In this Best Played Moment, Mickelle sits down with comedian Derek Mitchell, creator of Double Dutch, whose work hilariously captures the tender truths of living between cultures. Fresh off his appearance in the Amsterdam episode of Ted Lasso, Derek reflects on how comedy, optimism, and identity shifts weave into the expat and immigrant experience.
In this Episode
- The Hope of Ted Lasso – Derek shares how the show’s optimism resonates with anyone building a new life abroad.
- Comedy Roots in Amsterdam – From bartending at Boom Chicago to watching future icons rise, Derek recalls the theater’s impact on global comedy.
- Dutch Values of Fairness – He unpacks how honesty and fairness intertwine in Dutch culture, reshaping his own worldview.
- Code Switching & Belonging – Derek explains adapting language and identity across contexts—and the deeper insights that come with it.
- Expat vs. Immigrant Identity – While he jokes about “expat life,” Derek ultimately identifies as an immigrant, embracing a more grounded truth.
This conversation reminds us that life abroad is less about paperwork or picture-perfect moments, and more about learning, adapting, and discovering who we are becoming. Don’t miss our special guide to all the Amsterdam filming locations from Ted Lasso, including Derek’s scene—find it in our Guide section at houseofperegrine.com.
✨ Discover Derek’s work at Double Dutch and follow along for sharp, funny reflections on cross-cultural life.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey there. Before we get started, I just
wanted to come on and ask you all a favor.
In our research, we've discovered that the vast
majority of you do not actually like and subscribe to our
podcast. And so if I could ask you to do
so, I won't ask you for anythingelse.
And I promise to make this podcast the best I can.
Every day, me and the team really strive to do that for
(00:21):
you. And so if you could do this for
us, we would be eternally grateful.
Thank you so much. Hi, I'm Mikkel Weber, founder
and auteur of House of Peregrine.
Expat, immigrant, pioneer. None of these were a fit.
The Peregrine describes what we are all about perfectly, Those
(00:41):
that craft their life story withintention.
I've spent the last six years inawe of the life changing
connections and stories I've experienced while living abroad
and believe it is time for this adventure to be recognized,
celebrated, and elevated to the life stage that it is.
Through these interviews, I hopeto connect those living
(01:02):
internationally more deeply to both the place they are living
and with themselves and those around them.
We cover everything from international finances and
meaning making to global parenting and relationships.
To make your time abroad more intentional, edifying and full
of beauty. Find us at houseofperegrine.com
(01:22):
where you can find more ways to connect with the ethos of
Peregrine. I hope you enjoy today's guest.
Let's get started. Today I'm sharing a conversation
with comedian Derek Mitchell of Double Dutch.
His work brilliantly captures the hilarity and the heartache
of life between cultures. In this clip, Derek and I dig
into the layers of life abroad, code switching, cultural values,
(01:44):
and the identity shifts that areinevitable when you move to a
new country. What I love most about Derek is
he makes us laugh. It also gives us language for
the subtle and sometimes tender truths about living abroad.
This episode also aired right after Derek appeared on the
Amsterdam episode of Ted Lasso, and we made a guide for you with
all of the locations from that episode, including the one Derek
(02:05):
was in. You can check it out at
houseofperegrine.com in our guides section, or it'll be in
the transcript of this episode. I hope you enjoy.
What did you think about the overall premise and the
character? Did you?
I identify with Ted a lot. Feeling stupid, feeling like
you're out of place. Tell tell me your reaction to to
(02:26):
the show now that you've watchedit.
I love it. I think it's so brilliant.
And I, I, I think it's totally understandable why like the
world loves it. I mean, people just like the
messages I've gotten from peopleand especially my family, my
like, Midwestern family, I thinkit has like, at its core, this,
this belief in goodness and the good in people and a belief in
(02:51):
the way that people can surpriseyou very positively.
And I think it's like hopeful, as you know, in that coming at a
time when a lot in the world doesn't feel very hopeful, I
think anybody can get behind a story about a person who, yeah,
relies on optimism and relies onhidden gifts and faith.
(03:15):
I think those are powerful lessons.
And those are really, really keyskills that people like us who
move to a new country depend on because the prospect of success
and and finding community again is in some ways, like kind of
unlikely, I think depending on who you are in your
(03:38):
circumstances. And you have to be hopeful.
You have to be optimistic. And Ted Lasso is also an
Amsterdam story. Actually, I don't know if people
know this, that Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt started their
first real job was at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam.
