Shadowing Practice: un-making over my apartment... *satisfying* - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hey guys and welcome to my nearly empty apartment.
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So as many of you guys know, I am making the big cross-country move from LA to New York City, baby.
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This, uh, literally like tomorrow.
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I'm literally like in the middle of it right now.
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This is so weird because for so long I've been like, oh, I'm moving to New York someday.
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And it's literally like now.
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Now is the move.
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Earlier this morning, the movers already came to pick up all the furniture and bring with me to New York, which unfortunately is not that much of it because I'm assuming my place in New York is going to be much smaller.
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So I didn't want to overpack.
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And even earlier this morning, I was still wide awake editing my video for this week.
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So right now I have not slept for like 36 hours.
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I'm coming off an all-nighter.
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So if my brain is a little bit absent at times, you know why.
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Anyways, I have about 24 hours before I fly out to New York tomorrow.
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Basically, if my college education taught me anything, it is that I can just barely get away with doing things extremely last minute.
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And thus, I have been doing things extremely last minute pretty much my entire life, including this move.
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So yeah, I packed up everything in like two hours.
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It's been a bit chaotic.
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Right now, I have about 24 hours before I fly out to New York, which means I have 24 hours to reset this apartment to its original state so that I don't lose my security deposit.
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Now a lot of you guys were asking whether I would
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be able to leave the wallpaper up for the next tenant
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and unfortunately I was not able to find another person to take over this apartment who wanted the wallpaper.
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I actually have a girl stopping by tonight who is a friend of somebody I went to film school with
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but she requested that I take down the wallpaper because she doesn't like it.
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So hopefully she will take over the apartment once it's all reset to the original.
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So let's just get started.
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Tearing my baby to shreds.
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Not my human baby.
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Don't do cannibalism, kids.
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This is so weird.
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I literally feel like I was putting up this wallpaper like last month.
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Also, please don't judge my choice of athleisure.
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Right now, this morning I wanted to have the comfort of pajamas, but the illusion of productivity.
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And I recently discovered that athleisure is specifically made for that purpose.
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Anyways, this wallpaper is supposed to be removable.
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Emphasis on supposed to be, so we're gonna find out today.
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If it's not, I'm literally fucked because I fly out tomorrow.
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It's basically a special type of wallpaper where you have to use paste.
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Are my nipples visible?
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Maybe a little bit.
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It's basically a special type of wallpaper that you paste to the wall, but you're supposed to be able to just tear it off and strip.
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So I guess, let's try it.
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I am just like procrastinating doing this because I don't want to take it down.
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I think it looks so good.
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Do it for the deposit, baby.
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Oh.
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Okay, it really does come off.
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The wall isn't even sticky behind it or anything.
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What is this wizardry?
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Wow, that came off so clean.
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I thought this was going to take me all day.
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It's gonna take me like 10 minutes.
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This is actually the ultimate form of peel porn.
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I've decided.
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Simply nailogical, simply wallpaper logical.
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Oh my god.
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Oh my god were logical.
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Alright, well that was faster than expected.
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The only thing that I still have to cover up is these two little pencil lines that I drew on the wall.
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I basically had used a level to make sure that the wallpaper would be completely vertical.
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So I wonder if I can just use like an eraser for that.
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Okay, nope.
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Painted is.
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Now, normally when you're painting over the wall of a rented space, you want to actually take a chip off of the wall about the size of a quarter
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and bring it to Home Depot or your local paint store.
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And they have a machine that will exactly match that color for you so that when you patch over areas, it looks completely seamless.
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I did make the mistake last year with my old apartment of trying to match the colors by eye.
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And 50 shades of gray, more like 50 fucking thousand shades of white.
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There are so many different shades of white So I ended up caving
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and doing the good old paint chip method and on my third can of paint I finally got the right color, but for this apartment I don't really have the time to get an exact paint match
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and I have a lot less to cover off than my last apartment
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So I think I can get away with one of the three white paints
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that I have I'm just gonna test out all of them on the wall
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and see which one is the best match
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We have contestant number one Joey the star quarterback of his
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hometown he's now hitting home runs at his accounting firm in New Jersey.
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Our next contestant, Bill, a recent divorcee, is looking for a second chance at love.
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Will he find it on these walls?
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Last we have...
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7013 Ivory Lace Flat Finish.
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It's a fucking can of paint, Ashley.
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I know you're lonely, but maybe
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if you actually went outside instead of spending three hours editing together a montage of paint cans, you'd actually have friends.
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Those are our contestants.
