Shadowing Practice: This Crazy Story Will IMPROVE Your English - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello everyone.

Welcome back.

It is me.

It is I.

I'm excited for the video of today because I'm going to be telling you an interesting story.

It's kind of a chaotic, crazy, funny story that I was laying in bed the other night

and it just popped into my head and I was like, oh, that would be a good idea for a story to share in a video.

And I think these videos are good for you guys because it's just me talking normally.

I'm talking totally normally.

This is exactly how I would talk if I was talking to any native speaker in English.

You know, I use different words and phrases that you can learn, that you can practice.

So you can listen to me talk about something interesting.

You can learn stuff by listening.

You can also imitate me.

You can copy me.

You can repeat what I'm saying.

You know, that's how I learned Spanish and Portuguese.

That's how I always recommend that you learn English.

All right.

It's just, it's pretty simple.

You listen, you repeat.

You listen, you imitate.

That's how you learn a language, okay?

I always get people taking conversation classes with me and asking me like, what do I do to improve?

That's it.

Please don't ask me again, okay?

That's it.

That's all you do.

You listen, you imitate.

Actively focused, okay?

Not in a passive, like not paying attention.

No, like active, okay?

All right.

So today I'm going to share this story.

Now, in another video previously, I have talked about in general,

my experience of living in the Amazon in Ecuador for four years when I was 20 years old to like 24.

I talked about why I did that, what I was doing there.

I talked about my experiences.

I've already made a general video like that.

If you want to see that video, if you want to watch it, you can just scroll back, go down in my videos.

I made that video like a year ago.

It's not that, wasn't that long ago.

I think it's called, I was attacked in the Amazon or something like that.

Cause I told the story of how I was attacked.

So you can go watch that if you want more context, if you want to know more about that.

But specifically today, I want to talk about my exact experience that occurred within like, I don't know, 48 hours or something.

I don't know exactly, but it was in like a couple days.

it was within a couple of days that I left Florida and arrived at my final destination in the Amazon in Ecuador.

And I didn't do this journey alone.

I took this trip with my friend at the time.

I had a friend who was, she was like a year younger than me.

She was actually the younger sister of my freshman year roommate in college.

But I kind of bonded a little bit more with her younger sister.

I kind of vibed with her more than her older sister, who was my roommate.

Her older sister was a great friend of mine when I was in college, but I don't know, her younger sister and I kind of bonded.

So her younger sister, she was 19 at the time and she didn't really know what to do with her life.

And I was planning this trip to go to Ecuador.

And I said, well, you could come with me, come to Ecuador, have an experience.

I don't know.

And then, you know, you can always go back.

You can always go back home.

Just do it.

Why not?

Like, just come.

And so she did.

I mean, she was very hesitant.

Her family was very scared for her.

They were like afraid that she was going to get kidnapped.

And they watch a lot of scary movies and they were just really worried about her.

But I was telling her, it's fine.

It's going to be fine.

I have all the instructions.

We're going to be meeting up with other people from the United States there.

It's like, everything is fine.

You'll be fine.

Could I guarantee that?

No, but I was confident about it.

I was also a bit naive at that age.

Like I wasn't afraid of anything really.

Like I was just like, yeah, let's do it.

But looking back, yes, even though I could recognize that I was a little bit naive, I was correct in thinking like everything is going to be fine.

We're just, we're just traveling to another country.

This country is not a war torn country.

It's not in a really bad situation.

Ecuador was fine, especially at that time.

Ecuador was fine.

Sometimes Ecuador comes up in the news and bad things about Ecuador, but most of the bad things that happen in Ecuador

or the really bad things happen on the coast or in very specific areas where we were not going.

We were going to the Amazon and most of the stuff doesn't happen there.

The violence and the drug trafficking, things like that, gang stuff, those things tend to happen on coastal cities.

So in general, Ecuador is a pretty safe country like to go.

I mean, you know, you just got to be smart like any other place.

Just be smart.

Don't be a fool.

You know, don't be walking around by yourself in the nighttime.

Like try to avoid things like that.

You know, I'm telling my past self that also I learned the hard way.

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But anyways, most of the most of everything is fine.

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So my friend, her name is Shirelle, she decided to go with me.

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She didn't know any Spanish and she didn't know anything about, you know, what we were getting into.

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I didn't really know either, but I knew some, I knew I had like enough Spanish to get by, to communicate at the time.

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I didn't really start like seriously using Spanish

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and starting to be able to speak Spanish until I was already living there and I spent,

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I had a lot of free time when I was staying there.

