Shadowing Practice: I Took Myself on the Perfect Solo Day - Learn English Speaking with Video
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274 sentences
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1
I'm just gonna lay on the floor.
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It's like totally empty beach area right now.
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Sometimes you just need a good cry, you know?
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Okay guys, first part of my dream day is gonna be sleeping in.
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I'm not gonna set an alarm, I'm not gonna wake myself up early,
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I'm just gonna get up whenever my body naturally rises so step one of my perfect solo day will be sleeping
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morning everybody i just woke up i'm standing outside taking the dogs up to pee this morning
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it is 8 40 so i must have slept in until 8 30.
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it's not bad that's not bad i could have done better
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but my stomach started hurting
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so it just like woke me up obviously it's time to get changed
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if it's my dream day i'm gonna be wearing some sort of pink
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i think i'm gonna wear these they're like not long
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but they're not short either they're just like a healthy in between so maybe this top makes more sense
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This is what I'm wearing today.
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I've got my shorts on and my top.
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And now it's time to fix my face and hair situation.
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Let's get started on my morning coffee.
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We gotta turn on the machine.
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It's probably gonna try to like clean itself.
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Now we're gonna add some ice.
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I don't know what to do with my hair.
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It's just I'm just gonna leave it as is because I just don't care.
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I just, that's, that's actually the only reason, like, I just don't feel like looking pretty today.
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Anyway, I'm gonna enjoy my coffee in peace.
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I'm gonna sit in peace, and you know what I'm gonna start doing again?
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Guys, I had to, I DNF'd Iron Flame.
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It's part two of the fourth wing series.
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I like, the fourth wing, the first one was so good.
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And then I like, Iron Flame was like, fine in the beginning.
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And then I think I was like, maybe like, chapter 10 or 11.
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And like, even when interesting things would happen, like it just didn't even have me hooked anymore.
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I was like, and I felt like this one, it's moving much slower than the last.
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I don't know.
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I just, I didn't like it.
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But I feel like that's not fair.
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Plus, I need to read the third one and then the fourth one and all of them when they come out.
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so I just I have to get this
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and I already own the fourth one like I already own Onyx Storm
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I just have to get it done plus maybe it'll give me more like inspiration
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and juices for when I'm writing my own book
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which is guys it's taking forever like I genuinely thought
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I'd be done by now I thought
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I'd be done by now it's been like two months I thought I would be done I'm not I'm not.
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I'm actually only on chapter six.
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It takes me apparently like two days to write two pages.
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Like yeah I'm like at a page per day rate.
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Um but I'm my chapters are fairly long.
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I'm at like 65 or 75 pages or something like that.
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Yeah I'm either I think I might be in the 70s.
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Like that's a lot of pages but it's just not a lot of chapters so it's like whatever.
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I'm getting it done.
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Like I'm getting it done.
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It's fine.
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and i've decided today i'm gonna keep it really peaceful and it's gonna be like a
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happy calm self -care i can't with the terror i can't
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i'm gonna start off by sitting on the couch with a blanket and reading a book that sounds just sounds beautiful
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okay so i got a little bit cold
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and instead of putting on a another blanket or a hoodie
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or something i'm just just gonna lay on the floor i'm gonna put on some nice relaxing music
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close my eyes and breathe a little bit
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this has been such a fun day
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I'd really like to do some retail therapy
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I just like don't want to spend any money on anything right
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now considering I'm like about to go to Miami everything's gonna be
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so expensive there and plus like I need to save money to actually pay for college so
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The sun just feels great right now actually.
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Like my legs had such bad goosebumps earlier and now they're like...
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Now they're nice and warm.
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I'm just going to rest out here for a minute.
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I'll see you guys when I'm done.
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Okay, I also am crafting right now because Bella had her birthday.
