Round Trip Stories Podcast

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Round Trip Stories Podcast

Tracy Vilanova and Melissa Ens host a podcast interviewing guests about moving abroad and back again.

12/19/2025

Our guest in this week's episode is Christen Morrow Ara, a U.S. advocate for youth with disabilities and their families, divisional coordinator for Young Life Capernaum, and mother of four. From a young age, Christen felt a connection and friendship to children with disabilities, and that passion was incorporated into her ministry and into her desire to help establish such support in Peru. She moved there for five full years which included taking care of a baby, finding her husband, and calling her Peruvian community her own.

Listen to Christen's stories in episode 72 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

12/03/2025

Don't miss our interview with Professor Phil, teacher educator and mentor who moved to China to work with international schools. At 50 years old, it was finally the right timing for he and his wife and youngest son to make the move that had been in their hearts for decades. He left his U.S. professor post to become the director of teacher development for a multi-site international school consortium. After 16 years, as he approached the age where he might not be offered a visa to stay in China, he and his wife returned to the U.S. on a recruiting trip and to also consider moving back. That was the time the coronavirus was starting to spread in China, so they decided to stay in the U.S. without having said good bye to their home in Beijing. Listen to his stories of moving to China in episode 70 and his return to the US in episode 71 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

11/13/2025

What's the best, most interesting, most unusual, most meaningful gift you have received in your time around the world? What kind of gift-giving traditions delighted or surprised you? We'd love to share your story in an upcoming customs episode! Share in the comments below, send us a DM, or visit our website to share by 11/13/25! ¡Gracias! Survey link in bio! or at https://www.roundtripstories.com/p/gift-stories.html

11/08/2025

Take a listen this weekend to Part 2 of our interview with Carolina Baiza, eco-hotel owner and sustainability entrepreneur from El Salvador. After fifteen years of traveling to study in Europe and then representing El Salvador in trade and world fairs, she decided to settle down and stay put in her home country. Listen to how Carolina took what she learned from her networks abroad and grew the sustainability model for her Arbol de Fuego hotel, where she also grew deeper roots in her community. Carolina shares how growing roots has helped her bear even more fruit.

Listen to Carolina's stories in episode 69 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

Learn more about her award winning Arbol de Fuego hotel at https://www.arboldefuego.com/.

10/31/2025

Our guest in this week's episode is Carolina Baiza, eco-hotel and sustainability entrepreneur from El Salvador. When visiting her brother in Germany, she noticed that the El Salvador World Fair booth had no representative. She volunteered to run it and before she knew it, she earned scholarships in Germany and Italy to study how to run trade exhibitions for her country. For fifteen years Carolina ran her hotel in-country and at the same time created fair exhibitions to represent El Salvador across the world.
Listen to part 1 of our interview with Carolina in episode 68 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.
Learn more about Carolina's hotel on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hotelarboldefuego

10/23/2025

It has been a while since we've asked for YOUR stories!!! We are getting ready to make a customs episode about GIFT-GIVING around the world! We know that giving gifts is a way to express appreciation, care, respect, and gratitude in every country. We want to hear YOUR stories about gift-giving, whether it’s a story about a specific custom related to gift-giving you experienced or an unusual gift you gave or received.

We will publish in December, and we would love to share the GIFT of YOUR STORIES with our listeners.

Share at www.roundtripstories.com by November 7! (Link below/ in bio!)

10/17/2025

This week we shared Part 2 of our interview with Dr. Ken Martens Friesen, professor of history and international studies and coordinator of the global education program at Fresno Pacific University. Ken grew up in India and continued to go abroad throughout his life. In this episode, Ken shares about his return to the U.S. as a ten year old and feeling like people looked at him like an alien. Time helped him adjust to the U.S., and once he was done with university he was overseas again working in a school in Lesotho, a refugee camp in Lebanon, and as a missionary in Vietnam. Through his current university position back in the United States he is able to help others see the world through history and study abroad experiences which continually keep him connected to his growing up years and passion for helping others gain a global mindset.

Listen to Ken's stories in episode 67 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

10/09/2025

Our guest in today's episode is Dr. Ken Martens Friesen, professor of history and international studies and coordinator of the global education program at Fresno Pacific University. Ken grew up in India and continues to go abroad throughout his life. Ken’s parents were missionaries from the United States, and he attended Kodaikanal International School until the age of 10 when he moved to the U.S. In this episode, hear about Ken’s growing up years in the south Indian mountains in the 1960’s, eating curry and rice on a banana leaf with 400 classmates after sports day, and how he probably shouldn’t have purchased that monkey to take home with him on the train.

Listen to Ken's stories in episode 66 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

10/02/2025

Last week we shared Part 2 of our interview with elite water polo player athlete Branko Pekovic from Serbia. After twelve years of playing in Italy, Russia, and Kazakhstan and with many medals earned, he and his wife decided it was time to retire to Serbia and to begin to coach. With their five year old daughter and eight year old son in tow, they packed up Branko’s international water polo life. Upon return to Serbia, he wasn’t perceived quite as interesting anymore, and he needed to figure out how to manage life for his family without the perks of being a professional athlete. Listen as Branko describes how his family made it work, and where they are now. In this interview, things get a little shaky!

Listen to Branko's stories in episode 65 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

09/19/2025

Our guest in this week's interview is Branko Pekovic, an elite professional water polo athlete who grew up during difficult times in Belgrade, Yugoslavia which is now Serbia. He found a love and great success in playing water polo, so much so that he played for Serbia’s national teams and teams in Italy, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Branko shares about how water polo was his amazing job that took him to the Olympics and all over the world.

Listen to Branko's stories in episode 64 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

09/09/2025

Don't miss part 2 of our interview with transitions coach Carolyn Grant. Carolyn knows deeply about transitions after moving from South Africa to London for ten years and then to Texas, USA for fifteen. Along the way she developed her expertise as a physical therapist in London, but she was not able to practice after the move to Texas. This loss of identity and change was the painful catalyst to redesign her personal and professional goals. While she raised her three daughters, she also began raising others up by mentoring them in their difficult life transitions. Carolyn is now a transition coach and offers our listeners compassion and tips. Get ready for notetaking and be sure to mind your Rs, Ps, and Ns as Carolyn shares practical steps to move through those heart wrenching stages from transition to reinvention.

Listen to Carolyn's wisdom in episode 63 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

09/01/2025

Welcome to Season 5! Last week we shared part one of our interview with Carolyn Grant, physical therapist, writer, and transitions coach originally from South Africa. Carolyn knows deeply about transitions after moving to London for ten years and then to Texas, USA for sixteen. Along the way she developed her expertise as a physical therapist in London, was not able to practice after the move to Texas, lost her mother while being half way across the world, and reinvented herself by becoming a transition coach, all the while raising her three daughters. In this episode, Carolyn explains why she is an accidental immigrant, why she resists change at the same time as loving adventure, and why she needed to grieve.

Listen to Carolyn's stories in episode 62 of the Round Trip Stories podcast at www.roundtripstories.com or in your favorite podcast app.

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