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Which one will be the perfect match?
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Most of you guys know this is actually not a bedroom at all.
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This is a closet that I converted into a bedroom because it perfectly just fits a full-size bed.
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So I have to convert it back into a closet.
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I have to take down all the wallpaper and then put up the shelves and the clothing rack that was originally here.
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Ah.
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Let's take her down.
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A lot of the rest of my apartment has definitely felt like work.
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It's felt like a set for me to make out the videos in
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and this has been the place that like really felt like my own.
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This is the last piece of wallpaper.
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Goodbye forever bedroom.
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Here's your cars, you're dropping me away
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It's timely fi- it's timely fine It's finally time to reinstall the shelf
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which I have been storing here behind the refrigerator and then I've been keeping the bar over here I feel like Gandalf,
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you shall not pass.
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It's a terrible Gandalf, I'm sorry.
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Back in the closet once and for all.
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Hi!
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Okay, it is nighttime now.
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As you can see by this very ominous black window that now has no curtains.
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I am dressed a little differently
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because I am going on a date on literally my last night in LA because now that my bed's gone, your girls gotta sleep somewhere.
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And also, this guy's really cool.
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Anyways, while I wait for my date to arrive, I am going to start taking down all the little screws that are holding up paintings, the hooks that are holding up my plants.
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To patch over any small holes, I'm using drywall speck- Ahem, Jesus.
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Which is like a putty that dries to look like a regular wall.
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You can use any bendy plastic surface like an old gift card
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or the back of a lotion bottle like I'm using here to smoosh the spackle into the hole.
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Don't worry if it isn't perfectly smooth, you can always go back with a little bit of sandpaper to get rid of any bumps.
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Finally grab a recent divorcee, ahem, I mean a can of paint that matches your walls, so everything lends together seamlessly and your landlord will be none the wiser.
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I forgot to wash my brush earlier so it's like rock hard. when he takes Viagra.
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Hey guys!
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So today is the day of my flight, and more so it's about three hours before my flight.
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So I am wrapping up everything in this apartment as fast as possible.
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But first, let's flash back to a couple weeks ago when I removed the contact paper from my kitchen counters.
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Wiggly transition!
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Now in reality, it is actually around two and a half weeks before I move out, move out but I did want to get started on the process of taking apart my apartment just because
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I feel like I'm in this weird limbo right now where
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I still am like very attached to this apartment here in LA
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because I worked so hard on it
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but I also want to let myself like be free
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and be ready to move to New York and I feel like something
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that will help me get out of my head is just uh peeling this contact paper off
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and starting to undo some of the changes I did to this apartment and basically make it feel less like home.
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I think it'll be easier to leave that way.
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Stuff like this used to really upset me, you know, if I worked really hard on something
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and then I had to take it down or I didn't get to keep it anymore.
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But I realize now like that's just kind of the process of being a young adult.
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You work on things and then you move out, you meet people and then you move away.
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Like life is a little bit transient and sometimes you have to
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accept that otherwise you will just stay stuck in the same place forever.
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Just a word from philosopher Ashley, whatever.
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I've been getting really reflective lately because of the move and stuff like that.
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Goodbye, baby.
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Why am I gonna cry?
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Okay.
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Whew.
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Whew.
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So to give y'all some background, contact paper is basically like a giant plastic sticker that I layered over my counters to make them look nicer.
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It's supposed to be removable, but again, emphasis on the supposed to be.
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I was genuinely worried they might never come off, especially around the oven where things got pretty toasty and like potentially might have melted the plastic on.
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Now, luckily, I was able to peel it off, although I will say it looks a lot more satisfying in time lapse than it was in real life one time speed.
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Basically, it would only peel off in small sections before breaking, and then I would have to try to like lift up another section with my fingernails,
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and sometimes the plastic would poke me under my fingernails and like made them bleed a little bit.
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Nevertheless, around three hours of peeling later, it looked like a small raccoon had broken into my trash can and the contact paper was officially removed.
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But oh ho ho, our saga does not end there, my friends.
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Even though the actual plastic part was off, the counter still had a layer of sticker residue, so I had to buy this thing called Goo Gone, spray it all over, and let it set for around 10 minutes.
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Then I also bought this goo scraper, for lack of a better term, online, which is specially designed to lift up sticker residue.
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I'm deeply sorry if you find this part disgusting, by the way, I was also like super grossed out, but like simultaneously turned on by how satisfying it was.
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And yeah, that did the trick.
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So overall, I don't regret doing the contact paper.
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I think it looked cute.