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And I have to finish her book before I see her again
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so new page which will be a a fun page yay I call it a fun page
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so I got this like thing of like fun pages
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so I'm cutting them out and then putting them on here so
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it's officially noon now
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which means half my day is over it's been very very peaceful
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I've been very relaxed um honestly like this is this is like my perfect solo day like just relaxing
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okay i redid my hair i clad it into a french braid
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because i don't know it felt prettier than the ponytail i had going on
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and that way my like hairs here aren't like standing straight up so
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This is how I look.
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Yippee.
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My flip -flops don't match, but I, like, I don't have any other, like, shoes I wanted to wear with this.
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I wanted flip -flops, and they're the only ones I have.
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I'm concerned that my sister's still asleep, and I, it's, it's 1230.
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I feel like I should wake her up.
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I know this is, like, my solo day, but, like, when I go to get my lunch, I'm gonna get her something, too not rude
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but she's like literally still sleeping
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and it's like i'm ready for lunch i've had a productive morning
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and she's still asleep okay i'm gonna do one more little craft um
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i got like a hot pink retro phone and well it was black
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and then i spray painted it pink
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and now i'm gonna add glitter to it glitter spray paint yeah very exciting all right ready oh pretty
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i'm really wanting soup this morning where am i going to get soup whole food soup bar
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and i'm gonna bring mia home some food whatever like looks appetizing in the hot bar i guess probably like
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that orange chicken that's really good i'll bring for her
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but i'm craving soup specifically like some sort of fall flavor maybe
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so let's let's go check out the soup bar okay
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we're here at the soup bar let's check out what's going on white rice vegan lentil spinach tomato parmesan here
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we got chicken noodle cream of mushroom broccoli
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oh butternut squash soup is definitely like the vibe isn't it okay i ended up getting the butternut squash soup
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and i have them like bundled up here so they don't like
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spill everywhere by the way freaking i'm upset i'm upset
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it should not have been 16 for my cup of soup
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that is ridiculous i swear it was never that much money
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and then the um little box i got mia some orange chicken
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and broccoli to have for lunch because i just texted her
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and she's still sleeping no reply she's still sleeping the soup by the way guys really yummy
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it's not like it doesn't have like insane flavors in it it's very like neutral flavor but it's yummy
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here's the soup it's good it's like this like butternutty color it has a lot of pepper though
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okay since i just finished watching crew girl
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and now i'm like obsessed with the woman
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that plays tegan um she's in another show so i'm gonna start watching
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that one i'm just hoping it's on netflix as well okay it is on netflix
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so i'm starting to watch that now
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okay guys i just put a little bit of makeup on
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and i am going to buy myself something because i think
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that would be like ideally a part of my perfect day i'm feeling excited
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and happy i'm also feeling really tired though so i did make myself another coffee
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anyway um i think i'm gonna start at barnes and noble
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and see if i can buy myself a new gift my cousin paola recommended an author to me
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so i'm gonna see if i can find him in barnes and noble
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and maybe get one of his books okay you guys know
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that i love my fantasies
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so we're walking over to the fantasy section some of these get like a little bit like i don't know
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I don't want to call it like immature but like some of them are like not my vibe.
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Have you guys, any of you read this book Scythe?
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I just like read what it's about.
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A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery.
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Humanity has conquered all of those things and has even conquered death.
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Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life
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and they are commanded to do so in order to keep the size of the population under control.
