever. And, you know, the service takes a long time to get done and it's usually kind of average quality, right? And so that would pretty much be the same with the healthcare in New Zealand. I feel like more in the public, it's more of a business. It's a business all the way around, right? Cause people are making money.

But I feel like, you know, in the public thing, the government controls the rules. They had just decided, right? I know looking back, they had decided, we're not going to waste any more money on this guy with his pancreas thing. You know, we're done. You know, I mean, you know, it's just, it's all about percentages, right? Less than a 5 % chance. We're not going to waste the money and do this. And I get it. You know, I don't blame any of the doctors or anything. You know, the system is just, you know, it's...

It's not good for that, you know? And part of the thing is, you know, they did this massive surgery, you know, with this pancreas and removing these organs that obviously, you know, God would put in your body if he thinks you needed them, you know, and I'm functioning without them, but I've got some things that I have to deal with because I don't have, you know, part of what I did have, and there's no consequences. They didn't care, you know? was just like, well, you know, you can fill out a complaint.

James Doran (49:28.95)

Report if you'd like to you know and I'm like I'm looking at the rubbish bin and I'm like I'm gonna fill this out You're just gonna throw it in the rubbish bin. You don't care You know in the states it may not be the best thing but the consequences for priming health care are you know you make a mistake You do something wrong. You're negligent. They sue you right? So you know the consequence is you know you mess up. They're gonna try to take your money

And you don't have that consequence in that particular setting. People, it's all about what is your self -discipline, what are your self -values. You do it because you're respectful people, not necessarily because this is the consequence. And I don't think the public thing, the way that's set up is the best either, but at least it's some checks and balances because in the public thing...

You know, I mean, this guy still practiced in surgery. I mean, he was the same guy that cut my, cut my pancreas out. That was the same guy that I had to see when I got pancreas cancer again and I wanted someone else. It's like, no, this is the best guy in the country. He's the best surgeon. This is who you got. This is who you're going to stick with. You know, and I'm just like, I don't really want to work with this guy anymore. You know, I mean, after all that's happened, you know, there's checks and balance. There, there, there's good and bad. There's pros and cons for both systems.

You know, we're human beings, man, and nothing's perfect. Nothing's gonna be perfect. You know, overall, man, my experience in New Zealand, know, outstanding. Love the country, love the place, love the people. I wouldn't have had an opportunity to start my business, you know, do that, be successful from that standpoint. you know, I mean, I built a life down there, man. You my friends were there, my business was there. You know, when it got down to the nitty gritty, I was...

very strongly thinking about, just not going back. know, mean, whatever happens, happens. You know, I'm probably not going to make it through this with nothing, with no treatment. you know, I've lived here almost 20 years. I'm, you know, I got my friends, I got my, you know, I'm here. You know, I have to go back to the state, start all over, you know. was quite a abrupt end to your time in New Zealand. But when you were there, what were your kind of vehicles for making friends and things? What were your

James Doran (51:48.302)

Did you go to sports clubs? you other hobbies? What were you going to do? Obviously you had a business and a job, so your time was quite limited. did you find other ways to make friends? Yeah, know, you know, it's kind of, know, know, fitness has always been important to me. So, you know, going to the gym and doing that thing. So I made some friends that way. you know, just going out, going out, going around. I lived 600 meters from the beach.

and one of my really good friends that I got to know owned a restaurant that was a five minute drive on the waterfront, know, in Mission Bay in New Zealand. Beautiful views, you know, and it's got the sidewalk thing with the Mexican, you know, restaurant with the Cantina on the side. And so, man, you know, it's like, it's like in the UK, you know, you show up to the pub and you know somebody, you know, that kind of thing. So, you know, you just, I just rock up on my own and.

knew somebody and my buddy owned the place, got to be friends with a guy that owned it. was about my age and all the local yokels that hung around, we were anywhere from 25 to 75. We hung around there and this just kind of our place that we met, that we would meet and hang out. I got into playing bowls.

So, know, was a member at the Balls. Yeah, man. So I used to go hang out and do the Balls, you know, you know, usually a bunch of retired people do that, but you know, I mean, they're nice, they're fun, they're cool to hang out with, you know, and they'd have open night on like Thursday night, which is a good night to go have a couple beers toward the end of the week, you know, and go do some Balls and drink some free beer and cheap beer and hang out with some nice people and your friends would go and you'd hang out, maybe do a barbecue and they'd have a...

