Living & Thriving Abroad in Spain & The Netherlands with Niana Rice
SEASON 1 EPISODE 1 |Flourish in the Foreign - Black Women Living & Thriving Abroad
In this episode of Flourish in the Foreign, Niana shares how moving abroad in 2013 was a necessary step in her grieving process, her thoughts on the North American Language Assistant program, how living abroad in Spain & The Netherlands has helped her not take language learning so seriously and how she successfully reentered her professional field after a 5-year career break.
Did you know that there are over 600,00 afro-descendant people living in The Netherlands? [Source]
Meet Niana
Originally from Chicago, Niana came to Europe in late 2013, just twenty days shy of her 30th birthday, and never looked back. Up until then, she had followed the traditional path: college, career, and finally promotion. Craving to live a life not dictated by what she was supposed to do, but instead, on what she wanted to do, she quit her job to teach English in Spain as a language assistant.
7 years later, she's visited all 15 Comunidades on mainland Spain, lived in 3 of those, and learned to speak Spanish fluently. With no intention of calling anywhere, but Spain home, in 2016 she met her husband while traveling in the Netherlands during Christmas break. After living together 1 year in Spain, they decided to set up roots in his home country of the Netherlands. She's happily returned to her original career field and has traded vino and chorizo for bikes and stroopwafels.
Connect with Niana
In This Episode We Cover:
The long-lasting impact of traveling as a child
Moving to Madrid: Finding an apartment, The neighborhoods, The Black community
Being a Black woman in Spain
The North American Language Assistant Program: What the program entails, How to apply to for the program, Niana’s experience with the program in 3 different communidades.
The trials and tribulations of immersive language learning
Finding a job in The Netherlands
Resources Mentioned
Other Resources
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Episode Credits:
Christine Job-Creator & Host
Zachary Higgs-Theme Music
If you enjoyed this episode, listen to these next:
Christine: Creator of Flourish in the Foreign
Khephra: Misadventures En España
Amanda: From Third Culture Kid to “The Black Expat”
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