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I didn't really, I didn't have a job for a while.

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So I just spent a lot of time studying and learning Spanish.

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So I didn't learn Spanish from Ecuadorians, trust me.

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They didn't teach me shit.

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I learned it on the internet with my own, my own study and practice.

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And then, yeah.

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And then I would practice like talking to them in town and stuff, but a little bit here and there, you know, not extensively, but mostly it was through studying on the internet.

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Anyways, so we left in November.

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I remember specifically, we left on November 8th.

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It's crazy that I remember the exact day, but I do.

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I had just turned 20 in September.

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We left November 8th.

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Our first flight was out of Tampa, Tampa, Florida.

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That's where my friend lived and I was staying in that area at the time.

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We had a totally fine flight down to Fort Lauderdale.

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That was where we had a layover.

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So we had a layover in Fort Lauderdale.

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We flew from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale.

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Everything went fine.

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Everything went smoothly.

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We were waiting at our layover in the Fort Lauderdale airport, Fort Lauderdale.

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Fort Lauderdale, if you don't know, is like a city that's like right above Miami.

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It's like North Miami.

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And apparently they changed our gate and we didn't know.

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I don't know if we had our headphones on.

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We didn't hear the announcement.

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We weren't paying attention.

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I don't know.

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From now on, I make sure I get text messages about gate changes

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and stuff to my phone because our gate number was changed and we didn't know.

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We didn't find out.

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So we actually missed our flight.

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And I don't remember what that flight was.

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I don't know if it went straight to Ecuador.

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I don't remember, but we missed that flight.

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And so we realized it and we were like, oh shit, we missed our flight we need to fuck we need what are we gonna do

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so last minute i bought new flights for us sherelle didn't really have much money at the time

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and she had already paid for her flight that we lost

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and we were on on the phone with the airline

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but they they weren't really helping us you know they don't it's like it's kind of like our fault

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that we missed it

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that we you know we didn't pay attention to the gate the gate change

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so sherelle didn't really have the money for a new flight like Like she didn't really, you know, she couldn't really afford that.

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And so I just bought us, I was like, we just have to get there.

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So I bought us two new flights on the spot, expensive as hell.

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And those flights left from Miami and went to Columbia and then Ecuador.

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And I was so stressed.

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I was so stressed.

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I was like, I was not really eating food.

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This was a time of my life when I was kind of, I was kind of on a restrictive diet.

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I was just not really eating properly

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and I didn't really know what to eat or how to eat on this new diet.

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I don't do that anymore.

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Nowadays, I am against animal exploitation, so I'm vegan.

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I will be vegan until I die.

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I don't believe humans are entitled to exploit and enslave other beings, animals.

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But as far as my diet goes, it's not restrictive at all.

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I'll eat anything that doesn't involve animal use.

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I literally today just had a Colombian tamal vegan and I had a piece of carrot cake.

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I love Colombian carrot cake.

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Very good.

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So I don't have a restrictive diet now.

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But at the time I did and I was really kind of starving myself in a way. But yeah.

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Anyway, I've talked about that a little bit in another video on my channel

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when I talked about how I did a 13 day water fast and I was trying to be raw vegan, like a fruitarian.

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And like I talked about that in a previous video.

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If you're really interested, you can go find it.

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Okay.

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But anyways, so I was like not eating this whole trip and I felt like responsible for me and Sherelle.

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Like financially, I was the only one who knew Spanish.

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I was kind of the leader of the trip.

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It was my idea in the first place.

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I was the older one.

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And so I felt this pressure to take care of everything.

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And I liked her being there for like moral support.

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So I didn't feel so alone, but she didn't really help me with anything.

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Like it was like, and that's fine.

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I'm not, I didn't expect her to.

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I didn't, I didn't expect her to.

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And I don't think she should have had to.

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She didn't know but I felt like this pressure of like I have to do everything.

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So it was a lot.

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I'm like stressing trying to figure out the next flight.

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I get the flight.

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I buy the flights.

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So we're like okay we're in Fort Lauderdale.

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We got to go to Miami.

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How the hell we're going to get we need to take an Uber.

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That is a very long drive.

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It's not like that bad.

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I don't know it's probably like 30 minutes or something.

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How long is I don't know.

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But on Uber in that area of the world it's expensive.

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Okay.

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In the U S Uber is really expensive.

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And so we, I had to pay for an Uber for us to go down to the Miami airport.

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So we do that.

