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have to make a part two guys so sorry yeah uh actually we might

but uh let's keep going wait how many questions have we asked

we're just we're just not counting anymore like it just it doesn't matter

when you talk to somebody interesting like you're not counting involved in the conversation yeah

it's hard to think in those logical mathematical terms yes what's your favorite fruit what's my favorite fruit yeah okay

i speaking of blueberries i do really love blueberries

but in general i would say apples

because i actually have an apple here with me

it's easy to transport it's an easy snack um yeah they're just uh crisp

and delicious and sweets do you have a favorite apple variety

because there's like hundreds to choose from cosmic cosmic crisp okay i learned about recently i don't know

if they always had them i feel like they're new

they're like a new offering um as of the last couple years okay

i discovered a new type of apple this past year

it's probably not new it was new to me

it's called kissable k -i -s -s -a -b -e -l it has pink flesh

so the inside of the apple is pink

and it tastes like somewhere between apples and berries

and it's crazy juicy like you bite in

and just drips juice oh my gosh it's so good

but they're hard to find okay those all right those sound delicious um

i was gonna say i should have eaten before this

because all we're doing is talking about food we should have saved this category for last

but yes um okay

so favorite fruits uh do you have a favorite meal

i would say my favorite meal is a really good steak yes done on the grill yes

and with a side of maybe like smashed potatoes

or grilled potatoes you say smashed potatoes yes

so yeah what's wait i say mashed potatoes oh is there a difference no it's two different things really yeah

so you got mashed potatoes where they're mashed into a semi -liquid form yeah

you can kind of smash as you take small potatoes

and literally smash them flat with the skin on season them

and then put them in the oven until they get crispy i thought you made a mistake saying smashed potatoes

but this is actually me learning something new yes okay i love potatoes in all forms honestly

so they would be part of my i do love potatoes

and then i'm thinking maybe you know you need something green

and healthy in there

so i'm thinking maybe um some asparagus some roasted asparagus with a little garlic

and lemon and salt

and pepper nice yeah okay my favorite meal okay

i have to ask what yours my favorite meal i already said i love scallops

but uh if it

if it wasn't scallops i would also go with a steak not just trying to copy you

but uh a really solid choice yeah i mean

it's a special occasion kind of thing right i don't eat steak every night

but you know for a special occasion i love a good steak i would probably pick um a salad

and mashed potatoes okay yeah it's very close to yours it is i do like asparagus

but not as much we didn't choose dessert though oh neither of us said

so what would be like there's so many good desserts there's

so many good desserts um i do really like creme brulee creme brulee yeah

i do too that's a good one um mine would be

like either a brownie sundae with ice cream on top

or there's something called toll house cookie pie

which is basically like picture like a gigantic baked chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top

oh i can't handle it all right we need to move on to another topic

because i can't i can't handle this you're absolutely okay our next one is travel plans

or experiences okay i'll start okay you start all right uh

i know you've been to many many places you're like a world traveler

and you have lot of experience if there's one place

that you haven't been yet

that you would love to go where where would you love to visit oh

i know right away i want to go to greece

and i want to visit the greek isles i i've seen these pictures right i mean who's to know

if the pictures you see on social media are accurate

but there's so many beautiful pictures i've seen

and i love islands i love being by the water

i love being on boats i love greek food going back to food

we just can't stop talking about food we have one track yes

so i want to go eat olives and feta cheese

in greece and baklava and yes and uh

and just yeah experience um going island hopping that would be

so much fun shout out to the greek viewers at home

yes how you doing um all right very cool do you have any upcoming travel plans um i do actually

so i am going to kansas city oh to help a friend move oh

so it's kind of going to be like a little bit of like you know not necessarily a vacation

because like helping them move

but like i'm sure we'll make it fun i'm sure we'll like go eat some barbecue in kansas city

