Latest / bit of a Rambler / 056 Ramble On

Transcript

056 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to ramble on here. So someone asked
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: me about the Frontier Go Wild Pass, and I didn't
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: know about this one, which is you pay an airline
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a set amount of money per month and then you
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: have unlimited flights. Now I have looked into these before,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I've never got one because the rules are usually pretty restrictive,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: but I also haven't looked at one in I don't know,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: two years a while, and so I was curious because
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it's a new pass from Frontier. But there are a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: few problems that for me don't make it worth even
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the one hundred and fifty dollars a month ticket price
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: that I heard about, although the only prices I could
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: find were two ninety nine per month. So four main
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: things about the Frontier Go Wild Pass. Yeah, yes, it's true.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You can get unlimited flights, So for me, there are
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: four main ones that make getting the pass not worth it. One,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you can only go to the Americas. Frontier operates throughout North, Central,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and South America, so that's great if you're just going
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to travel in the Americas. But yeah, I love Europe,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Ella Asia. I love the rest of the world too,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: so I wouldn't want to be restricted to just the Americas.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: A lot of flights that you're going to get without
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the pat just normal flights, if you're going across the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: America's especially, it's going to be under one hundred and fifty,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: not to mention two hundred and ninety nine dollars, which
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: are the prices that I can see. You're not going
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to pay more than that for flights unless you flew
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: directly from North to South America, like thousands of miles.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: But if you're traveling, it's very comfortable to take shorter
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: flights a few hours at a time, and you can
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: just hop from New York down to Mexico and then
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: down to Colombia or Belie and then down South America Brazil,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: you know, a few at a time, and those flights
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: are less than one hundred dollars, very common. So unless
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you're flying multiple times per month to countries that are
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: very far away from each other over the Americas, you're
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: not really saving any money. If you're gonna stay in
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a place for a month, then you're certainly not saving
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: any money. You're probably spending some couple hundred extra because yeah,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: flying from the States to Central and South America is
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: less than one hundred and fifty dollars anyway, and there's
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: pretty much no country that if you're traveling because you
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: like traveling, you should be spending a longer. You'll need
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: to spend more time in each country. You'll need to
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: spend at least a month to really see what the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: heck is going on in just the biggest parts of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the country. There are so many ruins to explore and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: mountains to climb and museums to visit. It's just impossible
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: to see everything in most single cities, let alone a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: single country. I often spend more than a couple months
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in just one city or town. So yeah, unless you
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: are spending I don't know, one week in each place
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and flying every week to countries that are a couple
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: thousand miles away, maybe from like Belas down to southern Chile,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: then it would make sense for the pass. But it's
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: not going to save you any money if you're flying
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: once per month just across the Americas. Number three is
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that there's no baggage include I guess Number three is
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: like all the fees because you don't have any baggage included.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Not a huge problem for me. I have my single rucksack,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and then when my bag is too big or too heavy,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I just put extra stuff in my jacket and carry
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it on that way because they weigh your baggage. They
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: don't weigh you or your clothing. But many people prefer
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: large carry on bags or checked baggage, and if you're
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: getting this pass, then that's not included. So that's easily
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: an extra seventy five dollars for one bag. Baggage prices
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: are pretty crazy now as far as I've seen, so
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I would actually suggest just doing what I do, do
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the jacket trick. I'll talk about that later, I think.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: But a lot of people who have baggage that they'll
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: carry with them, they'll have to pay extra for that anyway.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So even if you are taking advantage of this pass
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: by flying multiple times per month, if you have baggage,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you're still paying that fee. You're still paying twenty five
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: fifty seventy five dollars each flight, so it eats up
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: any profit you would have made off of using this pass. Anyway,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you do also have to pay all the taxes and
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: fees each flight, which is easily twenty dollars a trip
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: or more. The taxes and fees very often for flights
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: are one hundred dollars or more. But from what I
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: can see of people who have got the pass, they're
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: saying they only pay twenty fifty dollars per trip, So
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: maybe they're cutting off something, maybe like some of the fees,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the normal fees for normal people aren't included if you
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: have this pass, but still along with the baggage, that's
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: just one hundred plus dollars in fees every single flight.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So even if you're getting the advantage of flying four
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: times a month and you're like, yes, I just saved
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: one hundred dollars on those four flights altogether, you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I save twenty five dollars a flight, you're spending one
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars a flight if you have baggage, and if
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you have to pay the taxes and fees anyway. Those
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: are the big ones that really st out to me,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that you have to pay taxes fees, that you have
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to pay baggage anyway, that you can only fly in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the Americas, and that you're not really saving money unless
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you're flying constantly every single week, and especially in the Americas.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: In most countries it's much easier to take a bus
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to the next country. I will say I've been flying
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: in Central South America because i don't travel that often
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm usually living right next to the airport, so
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: it's pretty convenient for me to fly over to the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: next country. But there are lots of people that just
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: travel by bus, and I did that all the time
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: in Europe and Highland Morocco, all Southeast Asia too, So
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the Frontier go wild pass. It's good if you're only
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: traveling in the Americas, and if you're traveling pretty constantly,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: and if you don't have any baggage, if you're just