And I've worked there, actually as a bartender.
(04:00):
I wasn't in the cast, but those are some of the best years of my
life. And Pap and Saski and Andrew,
who still own it and run it and founded it, have facilitated
some of the biggest contributions to comedy in
America and in the world. I mean, Seth Meyers is an alum
from there. Jordan Peele is an alum from
there. I mean, it's crazy how much
(04:22):
talent has come out of that Little Theatre in Amsterdam.
Yeah, I, I actually didn't realize that, but it doesn't
surprise me at all because I think this place has a unique
way of letting you be yourself, letting you try things as long
as yourself isn't too much. No, but, but I, I do think that
(04:47):
I think everyone who lives here or has lives here knows it has a
special place. OK, so I, because I, when I
watched, when I watched Ted Lasso again, that episode after
I saw you and I thought it reminded me of your story a
little bit. And, and yeah, like how you felt
about coming here and what you've done since.
I think it's really beautiful. My favorite part is they they
(05:08):
use the the divisive tea to showhow like Southern states,
Midwestern people are just like never going to be open to some
things. And every culture has that
right. But it's a really good device to
show like there's just some things that cannot be acquired,
(05:29):
like tastes that will not be acquired.
So yeah, I want to know. Yeah.
Tell me when I watch your videos.
I really wonder, well first of all, I wonder like how your
Dutchie friends are watching them.
Do they think they're funny likeyour partner's Dutch?
(05:50):
Like is he like you have it wrong or is he normally like no
fair? I think he thinks it's right.
A lot of a lot of the ideas I get come from like conversations
we've had or disagreements we'vehad.
Your fights are playing out on screen.
Yeah, I think, I think a lot of the Dutch people that you know
(06:16):
have said anything to me about those videos, speak positively
about them, feel like they're balanced and fair, which are two
of the the most important valuesin Dutch social economy, so.
Yeah. Is that what you've, is that
(06:36):
what you've learned is that's like a big, big value?
And how, how does that play out do you think?
Yeah, I think, I mean in Dutch the word honest is the same as
fair. Like there's not, there are not
2 words for those ideas. It's the same word.
(06:57):
And I remember over over past relationship I had where I was
really like forcing my ex to speak Dutch with me, which
probably put strain on our relationship actually because my
Dutch was really bad. He when he would be like, that's
not honest. I would be like, why are you
saying that like it is I'm not lying.
And he meant it's not fair and Ididn't know the difference.
(07:20):
Yeah, because that could be potentially, like, triggering
for even Americans, right? Like you're not being honest.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I think I have, I
think I have like adopted those values not in AI think it just
it seeps in. I think when you spend time
(07:40):
anywhere, you, you adapt, humansadapt.
And so I do value those things probably more highly than I
would have. I think I, I now honestly
sometimes like American enthusiasm and American
performative, like, you know, shtick kind of does like drive
(08:05):
me a little bit crazy sometimes.Like, yeah.
Like that whole thing, I'm like,settle down, settle down.
Yeah, cuz you've been here a while.
So I feel like that at a certainpoint, and it may even be from
the moment you arrive, you startreconsidering a lot of what you
(08:26):
hold dear. And it sounds like you've
definitely gone through that process because it's either you
kind of stay in your own bubble and like, experience a city from
arm's distance or wherever you are at arm's length, or you
start holding everything up to the light, right?
Like, what do I think about this?
What do I think about this? And it sounds like you've really
(08:49):
done that process and let it change you quite a bit, which I
think is actually really beautiful and terrifying
experience, especially when the people that you grew up with or
the people you love start seeingthese changes in you.
It it makes me feel really uncomfortable.
Have you had that experience or how how is your family with you
(09:10):
living? I mean, now it's that you just
live here now, right? So they don't wish for you to
come back. Yeah.
What was, what was that process like?
Like from year 1 midway and now you're how many years here 2012?
20, yeah, official. It was official.
Then a year later that it's actually the beginning of 2014,
(09:30):
So almost 10 years official. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, my family's amazing. My family's so supportive.
My mom. My mom is a wonderful,
extraordinary person and she's always been very supportive
about those choices. And I think she also knew
actually that that I had something in me from a really
young age that meant I was probably going to go do things
(09:54):
and be in faraway places and stuff.
But yeah, I mean, I sometimes I especially in the UK, actually
it will London, I find it sometimes I well, actually
pretty much across the board, I have found that like English
people, southern white English people do more to remind you
(10:19):
that you're foreign than their Dutch counterparts.