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We go to the Miami airport and then we, we get on our flights.

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I mean, we get on, yeah, we get on the plane and then we fly to, to Bogota, Columbia.

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I don't even know what, what the times are.

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Like, I don't, I can't tell you the times.

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I don't remember the times, but I remember specifically being awake all night in the airport.

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So I think, I think our flight left, like probably left at like three in the morning or something.

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And it was like, not that late when we first went to the, to Miami airport.

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So I just remember us waiting in the airport at nighttime, just like, just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting forever.

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I was hungry.

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I was tired waiting, but I was on adrenaline also.

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Like I was all, you know, alert on adrenaline, running on adrenaline, we say.

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And so we get on our flights, We fly to Bogota, Colombia.

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And at the time, I didn't know anything.

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Like I was so overwhelmed.

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I didn't know anything.

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I didn't understand how anything worked.

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So I just thought like, oh, I can't buy anything at the Colombian airport because they have a different currency and I don't have their money.

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Like it never occurred to me that, oh, I could just pay with my debit card and I can buy things there.

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Like I was just thinking, oh, it's in a different currency.

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I can't, I can't buy anything.

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Oh God.

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But yeah, so we had our layover there and then we finally flew to Guayaquil.

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It's a hard, it's a strange name, but yeah, it's the biggest city.

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I think it's the biggest city in Ecuador.

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I think it's bigger than Quito.

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Quito is the capital in the Andes, but I think Guayaquil, which is on the coast, I think it's a bigger city.

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I don't know.

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Guayaquil, it's a rough city.

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It's like, that's a city where you probably shouldn't go as a foreigner.

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You probably shouldn't live there.

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Like it's, yeah, it's kind of a rough city.

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Quito is better if you're going to check out a big city in Ecuador.

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But the best places in Ecuador are neither of those two.

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The best places are like smaller cities and towns.

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But anyways, so we fly to guayaquil and okay so this is

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when more crazy stuff starts happening

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so to give you a little background to give you a

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little context we both had two backpacks not very big backpacks

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but just like two backpacks with all of our personal stuff

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and then we also had these like super long they were like i don't even know how to describe them

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but they were like long and and thin or like narrow Oh, skinny.

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I don't just these like, huh?

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How do I explain this?

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It's so difficult.

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It is very similar to like in high school, I used to play field hockey.

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So I had a hockey stick.

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I had a long hockey stick.

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And so I used to have a bag that was like shaped like that.

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So it's like that.

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We had a long skinny, like kind of bag.

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We had two of them.

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We each carried one.

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And in it were plants, plants and supplies, because the people where we were going to stay in Ecuador and the Amazon.

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It was a property, a farm with a small group of gringos, foreigners living there.

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And it was a farm project.

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They were trying to grow fruits, exotic fruits, tropical fruits.

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And when they found out that we were coming from Florida to there, they asked us to bring some exotic plants because Florida,

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if you didn't know, most people don't know, Florida.

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Florida is the only tropical part of the United States is it's actually considered subtropical.

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In Florida, especially in the Southern part of Florida, it is like a fruit, an exotic fruit lovers paradise,

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but you cannot find it at the grocery store.

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You will not go to the grocery store in Florida and see exotic fruits.

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No, you have to know the people.

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You have to find out where the small farmers are the small.

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There's a lot of like fruit nerds, like fruit, private, small fruit growers, fruit fanatics, just just fruit nerds.

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I mean, I'm a fruit nerd.

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Like if I had a property in Florida, I would do this, too.

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There's a lot of people who who nerd out about fruit

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and they collect all kinds of different exotic and rare types of fruits in Florida.

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So Florida for a fruit nerd is like it's like a

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seed bank a plant bank it's just like a haven it's like a paradise for yeah for seeds

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and plants and

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if you know where to go who to ask what you

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know you can get some nice stuff the people in Ecuador

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the gringos in Ecuador they had selected I'm just calling them gringos

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because it's easy they had selected certain plants for us they had actually had them delivered to us in Florida.

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So we had these bags full of different plants.

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We had like rare banana suckers, we call them like little banana kids.

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Like it's the part of the banana that you plant.

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It's like the baby.

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We had some fruit trees.

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Yeah.

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So we had like little baby plants and some supplies in there.

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And so when our flight arrived to Ecuador, we had our backpacks because we brought those on the plane with us.

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But the long bags of the plants, we had checked those bags.

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So they were on the plane, under the plane or whatever.

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And we get there and it looks like they lost everybody's bags.