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: carrying on everything and you never have to pay for
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the carry on baggage, which most airlines do charge now,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: then it's a good deal. If you traveled like three
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: times a month with and you don't have any baggage, yeah,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: it could work, and you only want to go to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the Americas, but that's like, that's pretty restrictive obviously. Say
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you want to go Japan for cherry blossommer, you want
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to go to Morocco to ride the camels, whatever, Ireland
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: for the whiskey Scotland, for the whiskey Ireland, for the Guinness.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: You can't on this pass. You can get close. You
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: can go over to New York for free and then
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: take another flight that you have to pay for. But
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: if you already have to pay for a flight, there's
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: no reason to get a pass and pay for a flight,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: especially if you aren't planning on traveling once a week
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: or more, just so that you can take advantage of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: this pass. What I did think was if I was
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: living in the United States, this pass would be cool
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: for bands on tour. I could just fly to the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: city and kind of follow whoever was on tour or
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: go to concerts that are not in my neck of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the country. That's pretty cool. Like the other thing, it's
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: only a twenty four hour period for domestic flights. You
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: have twenty four hours. You can't plan a domestic flight
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: more than twenty four hours in advance of going because
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: they're doing this to fill up the seats that they
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: don't fill on every flight. But if you're living in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the States and you want to get around to all
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: those concerts and you're like, oh, man, Marcy Playground is
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: playing in Texas this year, but I live in Washington.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: They're only playing in Texas or New York. You could
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: fly over for a day and fly back, and that
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: would be pretty worth it to me to go see
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: bands that you really love, you know it, I mean,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: three hundred dollars a month is kind of steep, but
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: considering the experience of seeing these bands that are only
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: playing at this moment in your life, they're right there,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: right now and you can go see them, that's pretty cool.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: That seems worth it to me. But I am curious
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: about the passes now, So maybe there's other airline passes
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: that are less restrictive or have more destinations that you
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: can visit right now, It doesn't matter for me. I'm
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: traveling a few months in a country at a time,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: and my tickets are always under two hundred dollars, often
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: closer to one hundred dollars. So yeah, I'm not breaking
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the bank on any of this, because you got to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: remember that's factoring in the incredibly low cost of living.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: So even if I spend one hundred dollars a month,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: which I don't even I guess I'd spend like sixty
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: dollars a month in travel. Even if I spend sixty
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: dollars a month in travel, I'm saving hundreds to one
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: thousand per month just on living costill just on apartment
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and utilities alone. So it's a cool pass It's cool
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that airlines are doing it. They should have been implementing
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: this a long time ago, but airlines moved notoriously slowly.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: So it's an interesting idea, but they'll have to, yeah,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: make this a lot more appealing for world travelers, for
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: any nomads to buy it, any nomads to significantly benefit
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: from these passes. I was listening to Flight of the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Concords recently. I've been putting all my music on my
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: new phone again, and I was like, oh yeah, and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Flight of the Concords are so funny, and it's really
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: fun listening to them again. And it reminded me of
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: this New Zealand girl I met in Portugal, and she
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: was one of the first New Zealanders that I had
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: met in real life. And I was so excited because
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Flight of the Concords like took over the US American
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: comedy scene for the couple of years that their show
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: was on, Like, they were so funny, they were on
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Comedy Central. Everybody knew about them while I was growing up,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and so I just assumed that in New New Zealand
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: literally everyone would know about them because it's a pretty
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: small country and they're so popular in the US. So
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I told this New Zealand girl that I liked Taikawait movies.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: He was not very popular outside of New Zealand at
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the time. She's like, oh, and I was like, and
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Flight of the Concords is so funny? Do you like them?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And she was like no, but you're like the fourth
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: American who's told me about it and I've never seen it,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and that surprised me. But I met other New Zealanders
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: on my travels and none of them knew about Flight
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: of the Concords while it was going on. They probably
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: do now, but I'm not really sure. But I stayed
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: in an Airbnb and nobody there knew about Flight of
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the Concords. It seemed like they weren't very popular in
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: their own country, even though yeah, they were on TV
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and were pretty famous in the US as far as
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I remember while their show was airing. But when the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: New Zealand girl told me she didn't know Flight of
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the Concords, I was like, oh, no, it's not going
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: to work out. I was walking up this street the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: other day in Medie and I saw this barber shop,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: which was not interesting at all. But when I was
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: walking by, something caught my eye and I paused, and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I took a few steps back and looked back in.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, that is a beer fridge in
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the barber shop. And there were a couple of people
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: getting their haircut, and then benches you could sit around on,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and then a beer fridge with several dozen beers of
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: different varieties so that you could crack a beer while
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: your friend was getting a haircut. Or maybe it was
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: just the dudes that owned and the owner's just like,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: we need a beer fridge in here every day for
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: when we party getting off of work. I feel I
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: keep thinking like I must have seen a barber shop
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: with a beer fridge while I was in China, because
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: there were so many barber shops and they're so casual,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of the neighborhood ones, but nothing sticks out
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: in my mind. And this was a nice, clean, professional
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: barber shop that also had nice cold beers. Before I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: went to Median, I chose Median instead of the other
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: cities in Columbia because everyone said it's the best city