and uh maybe see a couple sites or something like that

so yes it should be fun i i don't know kansas city very well

so i'm excited to kind of learn a new city

and get like a locals impression of all the cool stuff

there oh very cool yeah okay where is the last place

you traveled to gabby the last place i traveled would have been new york city because

that was yeah no wait no no oh my god just take

it no come back city come back city oh my god oh my god i'm

so sorry it's okay it's fine it's okay no didn't put a lot of thought into

that trip didn't make it real special for you

didn't guys i think he's gonna leave me but um

come back come back no the last place i traveled was quebec city um

and it was the most magical trip ever it was amazing i used to think

that despite that i totally forgot to mention it um

wow okay so i mean i to be fair i set you up

because i know where you traveled yeah like i'm i'm pretending

and we had just talked about new york city yeah

but i'm pretending to ask you questions like i don't know the answer yeah

but i kind of do

so it was kind of a setup oh gosh okay well yes the last place

that i traveled together with mike was to quebec city

it was beautiful i loved hearing french all around i loved all the amazing food

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and actually it was a surprise

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so um mike just said bring your passport a swimsuit

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and there's one other thing i think oh shoes walking

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and dancing shoes yes yes because i knew there would be some salsa involved yes yeah

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and guys it was magical i i'll tell you more about it another time

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but it was very magical yeah so

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and i learned a new phrase in french my blonde oh yeah my girlfriend yes

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so now you're my blood

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and mon chum mon chum this is quebecois french anybody watching from quebec probably not

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but if you are shout out let us know yeah help us learn more quebecois french yeah

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or french french that could be the next video we can road trip back to quebec

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and meet one of your of viewers who can teach us some québécois french should we do travel

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and english i think

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that would be very fun i think that's where we're headed do you have any like memorable travel stories

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that come to mind right away um i mean

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when we went to quebec city like

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that is just what we were talking about

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but that's yeah that's very memorable

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because i mean no one's ever surprised me with a trip like

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that so the whole thing was just like a dream like you know I didn't know what to expect

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and I think when you have those memorable experiences is

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because you are surprised by something so if you go on a trip

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and you have this expectation

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and everything is exactly like as you had pictured it's not as memorable as

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if you have a surprise like you meet some interesting people

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or you learn new words or you see new places um

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so yeah yeah and i i honestly for a few years i hadn't really traveled very much

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so yeah that is more fresh in my memory okay yeah here locally

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if again if i have a friend visiting or if my brother comes to visit

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where should i take them for a weekend okay oh

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it's like for a whole weekend well no no no sorry

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they're here for a weekend let's just keep it contained to three days okay yeah um

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so i feel i feel bad recommending like the most obvious places

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but like one place

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that you have to go here in this area is a park called fort williams park yes i agree

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because it's just a beautiful park and they have a lot of cool old forts

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but uh portland headlight lighthouse is there

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and it's the most photographed lighthouse in the world to the best of my knowledge

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and it's just a really beautiful place it's right by the water there's food trucks rolling hills there's food trucks

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if you're into lobster you get a lobster roll oh yeah

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very main so

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that would be a good spot to go um

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i've seen people barbecue there too like they have grills yeah

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it's a great place to bring your family for a party

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or a picnic or grill out

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or throw a little like get together with your friends yeah

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they have tennis courts they have pickleball courts

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they have all sorts of different things you can do i didn't know all

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that yeah okay you can bring a dog oh dog friendly park nice yeah

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so a great spot um another place i really like is the botanical garden up in Booth Vey.

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Oh, I don't know about this.

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You haven't been there?

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No. Oh, we'll have to go.

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Yeah.

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So there's a cool botanical garden up in Booth Vey, Maine.

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And what they're really famous for are these really huge wooden troll sculptures.

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I saw that on Instagram.