I think that multiculturalism and people coming and going and
being from all over is actually coded in like the Low Countries
as like a, a value too. You know, it's, it's because
(10:40):
it's the history of the place. It's like, it's history is like
mercantilism and people coming from all over and lots of
different languages colliding and stuff.
And Great Britain's an island. And yeah, I've sometimes found
myself like kind of code switching and using English term
and terms and even not pronunciations because that's
(11:02):
always kind of if you, if I juststart doing an accent, then
you're like Madonna, but you know, just using like the
English version of a of a colloquialism or something as
opposed to the American. Because then I know the English
person I'm talking to won't likepoint out that that sounds so
American and how hilarious that is.
But sometimes when I do that, sometimes when I accidentally
use English saying with my mom, I can see in her eyes like, Oh
(11:26):
my God, who are you? What's happening to you?
And so that's another way that you kind of feel always like a
pinball, you know, in a machine,just like colliding between
different bumpers. Yeah, hey, you did a pretty good
job of defining it, but define code switching if you could for
our listeners. Yeah.
(11:47):
So socio linguistically, code switching is when you adapt your
manner of speaking. So like the diction, the word,
the vocabulary you're using, thegrammar you're using, kind of
you, you start or stop using elements from other languages,
(12:07):
your accent, the the way that you're, you know, pronouncing
things. And I mean, it's actually more
relevant actually to people fromlike immigrant communities,
people of color living in placeswhere language use is policed
and can can affect your ability to like have a job or be
successful in school. And it's, you know, it's
(12:30):
weaponized in a really racist way, you know, in a lot of
places in the world. And so me as a white person
saying that I'm code switching is probably like the most soft
core version of having to code switch that exists out there.
But it is a real thing. And I think this is yet another
way when you open yourself up tolearning about these things, it
does give you insight into, you know, a bit of what other people
(12:54):
experience and go through too. And being a foreigner is a very,
very powerful lesson in kind of realizing your place, the value
of that place, your power in anysocial situation, and how silly
like nation States and countriesand borders are as a construct
anyway. Yeah, that is such, so well
(13:16):
said. And I think by, I think before I
moved here, I was definitely, definitely had an idea that
immigration was hard or I reallywanted to have, you know, as an
American, we have a lot of politics around this.
But it wasn't until I moved herethat I had a visceral
understanding of what it might be like to be because I'm very
(13:41):
lucky. I'm, I have a lot of privilege.
I came here in a very privilegedway and it was still very, very
hard. So it just it just gave me this
visceral need to to be more vocal, more supportive, more
everything around this idea because it is it's really hard
when we talk about these words. And I know that we brought you
on as an actor and a funny guy, but you have such good insights.
(14:03):
I want to ask you, when you think about the words around
this experience, how do you identify yourself when someone
asks you? There's expats, there's
immigrant, there's love, Pat, there's all sorts of silly words
we come up with, but how do you define it, I guess for yourself?
Yeah, I use expat a lot in my videos, but I actually don't
(14:27):
identify as an expat. I just think it's like a funny
word and it definitely does havea cultural application, but.
Yeah, you make fun of expats in a really great way.
But tell me, tell me why. Sorry to interrupt.
I think, well, yeah, I mean, expat, the word has like a funny
history. I mean, expats like 100 years
(14:47):
ago were like American artists and intellectuals who lived and
worked and worked in different big, like cosmopolitan centers
in Europe. But now it's been kind of
reappropriated. But to me, it's often just
people who like often have been brought over by a big company
(15:08):
and like have just a really nicepackage in terms of like a
salary and a place to live and often have a partner with them.
And then because there's the reasons those people came, they
may not have the desire to try and integrate or become a part
of like any kind of Dutch society.
(15:30):
And so they move in circles of other people like them, often
their colleagues. Those people I feel like are the
kinds of people I've often heardself identify as expats.
And for those people, there's like all kinds of, you know,
publications and, and, you know,groups and, and things to do and
(15:53):
stuff. I'm not so much a part of that,
but did make use of those resources when I first came to
Amsterdam. And it's incredibly useful.
And it's, it's, it's important to find somewhere where people
are like, hey, welcome. Like come over here and join us.
Those places are so important, but now I would say I just think
(16:15):
of myself as an immigrant. I always love when laughter
cracks open a deeper truth, and Derek has such a gift for that.