You know, I have a hot dog and you know, I mean, if you're a somewhat social person, man, and you know, you're decent, you got some values, you make friends anywhere, you know? If you're a stick in the mud and you're hateful, you know, you know, no one likes you, you know, where you live, then no one's going to like you wherever else you're going to live. That's a very good point. Yeah. People run away from the problems, but the problems just ruin with them because the problems are often internal, not...

James Doran (54:09.482)

environment based so you need to kind of work on yourself as well. Often the change of scenery helps that but over time you might fall back into the same routines of behavior and like you said you know if you're not necessarily a person people don't want to be friends with then there won't be friends with you so the best way to make new friends I learned last time was to be a friend and then if you are a friend then people will want to be your friend because they go you know

He helped me move my house last month or you know, he's you know always bringing new friends to the bar or whatever and that's my business out and you know if he needs to move somewhere or you know, he's someone to help with with something then let's go help him and that's kind of how it works. Yeah, you know I it did honestly, you know for the first several years it took me a while to really get some some good friends and I think I think part of that was because

Yeah, you man, they didn't have, there weren't any Americans down there 20 years ago, man. I mean, it took me probably about 10, 11, 12 years before I met more than four five Americans. We just weren't there, right? And it was hard, know, Kiwis, the Kiwis, man, they're from there, they are there, they're clicky, man. They have their own friends. They don't have a reason to make any other friends. So I got to be friends with a lot of the expats. You know, they're in the same boat.

in the same boat as you and that's what's so cool about New Zealand and especially Auckland, man. They've got probably a hundred different cultures there, People from all over the world and that's part of reason I love it. It's so mixed. There's a little bit of everything. kiwis are nice. Kiwis are nice people. They're genuinely nice and they're open -minded and so that creates a culture that the other cultures that come in to live there usually are.

you know, nice and open -minded and friendly. Yeah, so, you know, I did. I was mainly friends with expats and then there were some cool Kiwis, you know, like the guy that owned the Cantina thing that, you know, got the international thing. I mean, he spoke Spanish, you know, kind of strangely enough and loved to go to Mexico and that's kind of the reason he did the, know, Mexican food restaurant and Cantina thing.

James Doran (56:35.834)

So he kinda had that international mindset as well. when you bring people together like that, they usually hang out, Like a lot of Americans, they don't go anywhere. When they go on vacation, they go to the beach. That's it. They get a couple of weeks off a year, that's what they do. They don't have that open -minded international kind of mindset, right? So they just hang around with the same people that do the same thing.

You know, and I just wanted something different out of life. You know, I just, you I wanted an education that you can get in a book, that you get from experiences and meeting people and trying the food and, you know, some things you like, some things you don't and doing that. Life is about experiences and relationships, know, and stuff like that for me. The education that I got, you never learn sitting there, you know, from a teacher in college from a book. You got to do that too, but...

You know, that's what I wanted. I wanted to be a well -rounded, you know, open -minded, studied person. You know, it's like, you know, I have a friend, you know, I have friends that are from India. Yeah, I understand, you know, the different cultures and, you know, they have this caste system and the things and, you know, the different countries that I've been to and things like that, you know. I think that says, you know, a lot for a Yeah, I think.

You really raise a good point. That's fundamentally why I'm doing this podcast as well, is because it's chance to gain empathy for people of different countries and gained experiences of different environments and different worlds. Where it's not your own, you don't get a bit of viewpoint. You get a more balanced viewpoint of, you know, international affairs or, you know, quite interesting debates come in and by having exposure to other people's viewpoints to do people's decision making.

You might then maybe not always agree with people, but you can understand why they would have that opinion and it would then not be confrontational, but it would be a sense of I get what you're saying. However, from my perspective on my position, I still see it this way. But, you know, let's let's have a beer about and then laugh about it or talk about it and then debate it and just talk about it and know both sides being respected. I feel that in the world today and

James Doran (58:59.63)

You may see it in your country. I definitely see it my country that when there's a debate going on It's not you don't have those conversations like you you wanted to you want something this way. I would turn that way Okay, let's understand why we both have that opinion I mean we can both learn something might not change our stances But at least we understand the whole you know 360 view of the problem was right now It's you know, I'm on position X your position Y