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There was a long line of people like, where are our bags?

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They lost our bags or they misplaced them.

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I don't know.

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They couldn't find our bags or I don't know.

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To this day, I don't know what happened.

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I think it was just an issue at the Ecuador airport.

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I think they just didn't get our bags in time.

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We all got off the plane and the plane probably still had all of our suitcases and all our bags and stuff.

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And so I was panicking.

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I was like, oh my God, we need these plants.

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Because first of all, another reason why I was in a rush

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and felt pressured to hurry up and we need to get there quickly was because these plants will die.

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If we don't get them there fast enough and get them in the ground and take care of them, these plants are going to die.

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They're not going be viable and that would be a waste

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that would be a big waste i'd probably have to pay for them

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and everything so i was really pressured to get there so

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that just added to the stress

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so we all had to go to this desk at the

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airport to ask about like what happened to our bags

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and i remember being really nervous it's my first time like really in another country like having to talk with people

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but i was in the airport and

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so i asked him i said i asked the guy i said uh do you speak english

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and he says so quickly so perfectly i cannot explain to you how quickly

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and perfectly he said yes ma'am how can i help you like a pro he's a total pro

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and that's not the case in a lot of airports in

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a lot of my experience in a lot of my experiences

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the people at the airports don't have good english like honestly

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nine times out of ten the people at the airport english

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sucks it's not very good like especially in latin america like sometimes they try to talk to me in english

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and i'm just like nowadays i just talk to them in spanish

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because i'm just like oh my god i can't even understand

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you in english it's really bad like you guys who are

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watching this video trying to learn english right now you guys

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probably have way better english than the people who working who who work at the airport in your city

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or in your country.

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I swear, a lot of the people at the airports don't have good English.

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You would think that they would, but they don't.

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But this guy, this guy at the airport in Guayaquil, he had great English and this guy was amazing and soon I'll tell you why.

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So he's asking for like a phone number.

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He's like, do you have a number?

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So if we find your bag, we can contact you.

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I'm like, at this time, do you think I knew anything about SIM cards and phone.

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I was just like, no, I don't have a phone number.

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Like, I mean, I have a US number, but I'm here, you know, this doesn't work here.

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So I just gave him my email.

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I gave him my email.

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He's like, okay, well, we're gonna work on it.

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And, you know, I don't know if he told us like to stick around or something like, you know, give us a little bit of time.

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We're gonna try to find the bags.

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So we go to, oh, you like my earrings?

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Oh, you like my flower earrings?

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Yeah, yeah, me too.

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So we go to another part of the airport.

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We're looking if there's something to eat.

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I just felt like there's nothing for me to eat here.

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At the time I was vegan and I was a new vegan, so I didn't know shit about what I could eat.

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And also I was new in Ecuador, so I didn't know what kind of stuff I could get, what I could ask for.

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After living in Ecuador for a little while, I quickly learned that you can ask for rice and a lot of times the beans are vegan and you can, you know, there's things that I could have asked for,

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but at the time I didn't know.

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And it was like morning time.

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It was like breakfast time.

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And I, I just didn't know what I could get.

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I think I got a juice or something, but I was really hungry.

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My friend, Sherelle, she wasn't vegan.

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So she just ate, you know, whatever was there, but she was fine.

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I mean, she seemed pretty content.

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I was stressed.

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I was stressed and hungry and tired.

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I probably didn't sleep very much at all on the plane

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because I can't really sleep very well on the plane in economy class.

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And so we sit there, we eat some food.

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I wait for her to finish.

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We're sitting there a while and I'm like, okay, we can't waste any more time.

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We're just going to have to go.

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It's crazy to me now when I think about it, but I guess I just made peace with like, okay, they lost our bags.

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What are we going to do?

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I thought maybe they would send them to us.

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Maybe we could just go to the Amazon, which I didn't explain this, but we arrived at the airport in Guayaquil, which is on the coast.

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In order to get to the Amazon, we had to take a three and a half, four hour bus ride to Cuenca, which is in the Andes, to go up the mountains.

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And then we had to take another four hour bus ride down to the Amazon.

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So we had like an eight hour bus journey ahead of us.

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But at the time I was like, I can't wait any longer.

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Like, you know, we need to get there.

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So let's just leave and maybe they can send our bags to us later.

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I guess that was just the conclusion I came to.

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Nowadays, I would have like gone back and asked again about my bags.

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And like, I would have really, really made effort.

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I would have been, no, I'm not leaving until I get my bags.