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Yeah, so they're like 25, maybe taller feet tall, like trolls, like monsters made out of wood

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and there you just kind of like walk around the garden

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and he's sort of like magically discover a troll there's kind of like oh my gosh comes out of nowhere

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and then of course like all the flowers and the trees

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and cool things going on it's really beautiful wow

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so that's a really good spot yeah yeah that would be fun

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that would be fun for sure if they're into shopping at all um

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because you know sometimes you like to shop when you travel so i would recommend going up to Freeport, Maine, because specifically you have L .L.

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Bean there, and Maine is famous for L .L.

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Bean.

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Yeah, and there's other shops, too.

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Of course, yep.

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You got, like, lots of...

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Patagonia.

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Yep, lots of outdoor shops and good food up there.

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There's some good restaurants, so that would be a fun place.

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There are North Face, too.

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Yep.

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Okay.

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Absolutely.

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A lot of outdoor apparel shops.

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Yep.

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And then, honestly, just going downtown Portland.

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Yes.

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Going to the Old Port.

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The Old Port.

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Seeing the old cobblestone streets.

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Yeah.

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The old buildings.

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Yeah

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and it's just really lively in the summertime

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there's lots of live music going on there's lots of good places to eat yeah

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there's it's just a it's a quintessential place to walk around

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and experience maine and portland and lobster boats

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and everything you'd see on a postcard about the area yes love

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it okay um let's see question for you about travel plans and experiences um

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what type of traveler are you so like

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when you go on vacation do you like to relax

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and read books and just chill or do you like to be active

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and go sightseeing and go hiking and do all

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that kind of thing absolutely my favorite trips are

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when there's some activity like hiking dancing or even just walking around a city

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but like walking like 20 30 000 steps walking yeah um so i do love that activity.

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I love exploring.

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I'm not so much of a sit on the beach all day getting a tan kind of person.

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I could do that for a little while maybe you know half the day

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or less but at the end of the day I love being out and about exploring, meeting new people,

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just seeing new things like immersing myself in that place whether it's a natural environment like a hike or a city

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so i would say yeah i'm an explorer i don't know

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if that's a traveler type but i think it should be that's why we get along

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so well yeah because i'm the same way like the idea of lying on the beach for hours

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and hours no thank you i would need a lot of sunscreen

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if you're into that god bless you that's great but or

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if we go to the beach i would like to be doing something like surfing

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or swimming or snorkeling yeah

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and i also really like as much as possible to try to live like a local

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when i'm traveling i mean sometimes you're just going to be a tourist

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and you need to do tourist things

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but i do really love finding the little hole in the wall restaurant

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that only locals go to or the dive bar

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and you know just hanging out with people who are living their lives

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you know that's the best not just other tourists

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i have a hack i have a life hack to share tell me

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so when you're traveling

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if you want to know some of the best local spots

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to eat yeah ask a cop oh my gosh ask a police officer i never thought of

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that they're always out eating yeah they know the good spots

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because they know the city very well yeah yeah wow that's a great tip

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and they're usually i mean you can just go up

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and talk to them they're usually out

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and about yeah they're legally obligated to talk to you as long as you're polite

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you know yeah um that's a great tip i'm trying to think well

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this video is not about travel hacks maybe we'll have to

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do another video about travel hacks yeah part five at this point is there any place

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that you've traveled

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that you wish you hadn't sorry

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i don't want to throw any place under the bus right maybe i shouldn't ask

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that let me how about this and let me ask in a different way is there anywhere that you

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enjoyed going you actually liked it

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but you don't necessarily feel like you need to go back that's a good question let me think about

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that okay think about that we don't have to answer

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that we don't have to throw in any any place under the bus that's fair i've been on a hike

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or two before yeah where you know i get to the end of the hike

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and it's like oh like there were

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so many bugs oh yeah mosquitoes yeah like the trail itself wasn't the best

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it didn't have a lot of good views yeah i know way better hikes yeah

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so there's definitely a couple hikes where i'm like been there done

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that don't need to go never gonna go back to

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that again fair enough yeah is there anywhere locally

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that you feel like is over hyped like like

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because this is a touristic city

