[0:00]Hey everyone. I recorded this episode before everything that happened. Working on it after the assault has helped me clear my mind a little bit. And it's reminded me of all the beautiful moments I spent with my sister traveling. Those memories mean a lot to me right now. I'm really proud of this episode. Enjoy. Hello, and welcome back to my Slow English Podcast.
[0:50]I love traveling and teaching, and to be able to do both is a dream for me.
[1:10]To be able to share these experiences with you while you practice your English listening is so special. Thank you for all of the unconditional support that you give me. And for appreciating what I love to do, teach English. So get comfy and get ready to practice your English listening. Listen to Slow English while I tell you about my stressful trip to China. Last week I went from Tokyo to Shanghai, our flight left at 10:00 p.m. and we arrived in Shanghai at 1:00 a.m. So to make sure we caught our flight, we left our hostel at around 11:00 a.m., really early. We got breakfast and I bought a new suitcase. I needed one to use as checked luggage, very big luggage to fit all of the things that I bought in Tokyo. I did a lot of shopping. I bought hats, sweaters, coats, some very big chunky shoes, and lots of souvenirs for all of my friends and family. After I bought the big suitcase, we took the subway train to the airport. I love this video, my sister is so strong to get to the subway, you have to go down so many flights of stairs. And there were no escalators, so my sister carried our giant suitcase all by herself. We bought a ticket at the vending machine and we waited for our train. I was a little impatient. I didn't want to wait any longer. So, I told my sister, "This train is it! Let's get on this train!" So, we boarded the first train that passed by, and it was the wrong train. My sister was so annoyed at me because I was so restless, impatient. And I made us board the wrong train! So we had to get off at the next train station. Finally, we boarded the right train and we were on our way to the Tokyo airport. We arrived at the airport, and we walked a long way until we found the counters. We have to wait until it's two hours before our flight leaves. We checked the time and we were 8 hours early. My sister and I don't like being rushed or late.
[7:03]But this time I think we were too early, definitely. How early do you go to the airport before your flight leaves? What's the most comfortable time for you to have before your flight? I need at least (minimum) 4 hours, otherwise, I feel like I'm going to miss my flight! Since we had so much time on our hands, we went to the food court and we ate some delicious Udon noodles.
[8:03]Then, when it was time, we checked in, we went through security, we found our gate number and we waited some more. After four hours, we were in Shanghai. I tried to connect to the Wi-Fi so we could start setting up our payment apps, like WeChat Pay or AliPay. If you didn't know, China is almost cashless, they don't use cash and they don't accept our cards, only their own. So we basically need these apps to pay for anything in China. People look at you like you are crazy, if you want to use cash, it's not common at all. We had set up these payment apps before, but now the apps weren't working. Our banks were rejecting the payments, we were so frustrated and exhausted. It was 3:00 a.m. And we still couldn't get any of the apps to work. Finally, I managed to use my WeChat Pay app to buy a little pancake from a vending machine and it worked! So I figured it works, let's go. But now we couldn't find the taxis, we were walking back and forth, back and forth, and we couldn't seem to find them. So I asked a guy. I said, "Excuse me, where are the taxis?" And he said "something" haha. He answered in full fast Chinese and he spoke for one full minute! He gave me directions, hand gestures, everything. I had no idea what he said! But I was too embarrassed to tell him that I didn't understand, especially because I was so excited that he understood my Chinese. So I just smiled and said, "Oh, okay! Thank you!" And I left. Once my sister caught up with me, I told her "Okay, follow me, it's this way." So she followed me, and once we were far away from the man, I told her, I didn't actually understand what he said. She laughed at me. But finally, we found another man, and I asked him in English. :) Then we found the taxis, we hopped in and we were so relieved, we made it! And I was so shocked at how fast the cars could go, from 0 to 100 in a split second. The car would go from 0 to 100. Then my sister informed me, that China actually has some of the fastest cars in the world. It was something I didn't know about China. We finally arrived at our first hotel near the airport, just to sleep. And tomorrow we would book a new place to stay. I scanned my WeChat code to pay, I sent the payment and my card rejected it. We couldn't believe it. We had spent so much time setting it up. And we were back to square one, back exactly where we began. We didn't know what to do. It was 120 RMB. So we asked the receptionist inside the hotel to see if maybe she had some cash, and we could pay her back with our credit cards. She said "no." So we asked the driver if maybe he could drive us to a nearby bank and we could take out some cash, and then pay him. He didn't speak English, but he was shaking his head, "no, no." So we didn't know what to do. The receptionist grabbed my sister's phone and tried to use AliPay. We told her "we already tried, it doesn't work." But she tried anyway. She sent herself 0.01 RMB, and it worked! So we figured "oh, maybe my sister's AliPay works! Let's pay him." She sent 120 RMB, and it was rejected. The payment did not go through again. I had