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Like nowadays I would have stayed nearby in the nearby hotel.

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Like I am not leaving until I get my bags.

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But then I was like, no, we just got to get there.

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I don't know what I was thinking anyway.

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So we, we go to leave, we walk out the entrance of the airport or the exit or whatever.

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We're getting literally, literally, literally, we are getting into the taxi, just about to close the taxi door.

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And the guy who said, yes, ma'am, how can I help you?

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That guy, he comes running out of the airport.

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We got your bags.

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We got your bags.

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What the hell?

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This is a miracle.

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Okay.

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This makes me believe in miracles.

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I don't know how let's explain this.

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What the hell?

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What the hell?

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I'm so lucky.

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I'm so lucky.

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It's all I could say.

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I don't know.

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This stuff happens to me.

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I don't know.

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Nowadays, I'm just like, that is so insane.

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Like what an above and beyond airport employee, how did he even know that we were leaving, getting in the taxi?

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He came looking for us.

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Maybe everybody else stayed and got their bags and our bags were the only ones left.

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And he was like, oh, whose is this?

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Oh, it's theirs oh I remember them

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and then comes looking for us I don't know what

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but I was so impressed I am

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so blown away to this day I said to the taxi

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driver oh sorry we gotta go we go back in the

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airport we get our stuff we get our bags oh

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that was a good feeling so we get our bags

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and we we go back we get a new taxi

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and we have them take us to the bus stop now kind of the guy that was running

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the community in the Amazon where we were headed to, he sent me very specific, very detailed instructions of how,

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like step-by-step, how to get to everything.

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He said, like, go from the airport, you're going to go to this bus stop, you're going to look for this stall, you're going to get this bus ticket, you're going to go here.

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He gave very thorough, very specific instructions, which was great because I felt very confident.

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So I was like, okay, can you take us to the bus station

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and the taxi driver this was kind of my first like

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interaction with spanish there the taxi driver was like where are you guys going where you where are you going

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and we were like um the amazon and he was like ah el oriente

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and i was like what

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and he's like the amazon the jungle in uh ecuador that's what they call it there

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because ecuador has three different regions there's the coastal region

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there's the andes region which in ecuador they call it la sierra

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so they have la costa la sierra and then they have the amazon

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which they just call el oriente which is like the orient i guess

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but yeah that's what they call it so it's like yeah

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that that's where we're going yeah

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and yeah i don't remember what else we chatted about but but yeah

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but he dropped us off the bus station we get our

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bus tickets everything went smoothly there we take our first bus ride to cuenca

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and this was my first experience seeing like what Ecuador kind of looked like.

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Well, first I saw Guayaquil, the city like leaving, which was kind of interesting, but not super pretty or whatever.

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And then most of the ride was nature and kind of going up into the Andes.

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And once you start going up in elevation, you start to have these beautiful, beautiful views.

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I mean, these countries like Ecuador, they have some just some bus rides that are just absolutely gorgeous views going through the Andes.

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Sometimes scary, sometimes you're on the edge of a cliff and it's like, oh shit, the bus just moves over a little bit.

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We'd be going down the cliff into our deaths.

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So it's risky.

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It's a little dangerous, but it's beautiful.

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I do not miss taking bus rides all the time because it just makes me nauseous.

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It's gotten worse over the years, but I miss those beautiful bus rides.

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I mean, it's just beautiful, beautiful views.

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God, my throat is sore.

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I think I'm yelling too much, talking too much.

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I got a lot to say.

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Okay, I got to finish this.

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I got to get it out.

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Okay, so beautiful views, blah, blah, blah.

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We get to Cuenca.

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Now, me, like every other person who doesn't know shit about the Andes Mountains, okay, and it's not just because I was a gringo, okay?

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I've talked to Mexicans.

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I've talked to Brazilians.

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They don't even know what the Andes are like they don't understand

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that a lot of South America on that side is cold because it's up in the mountains.

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They don't understand that like the capital of Colombia of Ecuador is cold.

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They're cold because they're up in the mountains, high elevation.

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So yeah, a lot of people who don't live in a country that has Andes or they've never experienced it, they don't really understand that, that you can be literally in Ecuador right on the equator

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and you can be cold as hell because you're up in the mountains.

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You need like a winter coat and a hat.

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Well, it's not that bad.

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It's not as cold as it gets in winter where I'm from in Maine, like almost Canada.

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It's not that bad, but it gets cold, especially in the nighttime.

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So I didn't know about this.

468

So I was not prepared at all.