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and we're very lucky to live here is there anywhere

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that comes to mind

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that you feel like everyone goes there i have one actually okay i have one

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so i feel like there's i'm not going to say the name specifically of the place

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but there's there's a donut shop where everybody goes

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and there's these long lines every day i know exactly the shop you're talking about

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and i agree with you 100 you are dead on about

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that and like they're good

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but like really like like it's a little bit overhyped you're yeah you're 100 right about

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that particular donut shop yeah so i always i try to look for places

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that are not um like what's the word overhyped oversold over too touristy yeah um all right

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so this is going to be controversial that's okay i'm not

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i won't back down

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i stand by my opinions okay even though i already recommended

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them as a good place for a tourist to go

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and visiting yes becky's diner is also a little bit overhyped

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because it's a great place shout out becky's not putting you down um

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but is it a place

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that you want to wait an hour for sometimes the waits are really long especially in summer right

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and like on a sunday morning yeah like any weekends

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so like if you can just you know walk down the street

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and boom there's a table available go to back yes for

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sure yes um is it worth an hour of your time waiting for i think there's other hidden gems yes

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which is a great phrase also there's so many restaurants to try you just have to do a little research

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ask the cops i'm gonna get

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so much hate on the comment section i don't know bring

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it bring it about becky's yeah we'll see bring

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it folks have i can take have any of you been to portland maine

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and specifically have you been to becky's

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you can tell us in the comments again great spot yeah not hour -long wait

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it's okay we would we would still go yeah just yeah do we want to wait an hour no

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that's a good question no i think some people like waiting in line right well not me yeah

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yeah especially

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if you're hungry seriously yeah yeah depends uh where you're with i mean

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i'd wait an hour in a line with you oh thanks well

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we have a lot to talk about we do especially now

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that we're practicing our small talk so much we're

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so good at small talk by the end of this video we will have

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talked about everything though we'll just be like yeah

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we don't have anything more to talk about we've done it right here with you guys

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that was nice knowing you yeah

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no come back um okay next topic let's go next topic okay

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i think you pick okay i think all right i'm sorry

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this is gonna be our last topic for this video and

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if you're enjoying these small talk questions and answers

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and us in general then you can tune in for a part two oh

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so next time in part two we can count up the questions yes

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and figure out how many we did in part one

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and then actually keep track yes so that we actually hit a hundred yes

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and fulfill our promises we won't let you down

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i'm a stickler for fulfilling promises yes i know i try to stand by my word okay

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and if you want to help us count let us know how many questions

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and answers we actually did i would appreciate

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that i'm less of a math person more of an english person obviously

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but also don't be that guy don't be like actually there was three questions in one

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so really you hit 100 i mean sometimes it's hard to count

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because we have follow -up questions

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which i love i love a good follow -up question

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but this video is not really about follow -up questions i do want to say

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that if you like this topic

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and you want to learn more with go natural english come to gonaturalenglish .com slash anyone

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that is where you can find information about how to sign

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up for my course about how to start a conversation with anyone

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so there's that but we're not done yet we have one more topic

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which is fitness and hobbies oh fitness we love some fitness um fitness cake in my mouth

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good one okay whose turn is it to ask the question it would be me right

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because you you chose the topic sure okay

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so do you work out

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i'm just kidding hey mike hey gabby do you like to exercise yes

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i like to exercise that's a great question um do you prefer going to the gym

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or doing outdoors activities i mean

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if i could only choose one definitely outdoor activities i'd much rather do

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that but i like both like i like going to the gym

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and lifting weights and focusing on certain areas um

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but yeah i'd much rather be out hiking or kayaking

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or getting my exercise in a more fun outdoorsy kind of way totally i do both okay yeah cool um

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and what about you like what are some ways

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that you get in exercise other than going to the gym yeah

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so you know i love dancing

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so that's a good amount of cardio i also love to hike

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or kayak or walk my dog yeah those are different for me than going to the gym

