Transplants by Laura Peruchi - Conversations With Women Thriving Abroad

Monica Morales was encouraged to dream bigger from an early age. Growing up in Colombia, she heard from her parents that there were better opportunities abroad — and they made sure she was prepared for them. She learned English and was inspired by family members who had already left the country to pursue a life internationally.When the time came, Monica decided that studying abroad would be her path. She did her research, improved her English, worked on her applications — and eventually landed in Manchester, in the UK, where she built her life on her own terms.But, of course, not everything was perfect along the way.In this episode, we talk about the emotional reality of migration — the loneliness that shows up in unexpected ways, and the distance from family that never really gets easier… it just changes.Monica also shares how she learned to face her fears instead of fighting them, and how living abroad pushed her to develop resilience, flexibility, and a completely new relationship with uncertainty.We also talk about identity, culture, and what it means to hold on to your roots while building a life somewhere new.Connect with Monica:Substack - EnglishSubstack - SpanishWhy the name “Transplants”?I've always loved the meaning this word can have. To be a transplant is to carry one life while learning to live another._______________________________________Connect with Transplants:Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.podSubstack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchiFollow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplantsQuestions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at laura@lauraperuchi.com.

A reflective take on returning to Brazil and the strange in‑between feeling of belonging to two places. Observations on how different environments reshape mindset, energy, and routines. Contrasts between familiar home rhythms and vacation expectations. Memories and old wounds resurfacing as neighborhoods and relationships change. Thoughts on the trade offs, grief, and small privileges of living between worlds.

Négar Chahkhalili’s life has been shaped by movement, resilience, and the art of adapting across cultures. She was born in Tehran and left Iran at just six years old, during the 1979 revolution. What followed was a life lived across continents and cultures. She grew up with her grandparents in the south of France and moved to the U.S. to study and build a career. Eventually, she met her husband, who is from Switzerland, a place they both decided to settle in together and where they now live with their two daughters.In this episode, we talk about her early and candid memories from Iran, followed by the context of why her family left the country, the special bond with her grandparents—and how it influenced her in so many aspects of her life—the move to the U.S., and eventually back to Europe. She shared more about her struggles with motherhood and how these experiences in different parts of the world are layered in her life.Connect with Négar:Substack http://echoeswithnegar.substack.com/Instagram @echoesofelsewhere.negar_________________________________________________________Why the name “Transplants”?I've always loved the meaning this word can have. To be a transplant is to carry one life while learning to live another._______________________________________Connect with Transplants:Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.podSubstack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchiFollow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplantsQuestions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at laura@lauraperuchi.com.

Gabriella Zarowsky’s first move abroad was over a decade ago, when she and her then-husband left Brazil to pursue graduate degrees in New York City. They both shared the dream of living abroad, and they were no longer feeling safe living in Rio de Janeiro.Studying abroad was the most feasible choice for them. While he pursued an MBA, Gabriella earned her master’s degree at FIT. They built a whole life in the Big Apple for nearly a decade, and Gabriella completely pivoted from her former career in Brazil. She started a career as a content creator, launched businesses, and ultimately faced one of the most difficult decisions of her life: ending her marriage while living abroad.In this episode, Gabriella opens up about navigating divorce in another country, rebuilding financial and emotional independence, and the courage it takes to leave a relationship when you know it’s no longer right. Plus, we talk about how she found love again — and how this new relationship eventually led her to start over once more, this time in Paris, France.Connect with GabriellaInstagram ⁠@gabriellazacche⁠Substack ⁠Gabriella Zarowsky⁠ TikTok: ⁠@gabriellazacche⁠ _________________________________________________________Why the name “Transplants”?I've always loved the meaning this word can have. To be a transplant is to carry one life while learning to live another._______________________________________Connect with Transplants:Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.podSubstack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchiFollow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants

Asia Dawn, writer and coach who left the U.S. after a divorce to travel and live across Latin America and Europe. She recounts using travel to heal and reinvent herself. She explains shifting from career comfort to freelance writing and coaching. She reflects on becoming a mother while moving countries and navigating co-parenting, community, and the search for a felt sense of home.

Lisa Baisl, a German-born former law student turned content creator and founder, left law for skincare content and launched a beauty/wellness brand after moving to New York. She talks about starting TikTok during time abroad, choosing creativity over a traditional path, the emotional cost of relocating, and building independence as a founder. Short, candid, and inspiring.

In the famous book The Artist’s Way, the author Julia Cameron suggests reframing failure by asking not “Why me?” but “What’s next?” And when I think about Trish Estuart’s story, it feels like a living answer to that question.Trish grew up in Cebu, in the Philippines, and started working at a young age. Yes, all her basic needs were covered, but she constantly felt deprived financially. While working different jobs — and even helping cover her ex-boyfriend’s credit card bills — she wanted more. So when the opportunity to move to Saudi Arabia and work as a flight attendant came up, she didn’t hesitate and left — at a time when the country was still considered closed and not the best place to live as a woman. But she left out of survival, not confidence.In Saudi Arabia, she thrived. For the first time, she had money — and she used that financial comfort to travel and explore the world. But something was missing… so she moved back to the Philippines. Then the pandemic hit, and she had to reinvent herself by teaching English online — a choice that eventually brought her to Spain, where she faced years of visa uncertainty, broken promises, and the need to start over.Connect with TrishInstagram - @trish.en.espana ___________________________________________________________Why the name “Transplants”?I've always loved the meaning this word can have. To be a transplant is to carry one life while learning to live another._______________________________________Connect with Transplants:Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.podSubstack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchiFollow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants

AnnSophie Salomez had what many would call a perfect life in Belgium: steady jobs, a renovated house, pets, stability. It was the Belgium dream, as she describes. But although life looked perfect on paper, a quiet question kept coming back while she was living her life between traffic jams and long workdays: there must be more to life than this.So, she and her husband got reconnected with old dreams and decided to plan a move to another country. The destination: New Zealand. A place so far away from home would be a guarantee to a fresh start, right? The hard truth is that 20,000 kilometers away didn’t magically fix everything.It took years for them to realize that escaping a place doesn’t automatically change who you are. Eventually, that realization led them back to a dream they had buried long ago — building an off-grid life in a tiny house, surrounded by nature.In this episode, she talks about what led them to move, how they chose New Zealand, choosing authenticity over conformity and why freedom is often an internal shift before it’s a physical one. Connect with Sophie:Substack https://thisissophietoday.substack.com/Why the name “Transplants”?I've always loved the meaning this word can have. To be a transplant is to carry one life while learning to live another._______________________________________Connect with Transplants:Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.podSubstack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchiFollow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants

Consuelo Cantisani, an Italian-born language teacher turned entrepreneur in Cape Town, runs a Brazilian coffee import business and speaks several languages. She recounts leaving a small village to build a life in London, then choosing reinvention in South Africa. The conversation covers migration, identity, entrepreneurship, bringing family into a business, and choosing risk over a “flat” life.

Cate De Leon, a Filipino writer and former managing editor who moved to Madrid, left the corporate ladder seeking horizontal growth and self-actualization. She talks about rejecting vertical career paths, how travel reshaped her sense of home, the trade-offs of starting over in Spain, building friendships and routines abroad, and coping with grief and immigration realities while carving a new life.