We can't be friends because you, you know, don't like X and like Y. It's a bit silly because fundamentally everyone, there's going to be about a hundred or a hundred and twenty different, you know, instances where that's going to be a similar situation. And if you're, if you're so binary on it, nothing's going to happen because, know, every four years or wherever people are let people in, they're going to flip flop because people are just changing their mind. So

We need to be a lot more balanced and travel and being an expat. one thing I said with the past was, you know, we should be a conscription for living abroad or traveling abroad as much as possible. Just so people can understand, you know, how other systems work politically or, because the UK has, you know, democracy, which is a multi -party system, but, know, realistically it's two party system, but there is other parties that exist, where you can go somewhere else, which is a little bit different. You're into China. So communism is like,

You you understand how it works in different countries and what the opinions are and how the people actually respond to it. needs to be a thing you get. Can I develop you on your time in New Zealand a bit more then? Culturally, how different was it to the US? And when you look back at the US from experiencing New Zealand for so many years, did it change your opinion of the US? yeah, man, it is so different.

It really is. know, I mean, we all speak English, right? But man, you know, they speak quickly, they speak in lot of cliches, they have an accent. I think it's one of the harder English languages to understand. For example, my folks came for a holiday. They couldn't understand anything. You know, they're like, you know, I had to interpret for them. And,

James Doran (01:01:20.222)

You know, and man, the Kiwis are just, they're very different, You know, their job and their career is a part of their life. And I mean, just a part. And for many of them, not an important part. Okay? For Americans, generally, right? Our life is all around our job and our career. You know? And that's just, it's a different perspective, you know? Especially with a lot of my staff.

You know, it was a difficult place to have staff because ain't care man, if they had enough money for the week, they're coming to work the rest of week. know? And it's socialized, it's very socialized and there's a lot of handouts, know, people, if they have the opportunity, I don't blame them, but they use it to their advantage and abuse the systems. You know, it's different from that perspective.

But you know, and I feel like in general, the work ethic is a different thing. You know, because I mean, you know, with my career, my company and everything, I had probably about 40 to 50 % over staff employed because, you know, half of them only came to work a day, right? So, you know, got 20 people on staff and 10 of them show up, you know? It's just kind of the culture. It's kind of the thing, you know?

But you know, the people are awesome. They're welcoming. They're nice. They're open -minded. They're about, let's, they're about enjoying, right? They're about having fun and you know, it's definitely the most beautiful place I've ever been in the world. They have a different perspective. Man, they're very open -minded. You no nuclear power there. It's very much of a green country. You know, they're...

very much more into recycling and caring for their environment than generally people are in the states, right? And more health conscious, more about eating naturally and a lot of those kind things that Americans necessarily are. And I'm talking in general, right? Because there's exceptions.

James Doran (01:03:46.41)

all those things to all of the, you know, to, you know, all those points. but you know, definitely way more liberal, you know, from a political standpoint, you know, like the, the, the, the, the liberal party in America, in America, that's kind of leading kind of towards the conservative party. I was going to say that this is actually incumbent, like the, the conservatives.

party in the UK is probably the American Liberal. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. that's kind of how it is, right? And the same thing in New Zealand. So they start even a step over, right? And then like the really liberal party, well, man, they're just really out there. I'm not here to say one's better than the other. I'm just, this is the landscape. And they have a couple of stronger parties, but they have about eight or nine.

Right? And usually, the bigger ones have to make a deal with a couple of smaller ones to get a majority. So no one ever really gets everything they want. It's not like in the States or the UK where you just have two just battering rams against each other. You have two that are kind of big and then you got these smaller ones and this one's kind of having to make a few deals with these.

two or three parties to kind of get the majority and these are kind of doing that. And you never really get totally and fully what you want, right? So there's just a lot of compromise on that respect from the political side. But definitely, man, mean, way, way more liberal than the US. Yeah.

I guess the universe is so big that it's difficult to really give everyone's opinions. It's probably why it's much easier to be left -wing on a small scale and same with the other side because you've got less people to have to convince. Kind of capping off your journey then. If you could go back to when you first left home and kind of give yourself some advice apart from maybe, you know, don't leave all this, take all this stuff with you.

James Doran (01:06:04.44)

when you were out in Spain for first time, what advice might you give yourself just to make your journey or your time in either New Zealand or Spain more enriching or do you feel you got out of it as much as you could? Would you like to learn something? You know what, I wish I probably would have just worked on my residency and citizenship stuff a little earlier, a little quicker.