His reflections remind us that life abroad is more than
paperwork, culture shock, adventure, or glamorous
pictures. It's about learning and
adapting, mostly about yourself,and holding your own identity up
to the light in new and fun ways.
Whether you call yourself an expat, an immigrant, or as I
(16:37):
might suggest, a peregrine, I hope this conversation leaves
you reflecting on your own storyand how you feel in belonging.
If you're curious to see more ofDerek's work, check out Double
Dutch and Instagram and pretty much every platform.
I promise you'll laugh and maybeeven rethink the way culture
shapes us all. OK, that's it for today.
I hope you've enjoyed our show. For the latest insights on
living internationally, join us at House with peregrine.com to
(17:01):
find out how you can connect with our community.
Let's craft our life story with intention, together.
Hey there. Before we get started, I just
wanted to come on and ask you all a favor.
In our research, we've discovered that the vast
majority of you do not actually like and subscribe to our
podcast. And so if I could ask you to do
so, I won't ask you for anythingelse.
And I promise to make this podcast the best I can.
Every day, me and the team really strive to do that for
(00:21):
you. And so if you could do this for
us, we would be eternally grateful.
Thank you so much. Hi, I'm Mikkel Weber, founder
and auteur of House of Peregrine.
Expat, immigrant, pioneer. None of these were a fit.
The Peregrine describes what we are all about perfectly, Those
(00:41):
that craft their life story withintention.
I've spent the last six years inawe of the life changing
connections and stories I've experienced while living abroad
and believe it is time for this adventure to be recognized,
celebrated, and elevated to the life stage that it is.
Through these interviews, I hopeto connect those living
(01:02):
internationally more deeply to both the place they are living
and with themselves and those around them.
We cover everything from international finances and
meaning making to global parenting and relationships.
To make your time abroad more intentional, edifying and full
of beauty. Find us at houseofperegrine.com
(01:22):
where you can find more ways to connect with the ethos of
Peregrine. I hope you enjoy today's guest.
Let's get started. Today I'm sharing a conversation
with comedian Derek Mitchell of Double Dutch.
His work brilliantly captures the hilarity and the heartache
of life between cultures. In this clip, Derek and I dig
into the layers of life abroad, code switching, cultural values,
(01:44):
and the identity shifts that areinevitable when you move to a
new country. What I love most about Derek is
he makes us laugh. It also gives us language for
the subtle and sometimes tender truths about living abroad.
This episode also aired right after Derek appeared on the
Amsterdam episode of Ted Lasso, and we made a guide for you with
all of the locations from that episode, including the one Derek
(02:05):
was in. You can check it out at
houseofperegrine.com in our guides section, or it'll be in
the transcript of this episode. I hope you enjoy.
What did you think about the overall premise and the
character? Did you?
I identify with Ted a lot. Feeling stupid, feeling like
you're out of place. Tell tell me your reaction to to
(02:26):
the show now that you've watchedit.
I love it. I think it's so brilliant.
And I, I, I think it's totally understandable why like the
world loves it. I mean, people just like the
messages I've gotten from peopleand especially my family, my
like, Midwestern family, I thinkit has like, at its core, this,
this belief in goodness and the good in people and a belief in
(02:51):
the way that people can surpriseyou very positively.
And I think it's like hopeful, as you know, in that coming at a
time when a lot in the world doesn't feel very hopeful, I
think anybody can get behind a story about a person who, yeah,
relies on optimism and relies onhidden gifts and faith.
(03:15):
I think those are powerful lessons.
And those are really, really keyskills that people like us who
move to a new country depend on because the prospect of success
and and finding community again is in some ways, like kind of
unlikely, I think depending on who you are in your
(03:38):
circumstances. And you have to be hopeful.
You have to be optimistic. And Ted Lasso is also an
Amsterdam story. Actually, I don't know if people
know this, that Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt started their
first real job was at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam.
And I've worked there, actually as a bartender.
(04:00):
I wasn't in the cast, but those are some of the best years of my
life. And Pap and Saski and Andrew,
who still own it and run it and founded it, have facilitated
some of the biggest contributions to comedy in
America and in the world. I mean, Seth Meyers is an alum
from there. Jordan Peele is an alum from
there. I mean, it's crazy how much
(04:22):
talent has come out of that Little Theatre in Amsterdam.
Yeah, I, I actually didn't realize that, but it doesn't
surprise me at all because I think this place has a unique
way of letting you be yourself, letting you try things as long
as yourself isn't too much. No, but, but I, I do think that
(04:47):
I think everyone who lives here or has lives here knows it has a
special place. OK, so I, because I, when I
watched, when I watched Ted Lasso again, that episode after
I saw you and I thought it reminded me of your story a
little bit. And, and yeah, like how you felt
about coming here and what you've done since.