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: in Columbia. They're like, it's more fun. People are dancing,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: laughing all the time. It's just a great community the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: whole country. And I was like, okay, great. So I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: went to Median and they were right. People laugh and
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: dance in the streets and all that, and I even
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: saw a So there's these guys that grilled cherizos and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: steaks and meat and they just street food out on
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the street. And one of the grill guys who had
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the apron on from that place, pulled out a bluetooth
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: microphone that he had connected to his phone and just
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: started singing karaoke out there on the street to the
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know ten people or so they set up
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: all these tables and chairs under the trees next to
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the sidewalk where the grill is set up. So while
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: one of the guys was grilling and a couple others
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: were preparing the meat writing down new orders, the other guy,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: who didn't have anything to do, was just singing on
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: this bluetooth microphone to all the people sitting in the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: chairs waiting for their food. And it was pretty great.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: It's just it felt very meta E and E because
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: not because there's a lot of karaoke. There isn't, but
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: they're just cool, fun party people all the time. And
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this was just such a perfect representation of Medaian culture,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: this bluetooth microphone wielding charizo griller and speaking of Charisa's,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I got some from this guy who makes really good
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: charisas Cianna story. There's like a billion people in Median
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I keep going to for different charisos, but there's this
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: one guy who has a dog always walking around his grill,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and the dog's super friendly and kind of old, and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: so I like him because he's low energy, like me,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: just chilling out. And he came up and I scratched
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: him on the head, and then he started scratching his
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: back on my chair and he just kept doing that.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: But he wasn't like a really small dog, so he
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: was kind of shaking my whole chair and he's scratching
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: it on like the corner of the chair of the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: seat itself, and he just kept scratching himself for like
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: several minutes, five ten minutes, I don't know, And I
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: was just kind of shaken along with this dog while
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: he scratched himself while I'm waiting for my chariso, and
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: it was a very calming. It was really funny just
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: watching this dog casually, calmly scratch his own back. He
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: kept coming over to me and looking up as if
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I would scratch him, and then he just started scratching
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: himself because maybe I wasn't scratching him fast enough or
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: enthusiastically enough, and that took care of that. But he
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: still looked up at me like I was helping him
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: out by letting him scratch himself on my chair. Good dog.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I watched Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, which is there's this
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: urban legend that I'm still not sure how true it
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: is about Fargo, the money that's buried. Someone chased after
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the money and died or got hurt chasing after the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: money that was in the movie that they supposedly buried.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Even though Fargo is not a true story, and the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: filmmakers are very clear about that. It opens with the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: title card that says this is a true story, and
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the filmmakers just thought that's cool, that'll make people interested
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: in it even though it's not a true story. And
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: that's what KUMIKOA The Treasure Hunter is. This woman from Tokyo,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: who is not very enthusiastic about her life situation. Her
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: job's boring, She's just all of her friends are having
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: kids and that's all they want to talk about, and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: so she is obsessed with this movie Fargo and decides
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to go look for the treasure in North Dakota where
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the money was supposedly buried in the film. It's a
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: great film. The music was very good, and it's made
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: by the actress I think it was written and maybe
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: directed by her. And it feels far go E like.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: All the characters are very distinct and there's a lot
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: of sort of absurd humor. It's a very funny movie,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: and it's very good and fun and quirky, very Cohen
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Brothers e even though it's completely Japanese made movie by this lady.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And the music I think I mentioned it, but the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: music is really good. It's very tone setting every single scene.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: I actually want to get the soundtrack or the score
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: rather on my phone, but I'm gonna have to. I
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: might have to actually go into the movie and take
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the audio from the video that I have, because I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: can't find any collections of the music from Kumiko. I
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: can't find any official soundtrack or score, but I really
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: like the songs. I tried rose beer for the first time,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: which I've never had before. There's this good artisanal beer
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: in Colombia called BBC and something beer survey Survey Sadia
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and the lagger was good. So I tried the rose beer, thinking, well,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: it's not gonna just be like the wine rose flavor
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: in a regular beer, and I was wrong because that's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: exactly what it was. It tasted just like their logger,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: except they poured in some sugar and rose scent and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: then you had a rose beer. It wasn't bad because
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: there wasn't too much sugar. It was more the flavor,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: but there was a little bit of sugar, so I'm
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: glad I didn't get a lot of them. I was
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: just curious because I had not seen a rose beer.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I feel like I had seen one in last time
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I visited the States, so maybe they're becoming popular because
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of all the seltzers that are becoming popular. But I
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: didn't get it because it sounded gross, and that was
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: probably a good decision. Oh. When I was buying beer
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: one early morning late night in Median, all of the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: store fridges have the sign six am to two am,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: liquor sales six am to two am, and it was
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: three am when I showed up, and I asked the clerk, sorry,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: there's no liquor sales now, and she said, what do
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: you want beer? She's like, yeah, whatever, that's fine, and
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: then I got my beer. So I don't know if
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: she didn't care, because there are some countries that will
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: sell you it anyway despite the time being posted, or
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: if it was specifically four liquor only, but beer is
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours beer in Colombia. All the prices in Colombia,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I think I mentioned this, like you can buy two