You know, I kinda, you know, I was back and forth, you know, the first several years, like, well, I'm gonna go back to the States, there's really no point to do that, and spend the money, and you know, it's all out of paperwork, and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I wish I woulda done that a little more quickly. And man, you know what, I really wish that I woulda got into some real estate there. I wish that instead of rentin', you know, and by the time that I was kinda up for doing something.

It wasn't possible. you know, the prices, man. mean, Auckland is like one of the fourth or fifth most expensive cities to live in in the world, man. mean, like, you know, the house prices in New Zealand, they go up 10 % a year, It's unbelievable. It's not even fathomable, you know, how expensive something is, you know, and, you know, the quality, the quality thing, you know, is average for what you pay for.

But you know, is what it is. You're living where you're living. You're living on an island, in an awesome place, and you don't have all the comforts of everything. So I wish I would have done that. I wish I would have gotten into some real estate earlier, instead of flushing that money down the tube and just renting the whole time. But the rent thing was good because when I needed to leave, I could leave pretty quickly, pretty easily. I wasn't tied down.

And that was part of the thing too, where it's like, well, I'm here for a year, all right, I'm deciding I'm gonna stay another year. And then it's like, I'm gonna stay another year. And then you're there like five or six years. And what advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps in terms of traveling to Spain or New Zealand or from the US? Get your documentation and stuff in line early. Know the rules, know what's up, know what you got.

James Doran (01:08:26.614)

it, you know, that, that kind of stuff. I, I would, you know, now everything's so connected, you know, with like Facebook groups and forums and everything. I would, I would get on, I would get on some groups or, or, you know, something to, to ask some of the locals, man. You know, ask them what it's like, ask them what it's about, you know, see if you could, you know, they probably even got websites and stuff out there now where, know, maybe you can connect with somebody and

you know, they can give you, you know, a ground level view of what it's really like, right? Because you read, you know, you read about something from the tourist, you know, bureau and well, they're telling you all the beautiful stuff, right? You know, all the great things to get you to come in and to, you know, to show up and, you know, all that. You know, every place you live in, there's some positive and negatives, right? And it's like, I just want the whole picture. You know, I want you you know, make sure that you kind of have the whole picture, you know,

You know, some of the stuff in New Zealand, man, I it's like, I didn't realize this after a while. And it's different now than it used to be. But like for the summer, like, you know, let's say for the summer, they have a couple stores that you can get a pedestal fan. They don't do ceiling fans, really, in New Zealand. They don't do central air and heat very often. You know, it's kind of a luxury to have that. So people have, you know, pedestal fans or box fans. So, you know.

I go out and I'm moving to a place and it's hot. Right? And I'm like, man, I'm going to get a fan. There ain't none anywhere in the entire country to buy anywhere ever. None. It's all done. Right? They got their shipments in for the season. And if you didn't get one when the season started, you don't get one. Right? And that was kind of before international stuff where you could ship with Amazon and things like that. So it's like, dude.

I'm gonna have to buy one, you know, off eBay that someone's selling if I'm gonna get a fan because you can't buy one in any of the hardware stores or like, you know, they, you know, like they have a place called the warehouse. It's kind of similar to a Walmart. There's none there. Everybody's sold out all over the damn country, you know? Or that happened to me with like, you know, got chilly, got cold. It was winter, you know? And I waited around. was like, you know what? I'm going to get a little space here, right? You just plug in, you you just...

James Doran (01:10:51.576)

keep your door closed, heat your room. We ain't got none. They're all out. We ain't getting any until next year. So there's some interesting things about places, you know, and like, you know, sometimes, man, you just run out of stuff in New Zealand and we don't get it till next season, you know, and like being in New and you're like, that's unacceptable. You know, like you don't run out of something. You never run out. You know, it's always there. If it's not on the shelf, you know, the store is like,

really apologetic. They're going to give you something free if that's what you're trying to buy. You know, like there it's just like, hey man, you know what? We don't have any until next season. You know, and it's like, that's that. And if you get upset about it, they're like, what's your problem? We don't care. Quit being rude. You know? And it's a different thing with some of that kind of stuff, you know, and your expectations of service and things, know, after COVID a lot's changed. A lot of people's

Patients have changed, you know, it's a lot more like that. You know, watched, you know, New Zealand kind of be like that with some of those things with supply chain issues and, know, hey man, you know, I can't get to today, it'll happen tomorrow. And, you know, it used to be like that in the States and then I got back here and then, you know, it's like, wow, you know, after COVID, it's kind of like that everywhere, you know? So, you know, it just is what it is, man. It is what it is. But yeah, I wouldn't trade anything.

any experiences I've had, anything that I've done. But, you know, yeah, talk to somebody that's gonna give you the full spectrum, you know, of something. Get on a forum, get on a Facebook page, you know, something like that. And do, you know, do your research, You know, you do that hard work up front, it makes it a lot better. You know, but like, take trips sometimes, right, where you're just like, hey, you know what?