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because at the gym i lift weights

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and it's just a different way to work out your body

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so i like both but

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if i had to only pick one it would be outdoor activities yeah oh

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it's not it's my turn now isn't it do you have any hobbies

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i have actually too many hobbies like that's kind of one

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of my personality traits is i have lots of hobbies

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and i'll get really into it and then kind of move on to another one

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so one of the hobbies though that i've had for years and years

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and years on end is i'm really into tea yes i'm really into brewing tea chinese tea specifically chinese tea

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so it's like a traditional way to brew tea uh called

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gong fu tea where you use like very small teapots

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or a lidded cup they are small they're teeny tiny

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you guys they're like they can fit in the palm of your hand

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but you like pack them full of leaf

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and then do like many infusions you brew the tea many times

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and then like you get to see different aspects of the tea

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and it's just like a good social thing

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so it's really good to do with friends and other people

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because then the small talk in the conversation just kind of flows more naturally like

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when you have something that kind of distracts you right or

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that you can focus you can talk about the tea it makes the taste yeah the experience

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or other things right absolutely

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so what had what hobby have you had maybe for the longest like what's a lifelong hobby

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that you've done for a long time probably dance

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because i've been doing latin dance for about 20 years now maybe a little bit more

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but not super consistently i've done it sporadically just as the opportunity comes up you know

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if there's a dance festival

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or maybe a fun event that's happening like later today we're gonna go to

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so I haven't always been consistent with it even though I would say

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I've done it for the longest amount of time

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I've had a consistent interest I just haven't gone every single week to a dance class

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I'd probably be a lot better than I am now

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but it's something

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that I've really just really enjoyed it gives me

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it gives me a lot of joy to dance how did you first get into latin dance what got

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you into it yeah i actually saw some performers at a festival locally here in portland

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i think it was some kind of global arts festival

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and i remember seeing a performance and i thought wow

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that is so dynamic and just full of energy and joy

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and like very um you know the music is upbeat

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and i thought i want to learn to do that

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so i know that you have a half marathon

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that you're going to be doing soon yes yeah not super soon i still have some time to prepare

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but yes i'm planning on doing the austin half marathon with a couple of friends there

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so i'll have to start preparing a few months out i like to start training i don't know five

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or six months in advance it's just the half marathon this time though

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so maybe four

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or five months in advance yeah 13 miles no biggie yeah no big deal um

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i'm excited to do it with friends though this is the first time

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that i've done something like

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that with other people um it's just always been me you know training by myself

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so it's a different experience to have friends to cheer each other on yeah yeah cool yeah um oh

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i don't want to oh yeah it's my turn do you like water sports um

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i mean i love to snorkel

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so i used to live in maui hawaii for a

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while i was there for five and a half years

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and i had my own snorkel gear and i had my favorite snorkel spots

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that i would go to certain beaches that were really great

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and those i will not tell you

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because i'm not going to blow those up hawaii super secret yeah hawaii is the type of place where like

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if you got some really good local spots

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you can't tell you can tell your friends to bring those secrets to the grave with you

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but i'm not going to tell your two million plus sorry guys sorry guys

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sorry um unless you live in maui then we'll come visit you

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and we can talk about all the best places to go snorkeling

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but yeah so as far as water sports go i mean i kayak as well

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so you know i like being on top of the water in the kayak i love snorkeling um

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but i've never done like um like water skiing or anything like

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that yeah no i think you and i we figured out something particular

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that we like to not use like motorized things like like the jet ski

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or water ski we like to be um like just self -propelled yeah like on our own two feet

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or in the water just you know maybe a surfboard is okay

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but yeah but not something that's motorized we like to use our muscles and

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when you're just sitting on a jet ski to me

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it's not as interesting as like using your own muscles yeah

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um here's an interesting question yeah what is a more intellectual pursuit

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or hobby that you have like maybe it's like reading a certain type of books

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or a certain topic that you're really interested in uh