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: one hundred gram bags of a snack for two dollars,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: but if you buy one two hundred gram bag of
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: a snack, it's like four dollars, so it's often cheaper
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: if I get smaller stuff. There's a lot of weird
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: price things that I've run into in Median, and the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: artisanal service at EA beer is cheaper at the local
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: twenty four hour shop then every other shop I was
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: at in Median, which is really backwards. Usually those like
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: seven eleven or twenty four hour shops will have a
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: slight premium because they're open twenty four hours. You know,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: they're paying the clerks to be their twenty four hours.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: They have to maintain stock twenty four hours, and so
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: all those prices will usually be elevated. But for some
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: reason in Mediian, the artisanal beer is cheaper there than
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: it is at all the supermarkets. I don't know what
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: it is with Median price things, but yeah, I just
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: weird situations here and there. Oh I tried, so I
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: went on the metro cable, which is super cool. The
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: metro cable are cable cars that are part of the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Median metro system, just the same as trams or trains
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: or buses. Another part of the metro system in Mediian
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: are cable cars that go up to the less accessible,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: very mountainous neighborhoods outside of the city center. And I
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: was going for the first time on the metro system
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and I had to figure out my way over there
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: because it wasn't very close to the southwest part of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the city where I was living. And I was asking people,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: is this the direction to San Juan, And there's this
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: lady and she was like, no, definitely not. But then
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I checked the map later and it's called San Jose,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: not San Juan, and I realized I was just asking
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: for the wrong station. But the lady said yes eventually,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and she pointed me in the right direction, so I
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: think she understood what I was getting at. But she
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was like laughing when I kept saying San Juan, San Juan.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: She's like, it's over there. But she helped me and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I did get to the metro cable, which was super cool.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: I see why meta Ian people like their metro system.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: It is very comprehensive. You can get all over the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: city by buses or trains or the metro cable, and
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: everything costs the same. It costs the same to take
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the metro cable ride that it would to take the train.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I think it's like a dollar or the bus, and
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you can transfer as much as you want. And it's
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: automatic also, so you don't have to ask for a
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: transfer ticket, or you don't have to even swipe it again,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: so you don't have to swipe when you get on
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: and off. If you swipe when you get on the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: bus and then you get off and within ten minutes
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: walk into a train station, you can beep again and
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: it just the account automatically doesn't charge you for the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: second ticket going to the train station, because if you're
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: there within a certain amount of time, it knows that
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: you are transferring, it knows you're going across the city farther.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: So I really liked that about having the transfers be automatic,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: only having to beep once on each thing I got on.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: It was very convenient and simple, and all of the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: neighborhoods outside of the city center. All the guidebooks tell
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: you to be careful and whatever the heck, but I
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: went as far outside to the ends of the city
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: in all directions that you can go to, and they're
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: not as built up, like they don't have as many
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: flashy neon signs, but they still have plenty of flashing
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: neon signs. Actually, there's a huge like Survey City where
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I was on the outskirts of the city. Yeah, they're
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: not maybe as built up, or they're not as well maintained,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: like the trees don't have as much grass and as
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: many trees, but there are still trees and grass and
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: foliage all around, and people are still very happy. It
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: feels perfectly safe. So I was very happy going all
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: around the city. I wanted to explore the city more.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I loved Mediean, but I was just hanging out in
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: my neighborhood because there was tons to do in my neighborhood,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and all the exercise equipment was right there, all the
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: running was right there. It was just a convenient spot
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: for me. Oh, the Caprada Santa Elena River, it didn't
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: smell very fresh and clean like the Median River Median
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: going through the city. So yeah, I guess that's what
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: people all the guidebooks are talking about. But any guidebook
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: or travel article talk about not the city center as
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: more dangerous and scary, and I've never found that to
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: be the case in real life when I'm in a city.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it's technically statistically true with some crime statistics,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: but it's not like if you cross a street from
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: one section into the other, now you're in danger. In
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: most cities, just find out what people say, go there.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: If it feels weird, get out of there, and you're
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: not obligated to investigate anything that you find that feels
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: weird or dangerous to you. If you want to stay
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: in the city center the whole time or the town center,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: that's fine. Also travel how you like garlic rappings, So
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I ate a ton of garlic in medi Ian because
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: it was so so cheap. It was like a dollar
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: for twelve pieces, or no, I guess, like dollar for
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: nine pieces. Like nine bulbs of garlic was a buck.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And I like garlic, and I just air fried a
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: bunch of it and then I would eat it mixed
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in with my French fries or whatever. But I had
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: a ton of garlic crappings because after I air fried,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I peeled off the skin and then air fried again
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and delicious. But I got lazy and I started throwing
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the garlic skins out near my door, and then I
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: just swept them outside, and then some old lady started
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: staring at me weird, and I was like okay, And
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I made a little garlic skin waste basket next to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the air fryer, and so when I took out the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: garlic wrappings, I put them all in the waste basket.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: But then a couple days later that old lady must
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: have because there's only one old scowling lady and the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Airbnb host told me that she felt uncomfortable with my
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: garlic wrappings. Right after I got the waste basket, I
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: was like, hey, I got it. I did see her
