#70. Bubblegum, Barbie and Becoming American. Pt.2 Yuliya Patsay

My expectation was that we were going to buy me a Barbie ... jeans, and bubble gum!This conversation with writer and storyteller Yuliya Patasy is an unusual exploration of what it means to arrive somewhere new — physically, emotionally, culturally, and generationally.Yuliya immigrated to San Francisco as a child, landing in a converted garage apartment packed with grandparents, great‑grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the weight of her parents’ hopes. Her early memories of life in a country that no longer exists are vivid: “I’ll never forget what it was like to live with 12 people in an apartment [ in the Soviet] sharing a bathroom.”She shares the pressure her parents felt to “turn things around quickly,” the loss of professional identity, and the disorientation of entering a system where the rules — social, cultural, bureaucratic — were entirely different. She also speaks candidly about the humor and heartbreak of childhood expectations, like the moment she realized Barbie was not life‑size: “I was like, this? No. I hate this.”We talk about belonging, language loss, and the tension between honoring the culture you came from and raising children who are fully rooted in the place you now call home. Yuliya reflects on her memoir, which began as a simple recipe collection and became a deeper excavation of family, memory, and identity. And she offers grounded wisdom for families stepping off a plane today, carrying their hopes in a suitcase: “There are good people everywhere… building relationships is really the path to feeling at home.”If you want more tools, stories, and honest conversations about building a life abroad, follow the show. Each episode gives you something real you can use and someone real you can relate to.