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so i find myself really curious about a lot of different topics

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but the first thing that came to mind was languages

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because i don't just like teaching english i love learning other languages

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i like learning how they're structured i like learning um like phrases

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that exist in one language but not another

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and i love yeah i love learning like how

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that reflects on the culture too um or like

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when i practice japanese you know learning the different characters

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i'm getting excited just talking about it i love it yeah yeah

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but that's always been my thing um can i put

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you on the spot of course sure do you have an example of a phrase used in one language

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but not others um well like yeah so there's a couple

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that come to mind like in japanese natsukashi means like it's hard to it's hard for me to translate

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it's kind of like oh that's

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so um oh what's the word like uh nostalgic like uh

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or like oh no no sorry not nostalgic natsukashi is like i'm you guys

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you're gonna have to correct me in the comments

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because i'm not going to do this justice at all um

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but it seems to me

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that it's a hard word to translate also the word in portuguese saudade

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that one is like a longing for something like oh saudade jivo said is like i miss you

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but it's more than miss it's like my soul longs for you it's like very

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so i'll need to learn this one

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because i said doesn't it sound nice it's gonna come in handy

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so often with us it's in a lot of songs too it's such a beautiful word

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so shout out to uh to the portuguese speakers

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and the japanese speakers ciao not quite ciao

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but um all right well do we have any other any other questions i'm sure we could think of more

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but i feel like you guys might need a break we might need a break we've talked about food

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so much i'm actually getting hungry like for real for real for real

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so i think that we're gonna wrap this up but again

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watch for part two um when it's available i'll link to it in the pinned comment

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and yeah let us know what you think of this style video

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because we're trying new formats and i think it's fun

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but i want to know

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if you think it's fun do you think it's fun

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i'm loving it you know what my worry is what you're gonna love it

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so much that you just want to record every day that

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and i think i think i'm gonna get like some comments

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that i think i'm gonna break some hearts i think

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you introducing me as your boyfriend i think there's a lot of guys out there who think you're really cute

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because you are oh i thought you meant

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you're gonna break some ladies hearts no no

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i think the existence are being featured in your video i think there's gonna be some guys

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that are flaming me in the comments oh don't be

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that guy if you feel like blaming him just let's turn

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that into positivity just say i'm

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so happy for you yeah that's the best yeah yeah i'm

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so happy for you congratulations gabby

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you finally have a boyfriend sorry she's mine well um

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i'm very happy to be able to introduce mike to you all i hope you enjoyed this

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and we'll catch you in part two all right awesome bye for now

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if you ever get stuck and you don't know what to say

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when you're trying to talk to someone

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this is the video for you this is part two of our 100 small talk questions and answers

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and real spontaneous not planned not scripted native english conversation i'm gabby from go natural english

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and this is mike my wonderful boyfriend and we are back with our hat it's actually your hat.

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Hat -o -questions.

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Hat -o -questions.

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Hat -o -topics.

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Hat -o -topics yes

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and then we make up the questions as we go our

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goal is to come up with ten questions per topic

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and of course we'll be answering them as well

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so we're gonna try to keep them kind of light small talk questions so

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that you can shadow along with us

474

you can build your toolbox of English small talk questions for your next conversation

475

and if you would like to download a free PDF with all of the questions

476

that we're asking each other so

477

that you can review them really easily you can do

478

that at gonaturalenglish .com slash anyone

479

because the point of today is how to talk with anyone

480

because that's really fun right absolutely i mean most of the time actually

481

i think we do good at it like when we're out getting coffee

482

and stuff we just strike up conversation i was just gonna say

483

this morning we took a really nice walk to a new

484

cafe well new for you i've been there once before

485

and we struck up conversations with multiple people along the way

486

how did we strike up conversations with strangers how did we

487

talk to anyone in the real world like what did we actually do i think some people talked to us