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: point though, because I realized that there's no wind in Mediean.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Really in the city itself, it's not a windy city,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: so unless it rains, the garlic wrappings I noticed the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: next day there were still a bunch of them right
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: out where I had swept them onto the sidewalk, because
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: they didn't blow away anywhere, and they didn't mix in
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: to the grass or anything. They just sat on my
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: concrete stoop. So after I saw that the next morning,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: that's why I got the wastebasket next to the air fryer.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: But I get why that old lady was like, this
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: dirty foreign or is garlic wrapping up my sidewalk? You know,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: it's really funny. Rollerblading went out of style in the
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: US like a long time ago, right twenty thirty years ago,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: but it's so popular in every other country because it's
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: so much fun. Doy, I love rollerblading. I should have
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: just got a pair in Mediian, but I didn't know
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: how long I was gonna be there, and turns out
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I was only there for a month, So I think
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: it would have been maybe silly to get rollerblades, but
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: maybe it would have been really fun. Who knows. But anyway,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: there was a whole bunch of people rollerblading all over Medaian.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Like in the bicycle tracks in the park where they
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: were practicing, there were just as many or more rollerbladers,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and even just along the sidewalks. That was what was
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: really nice about Medaian. Every single part of that city
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: has pretty wide sidewalks, so you can rollerblade all around
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: unless you're going up the mountains, but there were rollerbladers
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: going up those mountains too, I did see them, So yeah,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: you can really just rollerblade all around the city because
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the sidewalks are so wide and well maintained all across
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the city. Roller blades. Roller blades are cool. What else
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: is cool? Drinking beer and watching soccer. So every weekend
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I saw so many people drinking beer and watching soccer. Men, women,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: children weren't drinking beer, but they had like little juices
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: and little kid drinks that they could sip while their
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: parents or whoever, guardians were drinking beer watching the game,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and the whole community really gets into it. And you'll
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: have like five dozen people in front of one large
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: flat screen TV outside of a convenience store with the
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: TV up there, and it just seemed like so much
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: fun that I wanted to take part, even though I
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: have not been drinking much beer recently, just to every
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: now and then. I just stopped drinking beer for a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: while to get healthy again. But after a few weeks
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: sober in Medie and then seeing how much fun they
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: were all having watching the soccer and drinking beer, I
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: did go to a spot and the guy was super
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: excited to tell me about the campsino like legend. It's
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: like a guy walks around distributing flowers from his backpack something.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: This was all in Spanish, so I'm sure I missed
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: most of what he was saying, but it was on
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the label of one of the beers. He recommended the Kostanna,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I think, and they sell seven hundred and fifty milliliter
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: beers in Columbias, so I got one of those, and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: I got a pizza one time, and I got some
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: sliced cheriso. They have a name for it, but it's
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: just sliced churiso. And it was really fun just drinking
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: beer with the whole community, having some snacks and watching soccer,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: which which was fine, but boy, watching them almost touch
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: legs and then fall down to the ground and hold
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: themselves and roll around and pretend agony is really ridiculous,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and I've had it. I've had this explained to me
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: by many people who are like, no, no, it's a strategy,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and like, I get it. I get that it's a strategy,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: but it looks so dumb and it doesn't seem to
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: come to fruition. It doesn't seem to pay off most
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of the time. Like out of the ten people who
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: go down pretending they were really hurt, they're just trying
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: to get a penalty kick in. And most of the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: time they're just ignored until they stop pretending to be
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in pain and get up. I guess if you're running
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that fast and you do touch each other, it will
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: hurt because you're both going so fast. But they show
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: instant replay and they have cameras from all angles. So
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: all of the times that I was watching these people
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: fall down and pretend to be hurt, most of them
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I can plainly see that their legs hadn't touched each other.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: One of them his legs buckle and he just goes down,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: grabbing his shin, pretending that he was hurt because another
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: guy ran close to him and he's hoping to get
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: a penalty kick. I don't know, it was so weird
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to him. Not my thing. I very much enjoyed sitting
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: around with the community and I don't know, feeling how
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: excited they were about the game and drinking beer with them.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: But I'm not Yeah, I'm still not really into watching sports.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I feel like I remember I liked watching hockey okay,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and I liked watching rugby okay, But all the traditional
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: basketball and soccer and and whatever American football not as
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: interesting to watch for me. I'll play him. Some guy
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: behind me had traveled and he was telling his friends
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: in Spanish that the United States had the best, like
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful natural landscapes, and then his other friends,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: who had been to like Guatemala or Mexico, are like,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: h no, no, Mexico has the best. And they were
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: talking about that for a few minutes, and I was
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: proud of myself for being able to understand the basics
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of the conversation while they were arguing about it. And
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I would say United States over Guatemala,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: but I haven't been to Mexico yet. But that's the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: only thing the United States really has. Still, they have
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: really nice natural environments outside of their cities, and it's
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: a very varied environment. You know, you have the deserts
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: and the coasts and the forests and the mountains. Yeah,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: nice natural environment there. Not great civil rights in the US,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: but great forests. I felt this weird like crawling on
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: my skin, and I had just watched this movie where
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you know, psychiatric patient feels bugs crawling on him, and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: so I like slapped away in my face and then
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: I didn't see anything, and I scratched my neck and
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I was looking over. I was like scratching. There's little