I think it's really beautiful. My favorite part is they they
(05:08):
use the the divisive tea to showhow like Southern states,
Midwestern people are just like never going to be open to some
things. And every culture has that
right. But it's a really good device to
show like there's just some things that cannot be acquired,
(05:29):
like tastes that will not be acquired.
So yeah, I want to know. Yeah.
Tell me when I watch your videos.
I really wonder, well first of all, I wonder like how your
Dutchie friends are watching them.
Do they think they're funny likeyour partner's Dutch?
(05:50):
Like is he like you have it wrong or is he normally like no
fair? I think he thinks it's right.
A lot of a lot of the ideas I get come from like conversations
we've had or disagreements we'vehad.
Your fights are playing out on screen.
Yeah, I think, I think a lot of the Dutch people that you know
(06:16):
have said anything to me about those videos, speak positively
about them, feel like they're balanced and fair, which are two
of the the most important valuesin Dutch social economy, so.
Yeah. Is that what you've, is that
(06:36):
what you've learned is that's like a big, big value?
And how, how does that play out do you think?
Yeah, I think, I mean in Dutch the word honest is the same as
fair. Like there's not, there are not
2 words for those ideas. It's the same word.
(06:57):
And I remember over over past relationship I had where I was
really like forcing my ex to speak Dutch with me, which
probably put strain on our relationship actually because my
Dutch was really bad. He when he would be like, that's
not honest. I would be like, why are you
saying that like it is I'm not lying.
And he meant it's not fair and Ididn't know the difference.
(07:20):
Yeah, because that could be potentially, like, triggering
for even Americans, right? Like you're not being honest.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I think I have, I
think I have like adopted those values not in AI think it just
it seeps in. I think when you spend time
(07:40):
anywhere, you, you adapt, humansadapt.
And so I do value those things probably more highly than I
would have. I think I, I now honestly
sometimes like American enthusiasm and American
performative, like, you know, shtick kind of does like drive
(08:05):
me a little bit crazy sometimes.Like, yeah.
Like that whole thing, I'm like,settle down, settle down.
Yeah, cuz you've been here a while.
So I feel like that at a certainpoint, and it may even be from
the moment you arrive, you startreconsidering a lot of what you
(08:26):
hold dear. And it sounds like you've
definitely gone through that process because it's either you
kind of stay in your own bubble and like, experience a city from
arm's distance or wherever you are at arm's length, or you
start holding everything up to the light, right?
Like, what do I think about this?
What do I think about this? And it sounds like you've really
(08:49):
done that process and let it change you quite a bit, which I
think is actually really beautiful and terrifying
experience, especially when the people that you grew up with or
the people you love start seeingthese changes in you.
It it makes me feel really uncomfortable.
Have you had that experience or how how is your family with you
(09:10):
living? I mean, now it's that you just
live here now, right? So they don't wish for you to
come back. Yeah.
What was, what was that process like?
Like from year 1 midway and now you're how many years here 2012?
20, yeah, official. It was official.
Then a year later that it's actually the beginning of 2014,
(09:30):
So almost 10 years official. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, my family's amazing. My family's so supportive.
My mom. My mom is a wonderful,
extraordinary person and she's always been very supportive
about those choices. And I think she also knew
actually that that I had something in me from a really
young age that meant I was probably going to go do things
(09:54):
and be in faraway places and stuff.
But yeah, I mean, I sometimes I especially in the UK, actually
it will London, I find it sometimes I well, actually
pretty much across the board, I have found that like English
people, southern white English people do more to remind you
(10:19):
that you're foreign than their Dutch counterparts.
I think that multiculturalism and people coming and going and
being from all over is actually coded in like the Low Countries
as like a, a value too. You know, it's, it's because
(10:40):
it's the history of the place. It's like, it's history is like
mercantilism and people coming from all over and lots of
different languages colliding and stuff.
And Great Britain's an island. And yeah, I've sometimes found
myself like kind of code switching and using English term
and terms and even not pronunciations because that's
(11:02):
always kind of if you, if I juststart doing an accent, then
you're like Madonna, but you know, just using like the
English version of a of a colloquialism or something as
opposed to the American. Because then I know the English
person I'm talking to won't likepoint out that that sounds so
American and how hilarious that is.