488

because i have a very cute husky dog a siberian husky

489

so a lot of people comments on my dog they say oh she's

490

so cute or i love your dog can i pet your dog

491

so that's a hack if you have a pet

492

that you can bring with you

493

or borrow someone else's pet do you remember anything else

494

that we did i mean no

495

you hit the ultimate hack having a cute dog in your life is the ultimate way to break the ice

496

and talk to people for sure yes probably works

497

if you have kids or babies too i would assume um

498

so having a cute child might work yeah

499

so should we jump right into it let's get into it all right just before

500

we start again i highly encourage

501

you to go to gonaturalenglish .com slash anyone to get your free download of all these questions

502

so you can practice along with us and review afterwards it's totally free

503

and it's like instant it'll show up in your inbox

504

when you enter your name and your email on the page all right

505

so who gets to start this time as always

506

i always say ladies first ladies first i think

507

you should be first gabby all right i'm not looking i'm not cheating okay the topic is where someone lives

508

or where they are from go for it

509

so gabby where did you grow up i grew up all over the place

510

so i wasn't really born

511

and raised in any one particular place

512

i was born in minnesota in the midwest in the united

513

states a lot of people always ask me what country are

514

you from i am from the united states born in minnesota

515

but i lost most of my accent from the from the uh from minnesota most of it uh

516

now i have more of a standard american accent i would say from all my years of teaching

517

and traveling and living abroad but when i was young my family

518

and i my parents and i we moved around a lot

519

and we ended up living in several different states we lived in minnesota hawaii indiana maine where we are now

520

and then as an adult i lived all over the world normally i would ask how about you yes um

521

but we're going we're going yeah we're going like

522

new questions yes oh you guys you're gonna have to just wait to find out where mike is from where do you live

523

so i live right here in south portland maine um

524

this is i can yeah don't say your address yeah okay i'm not

525

that new to the world a little wet behind my ears still no

526

so uh i live here in south portland maine um you know

527

and to answer the question where i grew up i grew up here um i wasn't born here

528

but i was born in new york city

529

but um i grew up in south portland

530

then i traveled around a lot i've lived in new york city as an adult

531

i lived in santa fe new mexico i lived in maui hawaii

532

and then eventually found myself back here in maine

533

so i am here yeah i think that's why we get along

534

so well we've lived many different places

535

and then we met here yes um okay what else could

536

i ask you about well do you well where was your favorite place to live out of all the places

537

i lived um i feel like again this is like just inviting comments

538

but uh i'm gonna go with maui hawaii i mean

539

it's hard to turn down paradise yes you know they talk about the aloha spirit

540

and i found that to be true the the people there are just

541

so kind so friendly and if you're respectful people will welcome you in

542

and with open arms open heart

543

and of course it's a tropical paradise yeah you can go snorkeling

544

and go hiking go swimming in waterfalls swimming in the ocean yeah it's just incredible yeah yeah

545

if people haven't traveled to hawaii put it on your bucket highly recommended

546

i mentioned also as a child i It's not couple years living in Hawaii and it was magical.

547

So I agree.

548

So Gabby, if you weren't living here in Maine, where do you think you might enjoy living?

549

Oh, that's a great question.

550

I've enjoyed living in different countries, in different cities in the U .S.

551

I think I would enjoy living, you know, I'd love to go back to Japan.

552

We've talked about that a little bit.

553

I think that would be really fun i like places

554

that um where i can like use another language

555

so even in the u .s

556

if it's somewhere where there's um a lot of maybe french speakers

557

or spanish speakers that's really fun for me

558

or hawaii there's a lot of japanese speakers um i recently

559

this is an update since the last video you guys

560

i recently moved from kansas city to back to portland maine

561

so i'm very happy to get settled in here

562

and I'm not quite ready to think about where else I would live

563

but that's a good question um I have to say also this bird is very

564

birds enjoy small talk too

565

they don't even need anybody else to talk to they're just happy to talk to themselves