469

So we get to Cuenca, which is in the Andes.

470

Cuenca is a beautiful city, by the way.

471

Incredible.

472

If you're going to go anywhere in Ecuador to visit Ecuador for the first time, go to Cuenca.

473

Cuenca is gorgeous city.

474

It's very popular with foreigners too because of that.

475

Yeah.

476

So we go to Cuenca, but we didn't really get to see it in that trip.

477

We just stayed at the airport.

478

No, sorry.

479

At the bus station.

480

We're on the bus, not a plane anymore.

481

Plane is done.

482

We're on a bus.

483

So we just stayed at the bus station.

484

So we didn't really get to see the beauty of Cuenca until later.

485

Yeah.

486

So we get to the bus station in Cuenca.

487

I buy bus tickets for us to Huallaquiza, which is the town in the Amazon where we were going to.

488

But we had some hours to kill.

489

We had some time to kill.

490

Our bus didn't leave for several hours.

491

So we're just sitting there at Cuenca at the bus station in the late afternoon.

492

The sun started to go down toward the time that we were leaving.

493

So it was getting cold.

494

It was getting chilly.

495

We were sitting outside.

496

We got some fruits to eat.

497

I remember specifically walking around the bus station in Cuenca

498

and seeing a sign that said like hamburguesa vegetariana like vegetarian burger

499

and i asked about it and i was like um do you have this

500

and they were like nope like welcome to ecuador yeah yeah

501

yeah a lot of the stuff listed they will not have in stock yes

502

that is a perfect

503

that was a perfect like representation of ecuador right there like latin america in general

504

but like there'll be a menu there'll be signs showing things

505

and then no we don't have that

506

so no couldn't get a kitten couldn't get a vegetarian burger

507

but we got some fruits i was still starving it wasn't enough

508

but whatever uh i was running on adrenaline

509

so we're eating some fruits we're hanging out we're waiting for our bus ride

510

and it's getting cold

511

and all i have is a sweatshirt all i have is

512

a sweatshirt sweatshirt is a good word to know by the

513

way a lot of most students don't know this word sweatshirt

514

And sweatshirt is a word that we use constantly in English because it's a very, very common piece of clothing and it can come in many different forms.

515

It can have a hood, it could be a hoodie, it could not have a hood, it could be a zip up, it could be a pullover.

516

There's a lot of different types of sweatshirts, but you need to know this word sweatshirt because at least in American English,

517

United States English, we use this word all the time.

518

So if you don't know what a sweatshirt is, you need to know.

519

So yeah, so all I have is a sweatshirt, not very thick.

520

So we were getting cold.

521

I was like, dang, it's like it's getting cold here.

522

Why?

523

Why is it like cold?

524

I didn't understand where I was.

525

I didn't understand that I was in the Andes.

526

Yeah.

527

So anyways, we finally get on our bus and the sun is going down.

528

So basically the whole ride from Cuenca to Guadalquiza was in the dark.

529

So and we were tired and stuff.

530

So we just like I think we just tried to sleep on the bus.

531

We just tried to like lay down and sleep.

532

We didn't really we couldn't really look out the window and stuff.

533

And sometimes I would look up and I would see that we're like, it looks like we're on the edge of a cliff.

534

And I was like, I don't even want to look.

535

So I just laid down.

536

I just laid down and hoped for the best.

537

I just closed my eyes and hopefully we get there and everything is fine.

538

Let me just trust this bus driver.

539

Finally, we get to Guadalquiza.

540

Guadalquiza is a cute town in the Amazon.

541

So we get to Guadalquiza and I was following the specific instructions that I had been given.

542

and it said like okay you're gonna go you're gonna ask

543

a taxi guy with a truck you're gonna you're gonna say i need a camioneta

544

because the road to the farm it gets it gets muddy they can't really drive with the normal car

545

so you need to say i need a camioneta it's going to be like eight dollars

546

and you need to give tell them you're going to this

547

address no i said it's not even an address it's literally el puente colgante

548

that was what i had to say it's the hanging bridge So I say, I need a truck, like a pickup truck.

549

We're going to the hanging bridge.

550

So we get in the truck and we go.

551

Remember, this was like midnight.

552

We got there at like midnight.

553

Yeah.

554

So we're taking our midnight taxi drive to the bridge, the hanging bridge.

555

Now, they have since, shortly after we got there, they improved, they dramatically improved the hanging bridge.

556

It's a bridge that goes over a river that is only for walking or you can take a motorbike, but there's no, you can't drive a car.