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Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice the Scythe a world
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that neither wants and the teens must master the art of taking life knowing
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that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own
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they learn living in a perfect world comes with a heavy price
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i just read like the first five pages just like standing here it seems good
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it seems good it's like my type of weird dystopian book
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but then i see a lot of people talk about this series
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but my thing is i'm not really looking for like a romance book right
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now i'm feeling more like sci -fi type stuff
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but i feel like people have a lot of nice things to say about this book
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i think i'm gonna get skype and we'll see
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if i like it we'll see
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if it's good okay i'm walking out now i bought sky sky sky i don't know i think it's sky
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but i just bought it we'll see
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if it's any good i'll update
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you all what else can i do what else can be done like kind of all
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i like to do is like relax read watch tv
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and eat and do crafts but
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and i've already done all of those things today i like to bake
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but i'm just not in the mood to bake right now all right you know what i do love
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and i do need to do actually
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because my car is filthy right now is take it through a car wash
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so i'm gonna find like the nearest local car wash
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it just whip her through there really quick like it's actually like my cars
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i'll show you i need to like get the vacuum situation
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because look at all the sand here like it's literally just nasty right
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now like there's trash everywhere in the car like it's it's just
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so bad i need to get it cleaned asap and
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so i think what i'm gonna do is i'll just whip it through the car wash i'll clean the inside
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and then yeah and that doesn't sound like my ideal day but it does sound like something i need to do
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okay
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so i actually changed my mind
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i didn't want to clean my car like i thought about it as i started driving
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i was like that's not what i want to do what i want to do a chore
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so what i'm doing instead is going to the mall
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and i'm going to see if they have a like cute little top
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or something farmer's market i like it's opening up again um this weekend
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and i want to see
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if i can find like a cute little outfit to wear to the farmer's market
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i know that's like very extra
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but it's what i want to do okay we're in the mall
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i'm actually gonna go into victoria's secret pink for a second i saw in like one of the miami stores
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or something they did like a miami like um and pink collab so
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just thought that was cool okay i was hoping i'd find like a pj i liked
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or something i like the fold over leggings they have going on, but I just didn't see anything that was really worth buying to me.
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So now I'm going to go over to the area.
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There's like PacSun.
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There's like brandy in the PacSun.
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There's garage next to it.
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I'm going to go like in that area and see if I find something.
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All right, let's look.
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Okay, I have three things that I'm gonna try on.
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Okay, these are cute.
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I like them.
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And then there's these.
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And then here's the top.
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I don't know.
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I like this part, but it kind of looks like not done.
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you'd never guess it I got the blue sweatpants I was thinking about it more
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and like the material of the blue ones was like a little bit thicker
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and nicer than the gray and black ones
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and I felt like I could use
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I could wear the blue ones more out in public than
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I could like other ones would just be more loungy like pj type vibe
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I felt like the blue sweatpants were like thick enough
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and nice enough that I could like wear them to class
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or something so that's what I got okay guys I just pulled up to the beach
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and I got onto the beach for a second and then I see it's like surfing only
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and there's people in the water on their surfboards
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so I mean I'm sure it would have been fine
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if I like sat there and watched but it's like whatever I'll just walk to the next like entrance okay
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I just claimed my little spot at the beach
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and there's like nobody in my area
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which is nice it's like totally empty beach area right
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now I'm like just realizing I should have brought my book
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and I could have read a little bit on the beach
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but it's okay whatever I'm just gonna take
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this time to like rest yeah I'm gonna like just observe nature for a minute and chill because
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what else am I gonna do I don't want to like scroll on TikTok
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while I'm sitting on the beach like that's so like I don't know
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that doesn't sound nice so I'm just gonna enjoy the noises and the views for a minute
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I've just been sitting here for like 10 minutes and I was looking at like how like
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wide the horizon is like I can't see the like I can't see the end of the water either like
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it's just such a big world
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and I think it's like nice to see how like huge the world is
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because sometimes you feel like your problems are such like a big thing