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But if y'all want to do it to your own apartment, just set aside like five hours to remove it to make sure you don't lose your deposit.
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In my last couple hours in LA, I took down my final few decorations
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and patched up any remaining You can see just how many times I tried to hang this picture right.
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Ow, fucking hell.
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I took down my entryway mirror and decorations.
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I uninstalled my bathroom shelf
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And even swapped out my hipster light bulbs for the exact ones my apartment originally came with
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And finally it was time to donate the furniture
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that the next tenant didn't want and that I couldn't bring with me
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Honestly this part made me kind of sad because the furniture is really beautiful,
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but I hope it has a good new home Why does it look like a serial killer wrote this?
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My handwriting has never looked so ominous.
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Now, probably the number one asked question on my channel of late is, what am I doing with all of my plants when I move?
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I did really want to bring my plants to New York with me, but the movers said that they would die on the truck, which makes sense because it's like a two-week drive across the country.
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So I already gave away most of my plants to my friends.
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However, I literally have more plants than I have friends in LA.
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And even if each of my friends took like 10 plants, There were just too many for them to handle.
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So I thought I wanted to give them away to you guys.
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I literally have a box here.
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I'm going to pack all of my plants into them.
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I'm going to leave them out on the street
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and then post on my Instagram story where you guys can go and get them.
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I have
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grown a lot here I think.
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This was my first ever apartment by myself and I remember when I first saw it, I was convinced that this was going to be my apartment for maybe the rest of my life.
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This building is rent controlled
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so I was like I could be one of those old
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ladies who still pays a thousand five hundred dollars a month for their huge apartment
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so I might as well just settle down now ladies.
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I really thought that I could like settle down but LA just isn't home.
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Bye.
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I have to come back and get my camera.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “un-making over my apartment... *satisfying*”. This video has 189 sentences and 2376 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:28. The speaker talks at a natural 164 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wallpaper noun | /ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə/ | Decorative paper-like material used to cover the inner walls of buildings. |
| peel verb | /piːl/ | To remove the skin or outer covering of. |
| contestant noun | /kənˈtɛstənt/ | A participant in a contest; specifically, a person who plays a game, as on a TV game show. |
| sticker noun | /ˈstɪkə/ | Something or someone that sticks (pierces, or adheres). |
| shelf noun | /ʃɛlf/ | A flat, rigid structure, fixed at right angles to a wall or forming a part of a cabinet, desk, etc., and used to display, store, or support objects. |
| anyways adverb | /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ | Anyway, anyhow, in any case. |
| closet noun | /ˈklɑzɪt/ | A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies. |
| shade noun | /ʃeɪd/ | Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked. |
| patch noun | /pæt͡ʃ/ | A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, especially upon an old garment to cover a… |
| ahem | /əˈhɛm/ | The sound of a quiet cough or of clearing one's throat. |
| athleisure noun | /ˌæθˈliː.ʒɚ/ | Clothing that is appropriate for both athletic and leisure pursuits. |
| divorcee noun | /dɪvɔɹˈsi/ | A divorced person. |
| fingernail noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚˌneɪl/ | The hard, flat translucent covering near the tip of a human finger, useful for scratching and fine manipulation. |
| mover noun | /ˈmuːvə/ | Someone who or something that moves. |
| ominous adjective | /ˈɑmɪnəs/ | Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| take down verb | To remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed. |
| come off verb | To become detached. |
| move out verb | To leave one's present location; to leave somewhere for another place. |
| get away with verb | To get away, or escape, taking (something) with one. |
| hold up verb | To wait or delay. |
| lift up verb | To elevate to a higher position. |
| put up verb | To place in a high location. |
| settle down verb | To make or become quiet and calm after a period of disturbance or restlessness. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm coming off an all-nighter.
- Also, please don't judge my choice of athleisure.
- Are my nipples visible?
- I think it'll be easier to leave that way.
- Why am I gonna cry?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been doing · have been storing · I've been getting |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been · have not slept · I've decided |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | York, which means · online, which is · truck, which makes |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shelf /ʃɛlf/, shade /ʃeɪd/, athleisure /ˌæθˈliː.ʒɚ/, decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, lotion /ˈloʊʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: decoration /ˌdɛkəˈɹeɪʃən/, cannibalism /ˈkanɪbəlɪz(ə)m/, procrastinate /pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/, refrigerator /ɹɪˈfɹɪd͡ʒ.əˌɹeɪ.tɚ/, philosopher /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/
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 wallpaper, peel, contestant.
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.