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: itches showing up all over and I was like, what
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the heck? And I realized I was acting like a methodict,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: like slapping at my skin all around, and I was
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: like okay. And then I looked down at my left
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: shoulder and I saw an actual, real bug crawling away
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: off my shoulder. And I just flicked him away from me,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh good, okay, I'm not having
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: acid withdrawals. There was a real bug flit flitting all
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: over me, and once he went away, I wasn't itchy anymore.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: But he must have been crawling for a second. And
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: then when I reached up immediately hopped away to a
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: different spot like five times in a row, so I
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: felt like I was going c oh. I did see
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: some Colombian influencers outside the store that I was having
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: a beer and watching soccer at, and they were even Colombians.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: They were just acting like US American influencers that I'm
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: more familiar with, like kind of standing in people's ways,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: blocking the view of the TV, talking to the camera,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: like making a point and taking photos. It was so
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: weird to see. The median neighborhood I lived in is
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: so not fundamentalism, basic without modern amenities or something. But
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: they're so down to earth. They communicate with each other
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and talk with each other normally. It's just so Yeah,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: it feels down to earth, like they're living in the
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: real world. And when these influencers started showing up and
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: discussing poses and then doing poses completely independent of the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: community they were interrupting to take these pictures and videos
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: in yeah, it felt so weird and out of place.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: And speaking of something out of the blue, I got
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: invited to a wedding from a friend who hasn't spoken
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: to me in months. I feel like I don't understand
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: modern friend relationships. If I message someone I don't know
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: more than once every month, I get very slow responses.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: And I've talked to people who use the phone, and
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of the people I know just don't. That's
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: how they like to talk, like they only mess They
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: only reply to a message after a week has gone
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: by or more. And when I use a message, I'm
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: usually it feels like a conversation to me, just like
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: if I was talking to someone face to face. So
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: when I don't get responses within a couple hours or
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: a day, I just figure the person doesn't want to talk.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: So this friend from China who's a very good friend,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen him in a year since I visited
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: China last but I just reached out to him because
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: it had been so long, and he said, oh my gosh,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: it's so good to hear from you. Can you come
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: to my wedding and be my best man? It's like, yeah,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: of course. But in my head I was thinking, why
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: don't you talk to people you feel close enough to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: that you want them to be your best man? Flattering
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: in any case, So I'm going to go to the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Philippines and take part in this wedding. I guess I
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: was already thinking of going to Japan for cherry blossom
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: season next year and visit Hawaii on the way there.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: But now that I have a formal invitation to this
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: wedding and the Philippines, it all, yeah, seems like I
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: should go do that. Plus my visa, I have a
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: ten year visa for China and that expires next year,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I think, So I'm going to try to go to
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Unan if I can, which is like one of the
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: only prov and says in China I haven't visited yet.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: It's very mountainous, and I'm in Perunaw by the way,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: and I love the mountains, so yeah, it might be
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: fun to visit this part of China I haven't been
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: in yet. It's supposed to be more touristy, but that's
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: what they said about Cusco, And yeah, the city center
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: is kind of touristy, but as soon as I was
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: outside of the city center, I'm the only non local,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: So it's very easy to avoid tourist crowds as long
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: as you don't go literally to the center of the
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: town or city, or like to the night markets made
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: for tourists. If you go to those, yeah, it's gonna
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: be all tourists. But there's an outdoor market directly across
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: from me that has all the stuff a tourist center
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: would have, but because it's not the one, the first
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: one listed in the guide books, it's all locals. And
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I like being among the local culture and feeling special,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: so I like quieter parts of the city also, so
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: I usually am living outside outside of the city center.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I noticed a lot of the prices in Columbia were
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: listed as thirty K if it was pain to mea
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: like thirty mione thirty thousand, and I was like, Oh,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that's silly, because meon is M. Why don't they say
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: thirty M not K? And then I was like, oh, wait,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: like us English does the same thing. We say thirty K,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: but a thousand begins with a T, now with a K,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: and I'm guessing it's because it's something like kilo meaning
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: a thousand kilogram in that But just fun language things
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: for me to roll around in my head. There were
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: twenty something cops and ten something happened in front of
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the supermarket down the street from me, because yeah, the
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: whole line had groups of cops not doing anything that
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I could tell, but they were all there and something
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: was happening, lots of flashing lights. I don't know what happened. Actually,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: that's the end of the story. That song clouds in
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: my coffee, Clouds in my coffee, and you're so vain.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: So for some reason, I watched the movie Clown in
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: a corn Field, which is a modern horror movie, kind
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: of goofy, pretty goofy, and I liked it. But the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: main takeaway was me walking around singing clown in a Cornfield,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: A clown in a Cornfield, and to the tune of
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Clouds in my Coffee. So the movie was worth it
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: because now I got that great tune rolling around in
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: my head. And I wasn't even listening to that Clouds
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: in my Coffee song at all, So I don't know
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: where the tune came from, but it's perfect for Clown
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: in a Cornfield. I'll be curious to see the second one.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: That was an interesting movie, like they made it modern,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: you know, there were smartphones and influencers really like in
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the movie without completely destroying the classic Oh my god,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: there's a murderer after me. How do I stop it?