I'm just rocking out with my backpack and I've got two weeks and that's the way I'm gonna roll on this one. Right? If that's the way your trip is, well that's cool. If that's the your intentions are and your trip is, then I've done those before. But you know, if you've got intention, you know, you got intention, you know, I had intention to have a job and be prepared. I wanted to work, I needed the money, you know, so it's like, had recruiters lined up, I had stuff, you know, I had, you know, interviews that when I got there, they were gonna be confirmed and you know, stuff like that. you know, I did a lot of pre -work, so when I hit the ground, man,

James Doran (01:13:13.954)

You know, I was ready. I didn't want to beat around the know, trying to fiddle around figuring it out. Plus I didn't want to waste the money, you know, flying and showing up down there and you know, maybe this is going to work, maybe it isn't. I was like, this needs to work. So I just wanted to have that reassurance from all the research and everything that I had done. you know, I even, I had a recruiter actually. When I, when I did my job thing, I had a recruiter and I talked to the guy several times. He's the one that kind of gave me the lay of the land of Auckland and the IT and

and all those kind of things and everything. You know, and I got to be pretty good friends with the guy. He actually picked me up from the airport. Picked me from the airport, took me to a hostel. He said, look, when I moved here, this is where I stayed for a month before I got going. you know what? It's crazy. I'm still friends with the guy today. wow. That's cool. Great. Is there anything else you want to share about your life abroad?

Just go man, go and do, go and see. Every place that I go to, it's a new experience. It's something new. You build your well -roundedness a little bit more every time you go to a new country or you experience something new or you try some different food or anything. I just think that's an education you can't get in the boot. Definitely.

Thank you for your time and your knowledge and your many stories and sorry dear it ended so abruptly for you in New Zealand but good to hear your home and well and on the mend and very very close to getting back to mobility which is probably a huge thing for you I'm sure. So hopefully by the time this goes out, by the this podcast goes out you'll be there. I hope so yeah it'd be awesome you know and hey man you know.

I'm gonna be back at it, Picking my next place to go and do and see and you know, find so. there anything you want us to promote or we'll be able to find you or talk to you or get more about your story? You know, man, I wrote a chapter in a book a while back. I never really, I don't really promote this, but you know, this is just a little chapter. It's called, I have in this book, I was a co -author, it's called Breaking the Silence. You know, if you're interested in, you know, reading a little bit more about my story or anything like that and

James Doran (01:15:34.328)

You know, I've sold the kettle corn business and so with everything that happened to me and usually I go on and I talk about my cancer journey with people when I do podcasts. This was fun, you know, this was cool. I got to talk about, you know, all the places I've traveled and what I've done and everything. So I do a bit of speaking and coaching and things like that now that I've wound down the kettle corn things. Yeah, man, you know.

You might want to look me up, you know, my, my, I do Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and I got the victory pose cause they, man, I'm winning. I'm still here. So I'll be sure to put your, your socials in the, the, in the, sonets find you. And, yeah, the reason why we tend to talk about, you have more than just what happened to you later on in your journey. The whole journey is more important. What is important as well in a different sense. That's still part of your story.

Yes, some things happen which you're talking about and educating people on and inspiring people who may be in some situation that you were once in to kind get out of it. So that's amazing that you're doing that, but you are much more than that as well, which hopefully we've touched upon and really inspired people to go and live abroad like you achieved. appreciate it, James. Thanks for letting me come on and reach some people that I am before. And yeah, mean, that's what it's all about,

Just take the step, go do it man. You won't regret it. You won't. Brilliant, Completely, you will not regret it. And if you do, then you can go home. Yeah, right. Well, then what's the price for you? And now you're not going back. Definitely. Well, thank you Trent, and thank you for listening. if you have enjoyed the podcast, please do go let us know. Please do like, subscribe, share with your friends, all the fun stuff which happens on social media. Please go do it all.

And as always, we'll see you next time for the Expat Pod.