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and it's like all you can ever think about is your whatever problem is going on in your life
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and then you see how big the world is
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and it's like you know my small problems are nothing
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we're literally on a rock floating through space what even is
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space like do you ever think about the concept of like
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nothingness like i'm gonna lay down do you ever think about like why is there anything to begin with
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but that doesn't even make sense like what is nothing in outer space like
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if there's no air there's nothing up there like
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that is like a difficult concept for me to grasp like
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when i think about stuff so crazy and
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so big like how our earth is just humongous
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and our universe is even bigger our planet's bigger there are other like galaxies there are other everything
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there's just so much my little day -to -day problems that i feel like are such a big deal
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become like so much less of a problem
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when i like see how big the world is like what
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am i stressing about literally what am i stressing about wow guys
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i sound like a lunatic like you guys are probably gonna think i'm crazy
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and people seeing me sit here my phone's like propped up on my sandal
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i probably look like a crazy person i'm like talking to my sandal
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I know I sound like crazy just like randomly talking about this
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but it's like something I genuinely think about a lot
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I've honestly been in such a funk lately emotionally like I've been having a difficult time
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and then you guys picking
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this like my perfect solo day like I realized like a lot of times
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I do things I don't want to do and why am I doing them like I don't I don't know
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life is what you make it if you want to be happy do things that make you happy and feel happy
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okay i'm leaving the beach i ended up sitting there for like 35 more minutes
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now i'm like a little bit tired
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made like a philosophical tiktok 100 bucks i get some hate off of it somehow
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just for like appreciating life and nature goodness forbid
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Mia has a volleyball game today
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so I think I'm gonna try to go to it okay it's like six something now
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and um my favorite meal besides soups it's like soup
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and spicy tuna crispy rice are my two favorite things
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so I am going to get a quick spicy tuna crispy rice to have for dinner
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I got my spicy tuna crispy rice
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i just got an order with like four pieces in it
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i don't know some salsa soya to put on it it's good today it's literally my favorite food it's just
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so good now this typically wouldn't be a part of my perfect day
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but it's my sister's team senior night and those are some of my friends so i'm gonna go watch
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okay i'm home now um the beach was really nice
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and everything and my crispy rice was really nice
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and my family's gonna be home in a second so i'm just gonna put on some tv
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i'm not gonna like guys i'm feeling a surge of emotion coming on right now
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sometimes you just need a good cry you know
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i think when your feelings build up like i know like some people get embarrassed to cry
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but i genuinely think it's so good for you
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and that's why my that's what i tell myself
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because i do cry like basically every day like i'm not even joking and i'm not that embarrassed to say it
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because it's true it's a big part of me i cry all the freaking time i really do
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and it won't even just be because like i'm so sad
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and i'm having all these problems like it just feels good for me to I let the tears roll sometimes.
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Like, I don't know if I'm like just releasing the cortisol or what it is.
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Like, it feels so good for me to cry sometimes.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “I Took Myself on the Perfect Solo Day”. This video has 274 sentences and 3238 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:53. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| soup noun | /sup/ | Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food… |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| craft noun | /ˈkɹæft/ | Ability, skillfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning… |
| genuinely adverb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ | In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly. |
| flavor noun | /ˈfleɪvə/ | The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect. |
| vibe noun | /vaɪb/ | An atmosphere or aura felt to belong to a person, place or thing. |
| spicy adjective | /ˈspaɪsi/ | Of, pertaining to, or containing spice. |
| tuna noun | /ˈtjuː.nə/ | Any of several species of fish of the genus Thunnus in the family Scombridae. |
| thick adjective | /θɪk/ | Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension. |
| asleep adjective | /əˈsliːp/ | In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting. |
| mall noun | /mɔːl/ | A pedestrianised street, especially a shopping precinct. |
| noble adjective | /ˈnoʊbəl/ | Having honorable qualities; having moral eminence and freedom from anything petty, mean or dubious in conduct and character. |
| flip verb | /flɪp/ | To throw so as to turn over. |
| spray noun | /spɹeɪ/ | A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid. |
| blanket noun | /ˈblæŋ.kɪt/ | A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. | |
| lie down verb | To assume a horizontal position. | |
| open up verb | To open. | |
| start off verb | To begin. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm just gonna lay on the floor.
- This is what I'm wearing today.
- I've got my shorts on and my top.
- Let's get started on my morning coffee.
- I don't know what to do with my hair.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've just been sitting · I've been having |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if i like it we'll see · if it's any good i'll update |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | it's been · i've decided · has been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be done · are commanded · are chosen |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 198 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, gonna, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, breathe /bɹiːð/, filthy /ˈfɪlθi/, clothe /ˈkloʊð/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: squash /skwɔʃ/, trash /tɹæʃ/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, garage /ɡəˈɹɑʒ/, shoe /ˈʃu/
- Long words — get the stress right: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like soup, relax, craft.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.