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Of classic horror movies? So I liked it and I'm
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: interested in seeing what I'm sure is going to be
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: a sequel. It doesn't look like they broke the bank
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: making this movie, so I'm hoping they'll be able to
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: make more just how they want to, because it was unique,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: even though there were a bunch of corny parts on
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a bunch of weird parts, and it was like they
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: hadn't quite figured out. It's like they were making the
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: movie sort of out of pieces of other movies that
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: they wanted to address in the movie, but it wasn't
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: their pure creative vision because they had so many horror
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: tropes to deal with. First Body's Body's Bodies is a
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: great example of a movie that felt very much like
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: a creative vision. Directly, they had new things to say
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: about horror movies. Clown in a Cornfield did have a
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: few interesting things to say, but they were kind of
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: stuck in a lot of the tropes. But anyway, it
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: was interesting and I'm curious about any sequels. Oh, I
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: did watch Weapons finally. Did I mention that that was
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: so good? Zach Craiger's Weapons. I liked that horror movie
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: a lot. He's the guy that made Barbarian sign me
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: up for more. Zach Creigor horror movies because he gets it.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: They are fun as hell and creepy in the right
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: horror ways. Yeah, they're good movies. Oh, I was gonna
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: get churo okay on the last day because I was
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: leaving meta Ian and coming to Peru, and I was like, okay,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get those churros one more time that have
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: like four buckets of sugar and caramel syrup on them,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: so I can't eat them more than once a week.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: But it was my last day and then he wasn't there,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: and I was so sad, very briefly, and then I
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: found someone selling donut churros instead. I got one of those,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and I went to ice cream and at the lady
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: if I could put the AUREI kuipe the caramel sauce
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: on my donut and the ice cream shoes like yeah,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: of course, And so I got my little treats before
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I left Columbia anyway. Plus I figured they would have
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: chiros or other treats in Cusco, Peru when I got there,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: and boy do they ever. I was watching some movie
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: where they were making a deal out of a guy
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: visiting a foreign country and someone letting down a bucket
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: on a piece of string from their porch so that
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: they could give something to someone down on the first floor.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: And that's such an indication of look at this different
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: country I'm in where they let down buckets on a
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: string so you can pass things to each other rather
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: than walking up the stairs. In a lot of American movies,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: you'll see that when someone's in a foreign country. That's
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: one of the things when they're like, you know what,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I like this country. They're real good piece. And then
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: they'll show like an old grandma letting down a bucket
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: on a string as a sign of how exotic the
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: country is. And they have that in Central South America,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Like people do that regularly, and I also like seeing it,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: so it was funny to watch this in a TV show. Oh,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I was watching Equalizer. I think that's what it was,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: an equalizer three denzels in Italy, and there's like a
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: grandma lowering a bucket on a string to her husband
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: with like carrots in it. But I saw that all
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: the time in Columbia, people lowering smartphones to their grandpa
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: going out for a walk and he just gets it
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: because he forgot it up in the apartment on the
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: third floor. Or whatever. The keys are really funny. They
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: never put the keys in the bucket and lower the
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: keys down. They always just throw the keys. But if
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: it's anything breakable, like your smartphone or wallet or whatever,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: they'll lower it down on the bucket and you can
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: pick it out, and then they'll pull the bucket back
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: up onto the balcony. So that is a real thing
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: that people do in tons of countries that I've been to,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: so it is kind of fun seeing it in American movies. America.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: It American movies make foreign countries look truly formed. They
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: make a bucket on a string look like something nobody
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: would ever do. But it makes perfect sense if you
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: live on the third or fourth floor and your friend
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to go all the way back up there,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: lower some down in a bucket on a string. It's
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: a very basic it's just a simple apparatus that American
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: movies make look very exotic. My trip to Peru was
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: pretty painless. I wasn't excited to go through customs again
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: because that Columbia Customs intimatey in was such a nightmare.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: It took like two and a half hours. But maybe
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I got some karma back because I got an uber
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: right away, super easy to the bus stop for the
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: bus that goes to the airport, and good driver drops
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: me off, and I walk up to the bus and
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: there's one seat left. I get on, he closes the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: omer we start going, so I immediately start on the
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: way to the airport, which was very convenient and nice.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: The airport is far outside of Medians, so it would
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: cost like thirty bucks to take the taxi there, which
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: is crazy. That's a lot. That's like more than an
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: hour driving out there. It's a very far away. It's
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: a very far drive from the city itself. So by
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: taking the uber to the bus stop and then the
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: bus stop to the airport, I only spend four dollars no, No, three,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: four or five, six, seven, seven dollars and it would
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: have otherwise been thirty or more. And I like buses anyway,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: And the bus goes through the tunnel. They built the
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: new tunnel to the airport. It just made a bunch
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: of sense. So anyway, uber drops me off, it's a
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: good ride. I get on the bus. It's a good ride.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: The bus driver pulls over a couple times, which was
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: really cool because he was pulling over for snacks. So
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: he pulled over, yelled out, someone gives them a drink,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and he gives them a couple dollars, And then the
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: second time for churros, and I saw them. My eyes
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: lit up, and he pulled in his bag of tasty
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: sweet churros and gave them a couple dollars and then
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: kept driving. But I like that that everyone and everyone
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: was chill. Colombia is a very chill country, so it
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: wasn't weird at all that the bus driver pulled over
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: for snacks. And they're snack sellers all on all the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: intersections anyway, so it's not like it was a ton
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: of time. He can stay in his driver's seat and
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: just shout for what he wants and then buy it
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: from all the sellers. So lately, I've been very strict
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: baggage requirements. They've been getting more strict, so I had
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: to do the jacket transfer again and put most of
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: my stuff in my jacket. But doing that worked great.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I was amazing. So instead of paying seventy five dollars
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: for baggage even carry on, like a lot of airports
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: don't include carry on luggage anymore unless it's under this