557

It's just like a walking bridge.

558

It's a hanging bridge over a river.

559

And they improved it shortly after us getting there.

560

They made it a lot safer, a lot better.

561

But at the time when we got there, there were boards missing.

562

It was a wooden bridge.

563

There were boards missing.

564

It was like, it was dangerous.

565

And we were, it was like one in the morning.

566

It was pitch black nighttime.

567

It was us.

568

We were like tired delirious we were carrying our bags we

569

were walking across this hanging bridge um shining the light on our phones like

570

or i think it was our phone i don't know

571

if i had a flashlight

572

but looking making sure we're you know there's we're not walking

573

where there's no boards we could have uh fallen in the river and

574

if we had fallen in the river we would have been

575

i mean the with the current of the river like we

576

would have been gone like we would have gone down the

577

river for like hours probably wouldn't have been able to like get out of the river

578

and we would have been lost somewhere we don't know

579

and oh my god that could have been so bad

580

but anyway that didn't happen we finally make it across we um

581

and we yeah we had very specific instructions like okay after the bridge you're gonna walk this way

582

and we got to the farm thankfully now everybody was like

583

asleep in bed lights were off nobody was uh expecting that we were gonna come they thought we

584

we stayed the night somewhere else or whatever

585

because they didn't hear from us because remember i didn't know about sim cards

586

and stuff i basically had no way of contacting them well maybe i had email

587

but i don't remember even having wi-fi i think i just

588

didn't even have internet they had internet at the farm

589

but we we didn't have internet on the way i didn't like think of how to do

590

that i didn't want to deal with

591

that i was just i was just overwhelmed

592

and i didn't know how works

593

and I was just overwhelmed like in a new country like I don't know how anything is

594

and I was even though I had some Spanish I knew

595

some Spanish I was not feeling like super confident to talk to people I was just yeah

596

so Shirelle's mother her family back home were like freaking out

597

because they couldn't get in touch with Shirelle they were contacting

598

the farm the farm was like we can't get in touch with them either

599

because we because I didn't know how to get internet yeah nowadays I travel, I have, as soon as I land in a new country,

600

I already have an e-sim on my phone.

601

I already have internet.

602

Um, it's also very easy to get wifi.

603

You can ask different places for wifi passwords.

604

They also have usually like in the bus stations, they have little rooms where they have computers you can use.

605

Like nowadays I know this stuff, but back then I didn't know this stuff.

606

So anyways, um, so we go into the house

607

and I think some of the people heard us and they woke up and they, they were like, oh, wow, we didn't expect you to get here.

608

So yeah, we were, it's like, we got there at one in the morning, you know, they kind of, they greeted us and they took our, our plants.

609

And I think, I think they went and put the plants in the ground or put them in, no, they put them in like bigger pots with soil and they watered them like right away.

610

Yeah.

611

Cause I just had the plants, but they didn't have any, they had maybe like little bags of little bit of soil and roots, but they didn't have like a pot.

612

They were mostly just the plants like ripped out of the pot.

613

So they went and put the plants in the pots and were like, oh, the plants look like they're going to be okay.

614

So that was good.

615

So we saved the plants.

616

The plants didn't die.

617

Okay.

618

Today at that community, at that farm, they eat fruits from plants and trees that we brought.

619

We brought like, yeah, a couple of rare varieties of bananas.

620

We brought like a sapote mame.

621

Mame is like a nice type of sapote fruit.

622

There was a couple of other things I can't remember, but we brought some rare, like specialty grafted stuff.

623

Yeah.

624

Fruit nerd stuff.

625

So the plants survived.

626

They were like, okay, it's one in the morning.

627

We'll give you the tour of the farm tomorrow, but here are your rooms.

628

And I was just like, I'm just going to go to bed.

629

So like, we just went to bed.

630

We just went to sleep and woke up the next day

631

and then we

632

and then our our adventure in ecuador began well our adventure in ecuador had already begun

633

but our adventure at the farm in the amazon began okay

634

and that's and that's a whole nother story so

635

so yeah i hope you i hope you liked my story

636

i need to go rest i need to rest my throat

637

now god my a couple times i had to take a break

638

and drink water during this because I think it's the talking quickly and nonstop.

639

And then also I project my voice.

640

I always just project my voice when I film.

641

I put my presenter persona on.

642

So I'm speaking louder than I normally would if I was talking to somebody in the room next to me.

643

And yeah, just let me know if you like these videos.