566

if they could just let us talk so

567

Mike you're an expert in this area

568

because okay you've lived here for several years sure

569

so what do you think are the top three good things about living in the portland

570

or south portland area of maine southern maine let's say southern maine um all right

571

so if i'm gonna go with what is really nice about here is i love the four seasons

572

so you know here in maine you get summer winter spring

573

and fall um i wish spring and fall would maybe a little longer

574

and maybe the winter was a little shorter

575

but it's really really cool to see the changing of the seasons

576

and the leaves change like right now it's you know mid -september

577

so this is like my favorite favorite time of year like

578

weather is getting a little cooler like the leaves are just

579

slightly starting to change the bugs are kind of going away

580

so this is like my favorite a lot of people come here to see the changing leaves yes

581

it's really beautiful i'm excited for that actually leaf peeping yes very cool um

582

so i would say and

583

that kind of brings me to another great thing about living in maine is the nature yes

584

so here you know you have

585

so many opportunities to get outside you can go hiking in

586

so many different places like go kayaking sailing go to the beach um maine just has

587

so many opportunities for outdoor adventure

588

which is my big thing i'm a huge outdoor nature lover uh and then i would say that um

589

finally it's just a really like safe place to live

590

you know the people are friendly

591

it's a safe place like you're not even going to have natural disasters like earthquakes

592

and hurricanes and stuff like that

593

so it's just a very just cold just just cold in the winter that's probably the worst

594

but yeah but it's just a calm safe enjoyable place to live yes yeah it's good trade -off okay

595

so you said the activities the um this bird is driving me insane i cannot concentrate

596

Okay, so now that I did my Ranger Mike thing and kindly asked our noisy bird neighbor to leave, I wanted to ask you about.

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[Shadowing Japanese] 09 好きな食べ物・嫌いな食べ物 (Favorite Foods and Foods I Don't Like) - Japanese Speaking

Daily ConversationWorking Adults

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 596 sentences and 6878 words to shadow. The speech runs for 38:04. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
hike noun	/haɪk/	A long walk, usually for pleasure or exercise.
potato noun	/pəˈteɪ.təʊ/	The edible starchy tuber of the plant species Solanum tuberosum.
hobby noun	/ˈhɑ.bi/	An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.
outdoor adjective	/aʊtˈdɔː/	Situated in, designed to be used in, or carried on in the open air.
smash verb	/smæʃ/	To break (something brittle) violently.
meal noun	/ˈmiːl/	Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
fitness noun	/ˈfɪt.nəs/	The condition of being fit, suitable or appropriate.
magical adjective	/ˈmæd͡ʒ.ɪ.kəl/	Of, relating to, or by means of magic.
shout verb	/ʃaʊt/	To utter a sudden and loud cry, as in joy, triumph, exultation or anger, or to attract attention, to animate others, etc.
memorable adjective	/ˈmɛm.(ə)ɹə.bl̩/	Worthy to be remembered; very important or remarkable.
steak noun	/steɪk/	Beefsteak: a slice of beef, broiled or cut for broiling.
gosh	/ɡɑːʃ/	A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm.
mash verb	/mæʃ/	To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure
phrase noun	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	A short written or spoken expression.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
come back verb	To return to a place.
grow up verb	To mature and become an adult.
follow up verb	To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
strike up verb	To start something with somebody else, such as a conversation or relationship.
walk around verb	To walk with no planned destination; to meander.
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
get along verb	To interact or coexist well, without argument or trouble.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if it wasn't scallops i would also · if you're respectful people will welcome
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to think · used to live
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've been · haven't been · i've seen
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being featured · wasn't really born · was born

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 227 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, mathematical /ˌmæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: smash /smæʃ/, shout /ʃaʊt/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, mash /mæʃ/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/

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 topic, hike, potato.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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[Shadowing Japanese] 09 好きな食べ物・嫌いな食べ物 (Favorite Foods and Foods I Don't Like) - Japanese Speaking

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?