it up to here with my bank. But I realized maybe we can make small payments, maybe smaller payments would go through easier. So I sent him 10 RMB at a time, 10, then another 10, and another 10 until we finally completed the 120 plus a little tip. But we could finally breathe. We went inside the hotel, and it was a little scary, I can't lie. A little dirty, and smelly, and scary, straight out of a horror movie. But we didn't even care at that point, we just wanted to sleep. When we finally got into our room, I slammed my body on the bed and I passed out. It was 5:00 a.m. by then. I slept so well that night. Once we woke up, I booked our next hotel, and we ordered an Uber to our hotel. Now that it was finally working, we arrived at the destination that Google Maps marked, but Google Maps doesn't work well in China either! So the location was wrong! It had sent us about 17 minutes away from our hotel. Keep in mind, we had two huge suitcases, and two backpacks, but we took a deep breath,
[20:17]and we began walking to our hotel. We arrived at the second location it marked, and it was a McDonald's, not a hotel. The location was wrong again! So at that point I decided, let's take an Uber. I was fuming! I seem like a happy positive person but when I am stressed out I am a whole different person. My sister and I were so annoyed at each other at that point. I also understand, we were both super stressed out! After 30 minutes of lugging around our luggage,
[21:38]we finally made it to our hotel! I went to eat some delicious Xiao long bao, some crab roe noodles, and a crispy pancake! So good. It has been one of the best meals I have ever had! I went back to our room, I took a shower, and I went to sleep. At night I got a little bit hungry again. So I walked outside to Nanjing Road to get a snack, and the streets were so alive, full of colorful lights, and food everywhere! Literally everywhere. The next days in China were super fun. I went for a run in People's Park. And I found the cutest little kiosk to sit down and read. I saw a lake with Lily pads and Kaori flowers. There were so many cats in China. My sister loves cats. I tried so much food, sweet and salty. My sister and I talked about how soft everything is in China, the dumplings, the mochi, why is everything so soft here? Everything's so soft, but I like that flavor more than the bean stuff. We've been getting in Thailand and Japan. This tastes more Mexican. The noodles, it's all so soft. I love it. These soup dumplings, wow. I bought a new hat, it's red and warm and I love it. It's my new favorite hat. And we had been eating so much Asian food, we needed some Mexican food, so I ordered a quesadilla. In the evening, we went to see YuYuan Garden, and that was something else. I had never seen anything like that.
[25:14]You could also see a skyscraper touching the clouds. It looked unreal, from a movie. In Mexico we have "orejitas", little ears, they're like sweet bread. And I kept on seeing this bread in China.
[25:47]They looked a little different, but I tried one and they tasted really similar. Interesting. I was obsessed with Xiao long bao on this trip. I had at least one order of Xiao long bao every day.
[26:22]I had more sweets like caramelized strawberries, and we saw "the Bund", a very unique view of buildings right in front of the river. I would love to live near that area. I could go for runs every morning, right next to the river. Nanjing Road was busy all the time, full of people. And being around so many people can make me feel exhausted. So to regain our energy, we got a hot pot, it was so spicy, our lips were on fire. But it was so tasty and flavorful. Don't forget to like and subscribe to practice English listening every day. I also tried a persimmon, that was interesting. It tasted almost like a tomato and a raisin mixed together. Then we saw the cutest car. I want a car like that. One that doesn't take so much space, like those big trucks that everyone has in the USA, it's so unnecessary. Like why do you need that much space? You are one person. We should all have tiny cars like this. At this temple there were so many little red notes with people's dreams and goals. They wrote down "I want to meet a beautiful partner." "I want to speak fluent Chinese." And hung them on the trees. What dream would you want to come true? These are protecting dragons.
[29:40]One of them is a man and one of them is a woman. You keep them in your house to protect your house. It's supposed to bring good luck and good fortune. I actually bought two little ones to keep with me all the time. On our last day we checked out of our hotel, and we moved to a different hotel, closer to the airport. It was so cool. It was like a resort. They had a theater to watch movies in. A restaurant, hot springs, and an arcade. We played Mario Kart, and I was No. 1 a lot. We snacked on popcorn and chips and we ate a lot of food. We were only in Shanghai for four days. We did what we could with the time we had, but I will definitely apply for a visa to have a longer trip next time. And let me know in the comments if you would like to see more of my trips in Asia. I have so many students from Somalia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Brazil, Morocco, Turkey. It's crazy to see how diverse my audience is, but I'm so proud of all of you! For sticking with me, for staying consistent. And not only building your English skills, but also working on yourself. Please never lose that motivation. No matter what you do or where you are, you can reach your goals if you set your mind to it. If you're ready to take the next step in your English learning journey, then come practice speaking in my English community to encourage you to practice your English every day. See you next time. Bye.