644

If you want to know any other things about my life, if you want me to tell other stories, remember, this is your study tool, your study resource.

645

so as many times as you need to pause it you need to go back

646

and re-watch if you need to use the subtitles

647

if you need to like look up certain words or things

648

that i said uh you need to put on wait what

649

did she say you put on the subtitles you go back oh she said what does

650

that mean you look it up

651

and you come back whatever you need to do for this

652

to better serve you as a resource to learn english a

653

study tool do it okay do it there are no rules there are no rules to how

654

that you use this resource to benefit you to improve your English.

655

Okay.

656

The thing is, is like when it comes to learning a language, uh, yeah, you could buy a course or something, but you're not going to become fluent with that.

657

So really the only path to fluency is for you to do this, to literally just put in the time, the work, you know, listening,

658

analyzing, processing, repeating imitating you know practicing by yourself it all comes down to

659

that work that you put in nobody's gonna hold your hand

660

and walk you through it all

661

and that's just the reality of learning anything in life you

662

know especially as an adult you know there are things

663

that can help you i mean you could take a conversation class with me

664

and that can help you you can join my whatsapp group chat

665

that can help you all of my links for everything that i offer are on my channel page.

666

Okay.

667

People always ask me in the comments, where's the link, my channel page.

668

Okay.

669

Thank you.

670

So, you know, these, these are things that can help you.

671

You know, my videos can help you.

672

Everything can help you, but it's really you who puts in the focus, the attention, effort, the energy.

673

This is, this is, that's how you do it.

674

And it takes a lot of that.

675

It takes a lot of it, a lot of it.

676

Um, and some people it might take more than others and it's just, it's just what it is.

677

So I hope you enjoy my study resources, my English improvement resources that I offer.

678

And yeah, thanks for listening.

679

Thanks for watching.

680

Love you.

681

Appreciate you.

682

And I'll see you in the next one.

683

Bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “This Crazy Story Will IMPROVE Your English”. This video has 683 sentences and 7303 words to shadow. The speech runs for 36:56. The speaker talks fast, about 198 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
taxi noun	/ˈtæksi/	A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare.
sweatshirt noun	/ˈswɛtʃəːt/	A loose shirt, usually made of a knit fleece, for athletic wear and now often used as casual apparel.
vegan noun	/ˈviːɡən/	A person who does not eat, drink or otherwise consume any animal products
nowadays adverb	/ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/	At the present time; in the current era.
anyways adverb	/ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/	Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
exotic adjective	/ɪɡˈzɑtɪk/	Foreign, especially in an exciting way.
instruction noun	/ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/	The act of instructing, teaching, or providing with information or knowledge.
imitate verb	/ˈɪmɪteɪt/	To follow as a model or a pattern; to make a copy, counterpart or semblance of.
layover noun	/ˈleɪˌəʊvə(ɹ)/	A break between stages of a journey.
nighttime noun	/ˈnaɪtˌtaɪm/	The hours of darkness between sunset and sunrise; the night.
adrenaline noun	/əˈdɹɛnəlɪn/	Epinephrine, the hormone and neurotransmitter.
backpack noun	/ˈbæk.pæk/	A knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s back for the purpose of carrying things, especially when…
banana noun	/bəˈnænə/	An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
foreigner noun	/ˈfɔɹ.ɪ.nɚ/	A person from a foreign country.
overwhelm verb	/ˌoʊ.vɚˈwɛlm/	To engulf, surge over and submerge.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go back verb		To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go down verb		To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
lay down verb		To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground.
look up verb	/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/	To have better prospects.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
walk around verb		To walk with no planned destination; to meander.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

You can repeat what I'm saying.
That's how you learn a language, okay?
How do I explain this?
He's like, do you have a number?
What are we going to do?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to play · used to have
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was attacked · was changed · are entitled
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	friend who was · one who knew · Guayaquil, which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have talked · I've already made · I've talked

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 238 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/, throat /ˈθɹoʊt/, theirs /ðɛɚz/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/, elevation /ˌɛlɪˈveɪʃn̩/, flashlight /ˈflæʃˌlaɪt/, exploitation /ˌɛksplɔɪˈteɪʃn̩/, specialty /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/
Long words — get the stress right: adrenaline /əˈdɹɛnəlɪn/, vegetarian /vɛ.d͡ʒɪˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/, delirious /dɪˈlɪə̯.ɹi.əs/, fruitarian /fɹuˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/, extensively /ɪkˈstɛn.sɪv.li/

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 taxi, sweatshirt, vegan.

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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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?