Since moving to Belfast after leaving her native Brazil in 2014, Juliana Germinio (34), has packed her bag four times with the intention of moving back home.
Adjusting to life in Belfast was hard for Germinio, as she found both the weather and the culture colder than in her homeland.
She had moved to Ireland to be with her then-partner Killian, whom she met when they were both volunteering for housing charity Habitat for Humanity in her home city of Recife. Her manager had asked her to go and speak to the Irish man there, as she had the best English of their group.
“I thought he was very exotic. I remember the first thing I said to him was, ‘Did you apply suncream?’” Germinio says of Killian, now her husband. “I had never met anybody that had blue eyes, very pale skin covered in freckles, and bald. That combination of factors was so foreign and so unusual.”
It turns out that Killian had not applied any suncream, and so was grateful to be offered some as they worked out in the open in a city that sits on the equator.
Before long, the two became a pair, and by the end of that summer, Germinio, who was in college at the time, had decided she was going to move to Dublin with Killian and do an Erasmus year.
She says her father knew then that she would not be moving back home. “I had no idea, I am just go-with-the-flow, and it was one of those very immature things that we do when we are young.”
The couple did not stay in Dublin. Killian, a structural engineer, was soon offered a job in Belfast, to which the couple relocated. She admits she knew nothing of the city’s history when they moved there. Her only indication of its complicated past was when her father expressed concern about her moving there. “It was a massive learning curve.”
From the start, the Belfast accent was a struggle for Germinio. “I came to Belfast and I couldn’t understand a thing.” She was used to an American sort of English – not a Northern Irish sort of English.
Juliana Germinio: ‘I am very passionate about Belfast. I think we have so much to offer. I am very involved in the community.’ Photograph: Chris Maddaloni/The Irish Times
It was only after they moved to Belfast that the full weight of moving away from everything and everyone she knew hit her. As neither Germinio nor Killian are from Belfast, they were both starting from scratch with no support network. “I could not wait to have my independence, but I did not know it was going to be this costly,” she says.
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Germinio, who then dropped out of her university course, succeeded in getting a job in an art gallery and framers’ in Belfast. She got the position by printing out her CV and going from door to door.
In a bid to make friends, Germinio decided to go to a Portuguese language meet-up in Belfast she had seen online. It was run by a Brazilian man and his girlfriend, who wanted to practise her Portuguese. “They are our best friends to this day. They opened up a whole plethora of Brazilian people living in Northern Ireland.”
While today she has a wide circle of friends, there were a number of social norms to which Germinio had to adapt when she first moved. “At the beginning I would give people two kisses, one on each side of the cheek, and people would find that off-putting.”
Eventually, someone told her that people in Ireland often shake hands when meeting, and only hug if they know them in their personal life. A moment that still haunts her is when she bumped into an old boss and his wife. “I pulled him in and gave him two kisses. Then I looked at his wife, and she was not pleased!”
After moving to Belfast, her father-in-law approached her and offered to pay to continue her education. “He said, ‘My son took you out of education and I don’t think that’s right – so I am going to put you back in.”
Juliana Germinio: ‘I want to leave Belfast a better place than I found it. I can see the change – and that’s the exciting bit.’ Photograph: Chris Maddaloni/The Irish Times
Germinio is quite emotional talking about this. She emphasises the belief that her father-in-law always had in her and the great financial commitment this represented. Being from Brazil, he had to pay international fees on her behalf.
“It was the craziest thing I had done, as I was working full-time, and then doing this programme for managers in UCD.” Once a month for four years, she would commute to Dublin for classes conducted over three-day weekends.
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In 2023, the couple welcomed the arrival of their daughter Pippa. Since then, Germinio has founded creative agency Yellow Zest, which runs the East Belfast Business Meet Up connecting local entrepreneurs, and hosts a monthly podcast.
“I am very passionate about Belfast. I think we have so much to offer. I am very involved in the community,” she says.
Germinio has even considered getting into politics in Belfast, but her husband has so far talked her out of it. “I want to leave Belfast a better place than I found it. I can see the change – and that’s the exciting bit.”
In particular, Germinio points to the regeneration of Newtownards Road in Belfast’s city centre. “As time passes we can see more diversity in the food and activities, and the murals are now about hope and friendship.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or send us two lines about yourself using the form below.