But sometimes when I do that, sometimes when I accidentally
use English saying with my mom, I can see in her eyes like, Oh
(11:26):
my God, who are you? What's happening to you?
And so that's another way that you kind of feel always like a
pinball, you know, in a machine,just like colliding between
different bumpers. Yeah, hey, you did a pretty good
job of defining it, but define code switching if you could for
our listeners. Yeah.
(11:47):
So socio linguistically, code switching is when you adapt your
manner of speaking. So like the diction, the word,
the vocabulary you're using, thegrammar you're using, kind of
you, you start or stop using elements from other languages,
(12:07):
your accent, the the way that you're, you know, pronouncing
things. And I mean, it's actually more
relevant actually to people fromlike immigrant communities,
people of color living in placeswhere language use is policed
and can can affect your ability to like have a job or be
successful in school. And it's, you know, it's
(12:30):
weaponized in a really racist way, you know, in a lot of
places in the world. And so me as a white person
saying that I'm code switching is probably like the most soft
core version of having to code switch that exists out there.
But it is a real thing. And I think this is yet another
way when you open yourself up tolearning about these things, it
does give you insight into, you know, a bit of what other people
(12:54):
experience and go through too. And being a foreigner is a very,
very powerful lesson in kind of realizing your place, the value
of that place, your power in anysocial situation, and how silly
like nation States and countriesand borders are as a construct
anyway. Yeah, that is such, so well
(13:16):
said. And I think by, I think before I
moved here, I was definitely, definitely had an idea that
immigration was hard or I reallywanted to have, you know, as an
American, we have a lot of politics around this.
But it wasn't until I moved herethat I had a visceral
understanding of what it might be like to be because I'm very
(13:41):
lucky. I'm, I have a lot of privilege.
I came here in a very privilegedway and it was still very, very
hard. So it just it just gave me this
visceral need to to be more vocal, more supportive, more
everything around this idea because it is it's really hard
when we talk about these words. And I know that we brought you
on as an actor and a funny guy, but you have such good insights.
(14:03):
I want to ask you, when you think about the words around
this experience, how do you identify yourself when someone
asks you? There's expats, there's
immigrant, there's love, Pat, there's all sorts of silly words
we come up with, but how do you define it, I guess for yourself?
Yeah, I use expat a lot in my videos, but I actually don't
(14:27):
identify as an expat. I just think it's like a funny
word and it definitely does havea cultural application, but.
Yeah, you make fun of expats in a really great way.
But tell me, tell me why. Sorry to interrupt.
I think, well, yeah, I mean, expat, the word has like a funny
history. I mean, expats like 100 years
(14:47):
ago were like American artists and intellectuals who lived and
worked and worked in different big, like cosmopolitan centers
in Europe. But now it's been kind of
reappropriated. But to me, it's often just
people who like often have been brought over by a big company
(15:08):
and like have just a really nicepackage in terms of like a
salary and a place to live and often have a partner with them.
And then because there's the reasons those people came, they
may not have the desire to try and integrate or become a part
of like any kind of Dutch society.
(15:30):
And so they move in circles of other people like them, often
their colleagues. Those people I feel like are the
kinds of people I've often heardself identify as expats.
And for those people, there's like all kinds of, you know,
publications and, and, you know,groups and, and things to do and
(15:53):
stuff. I'm not so much a part of that,
but did make use of those resources when I first came to
Amsterdam. And it's incredibly useful.
And it's, it's, it's important to find somewhere where people
are like, hey, welcome. Like come over here and join us.
Those places are so important, but now I would say I just think
(16:15):
of myself as an immigrant. I always love when laughter
cracks open a deeper truth, and Derek has such a gift for that.
His reflections remind us that life abroad is more than
paperwork, culture shock, adventure, or glamorous
pictures. It's about learning and
adapting, mostly about yourself,and holding your own identity up
to the light in new and fun ways.
Whether you call yourself an expat, an immigrant, or as I
(16:37):
might suggest, a peregrine, I hope this conversation leaves
you reflecting on your own storyand how you feel in belonging.
If you're curious to see more ofDerek's work, check out Double
Dutch and Instagram and pretty much every platform.
I promise you'll laugh and maybeeven rethink the way culture
shapes us all. OK, that's it for today.
I hope you've enjoyed our show. For the latest insights on
living internationally, join us at House with peregrine.com to
(17:01):
find out how you can connect with our community.
Let's craft our life story with intention, together.
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