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: one was under thirty five centimeters, so less than half
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: a me. It's like a little over a foot basically
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: a foot and a half. Not even that you have
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: to fit all of your that's the only luggage you
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: can take on the plane without being charged a personal item.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: But by putting all of my stuff in my jacket,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: I can just fold my recksack into this small little
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: bundle and take that on, and then on the plane
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: put all the stuff back in the recksack from my
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: jacket and put that in the overhead luggage compartment. Because
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: they weigh your baggage, they don't weigh you or your clothes.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: I had to do that twice. I had to do
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: from Medaean to Lima and then again from Lima to
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Peru because the baggage. Yeah, the baggage guidelines were so strict,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: but it worked both times flawlessly, just like it did
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: going into Colombia from Panama. I might actually add extra
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: pockets onto this even more. I've added one big pocket
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: and I can get most of my stuff in there.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: But I'm just thinking of adding one more pocket and
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: then putting even more stuff on the upper back of
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the jacket as well, because I already have the lower back,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: the inside and outside pockets of the jacket. Now, the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: jacket is practical because if you're in a cold place,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: you're going to want a jacket anyway. So I would say,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: if you're traveling, just if you don't have pockets on
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: the inside of your jacket, just sew a couple pockets
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: on the inside front pockets, and then sew one pocket
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: on the back of your jacket. Such an easy way
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: to get around baggage fees. I also, especially, I don't
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: like checking my bag because it's going to get lost
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: at some point. My bag's been delayed a couple days,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: and it's not a huge issue. It's just if I
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: am carrying on my luggage, I don't have that issue.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I don't have to wait a couple days for them
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: to get my bag to me, and I don't have
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: to plan for that eventuality. I like this jacket luggage
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: solution much more, and it's so simple that I recommend
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: it to all travelers. Oh, I had to solve something else. Actually,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Peru has a new requirement which is very popular in
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: South America apparently, so if you're going to the country,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: you need proof of an onward ticket. A lot of
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: countries say they require it, but it's kind of half
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: the time they don't care. But everywhere I've been in
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: South America they do. Apparently the official reason is that
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: people have been traveling and then not leaving those countries.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: So I knew that about going into Columbia that I
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: needed one. So to get my onward ticket, I went
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: on a random airline website. Whatever airline was not the
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: one I was riding on into the country, so they
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't check the actual booking. I just used a different company,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: booked right until I was going to pay, so it
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: looked like I had just booked it, and then I
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: took a screenshot of that showed it, got on the
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: plane got to Columbia without buying an onward time ticket.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: This one. I didn't know that Peru also had that requirement,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: so the girl at the desk stopped me and said
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I needed a proof of an onward ticket, and I
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: was like, ah, but I had heard that you can
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: just buy an Expedia one, choose the refundable ticket, and
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: refund it. You get one hundred percent of it back,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: and I did that. I for the first time, went
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: on Expedia, bought a refundable ticket, got my flight to
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: Lima from Meda Ian and then waited to cancel it,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: but then realized that I didn't need to wait until
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: the end of the second flight when I was in
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Cusco because I was already in the country, so I
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: wouldn't need to show proof. And even if I didn't
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: need to show proof, I still had the official booking
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: number and all that stuff because I had actually bought
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: the ticket, So I just canceled it before I got
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: on the second flight, and I instantly got the money back,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: the full refund, no taxes or fees, and yeah, it
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: was that simple, So yeah, that is a good I
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: had heard about it, but I never wanted to actually
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: purchase and go through the cancelation process. But as long
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: as you cancel within twenty four hours, it is super easy.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: So I bought a ticket that's more expensive because it's
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: refundable on Expedia, but if I cancel it within twenty
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: four hours, then I get all the money back. So
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: if you need proof of an onward ticket, I completely
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: understand now why that Expedia trick is what everybody recommends
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: and uses because it is extremely convenient. I bought the
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: ticket in five minutes after the girl said I needed
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: proof of onward ticket and then I canceled it. I
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: don't know, eight hours later or something, while I was
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: in Lima and I was now legally stamped Visa into
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: Lima into Peru. Oh, which I want to say, the
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Lima airport has such a bad rap, like all the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: all the articles, everything I read was like it's gonna suh.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Customs is terrible. It was the nicest airport I have
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: been to in a long time. They must have myized
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: it very recently and it was bad before. But they
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: had plenty of customs agents, so customs only took five
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: minutes to get stamped out of the country. And the
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: guy I talked to was very friendly, and I asked
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: how many days do I get coming into Peru and
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: he said, you get a ninety days, and I asked
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: for ninety day. We spoke in Spanish and told him
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: I was studying, and it was just a nice little conversation.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: But I got no problem at the Lima airport. Doing
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: security at the Lima Airport was easier than anywhere. You
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: don't even have to take your electronics out of your
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: bags anymore. All of their machines scan everything automatically, so
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: you don't have to take off your shoes, which is ridiculous.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: You don't have to take off your headphones. You can
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: just carry your headphones in your hand through the scanners,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: and you don't have to take your laptop and everything out.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: It just goes through the scanner and the scanner scans everything.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: So it was a super modern, very convenient, nice airport,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: and there's chargers everywhere so you can charge all of
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: your electronic devices. I'm not sure why it has such
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: a bad reputation. It must have been terrible until very recently,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: and they did a huge renovation because the Lima Airport
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: was very nice, and the customs into Peru via the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Lima Airport very convenient and fast. I think those guidebooks
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: might be out of date. So I am in Peru.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Now I am in Cusco, Peru. I'm at eleven thousand
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: feet of elevation. There's so much to talk about just
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: from my first few steps into this country. But this
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: has been going on a while, So thank you so
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: much for listening, and I will talk to you soon.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: Hope you have a great rest of your day, and
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Peru rocks