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Hello, Hola, Guten Tag, Bonjour, こんにちは !
Welcome everyone,
this is a podcast for those wanting to learn about U.S. culture through Standard American English, also known as General American. We talk about various different topics related to the U.S. and the U.S.'s relations with other countries.
My co-host and I would like to think of this as more of a journey because you never know where it’ll take us. Plus, since the journey’s more important than the end or the start, we hope that you’ll be willing to join us!
Let’s see where it takes us!
Hello and welcome.
name is Christopher Chandler.
And my name is Chris Schauer.
And we are Generally American.
In our podcast, we discuss events, culture, whatever else we want from a Generally
American perspective.
From our differing viewpoints, our goal is that we can offer others and ourselves nuanced
opinions on fascinating topics related to the U .S.
We invite you to be part of the discussion and we hope that you'll stick around to see
where the conversation takes us.
So let's dive in.
And we're back.
We're back and we're live in a recorded kind of way.
Yeah.
After I think it's been almost two months now.
Yeah.
And I think it's safe to say it's been a pretty eventful two months for everyone.
yeah, definitely.
But before we get into that, I guess I can kind of talk about the weather because I've
only been back for about two, two ish.
weeks so the weather here is actually pretty hot which is really good because we hang our
laundry out to dry like most people in Germany so it dries pretty pretty quickly but it's
supposed to be like the last nice week of the summer and it's gonna be raining for the
next couple days well actually today today is the first day of autumn as we record on the
22nd of September officially
Officially the equinox at least in my time zone, I think was about three and a half hours
ago I didn't actually know there was an autumn Equinox, but I guess there's an equinox for
everything isn't there?
Well, there's two equinoxes and two solstices.
Okay.
Yeah, I know some people celebrate those instead of like Christmas Like as like a
Christmas replacement if you will so I'll celebrate like the winter equinox
But yeah, I just Googled it and it is.
It's coming though.
I was driving home from work on Friday and a stray leaf hit my window.
Stray crunchy leaf.
I'm like, here she comes.
No, I mean, the weather here is still pretty.
It's still pretty hot.
I wouldn't classify it as autumn, though, but, know, you know, it's official, though.
So technically it is autumn.
Yeah, I think kind of like you we have one more warm week and then it's probably gonna
start It's gonna start sliding and then we're gonna enter into the period of about six
months where it could snow any given week and It's unlikely but it's it's on the table for
about six months.
Hmm Okay, yeah, so that's basically the weather report so So how have you been?
So because we haven't really talked at all for the past two
Right.
It's been a busy couple months.
I quit my job, got a new job, same kind of field, but now I set a working from home.
have to go back out into the real world.
between things, kind of had like a, especially since I, you know, I basically spent a year
straight at home, which a lot of which is great, but I kind of just wanted
a gap, anything.
So I decided to go on a trip.
Just by myself.
just, just something to like bookend my time at that old job and just refresh myself and
just get a change of pace.
And I ended up deciding to go to Boston for about five days, which beautiful city.
that's right.
You told me about that.
So how was that?
Is that your first time?
I had been to Boston once about 20 years ago.
Okay.
Does that I mean, I was there about two weeks.
Okay, then it does count.
Yeah.
And I, there were some stuff I definitely remembered, but it's a very different experience
because we had family that I think she technically lived in Cambridge, which is across.
I should remember the name of the very important river in Boston, but I don't right now,
but it's across the main river there.
And then you're in Cambridge.
She had a house out there.
Mm And we could take a walk to the train every day or they call it the T out there.
It's the oldest subway system in the U .S.
Is it the best one?
it might be.
I mean, you can get anywhere.
You can get anywhere.
Their public transportation in Boston is so good.
There's there's ferries.
There's buses.
There's four train lines, I think.
I felt like I could get anywhere.
I rode in a car one time just to get back to the airport the day I left.
And that's just because the airport buses the day I landed were like insanely cramped and
I got a little claustrophobic.
But other than that, amazing.
Yeah, I mean, that's what I tell everyone is that in terms of public transportation, it's
really spotty at best.
So if you go to like the major cities or I think anything on like the East Coast, like New
York, Boston or whatever, they have really good public transportation or so I've heard, or
at least they have it, you know.
Yeah, and the city is incredibly walkable.
There are whole parts of the city where it's just like
The road like the road is just you just walk in the middle of it and it's.
It's it's great, I highly recommend it.
Boston, definitely one of America's great cities.
Is it clean or was it clean when you were there?
Yeah, the I will say the the actual like train stations, the subway stations.
Have a unique character to them because they're the oldest in the country and they got.
a little character in some places, but I would say it was pretty clean.
And I was also there, you know, was August I was there.
So, you know, late summer.
It rains a lot there.
So, you know, that probably also helps keep it clean.
yeah, I mean, because it is a big city or I mean, the city, at least in cities, aren't
really that clean.
But
Yeah.
And so was this just like a spontaneous decision to go?
It was.
It was.
I decided, I think, like 10 or less days before I left and got a hotel room and a plane
ticket booked.
And I started doing a little researching of things to do because I'd been there before.
I feel like I learned enough on this trip.
I want to go again because I feel like I missed out on some stuff.
But
One probably the most fun thing I did was go to Fenway Park.
I wasn't able to see a game which it's the it's the Red Sox baseball park.
They it's a very very it's it's the oldest operational baseball park in the league.
I'm pretty sure it's the oldest operational major sporting facility in the country.
It's ancient.
It's
It has the lowest seating capacity.
It has a weird asymmetrical field, but people love it.
It's amazing.
It has so much character.
has so much history.
had a great tour there.
The guy who gave it was a semi -retired born and raised Boston man with a super thick
Boston accent.
They say Fenway Pock.
I heard Fenway Pock like 30 times that day.
That sounds actually pretty convincing.
I mean, it's a lot better than I could do.
I mean, that's the easy one.
Yeah, that's true.
A lot of our listeners are from outside the US, but I would say for the majority of
Americans, because we have a lot of different accents and dialects in the US, everyone
thinks that everyone in the US speaks like we do, which obviously is not true.
by any means.
But I would say Boston is one of the most well -known accents in the US.
I think everyone could pinpoint a Boston accent.
Wouldn't you agree?
Yeah.
And so it was kind of interesting before I went and like everybody knows, everyone in the
US knows the Boston accent.
And I'm wondering like how real is it?
Because I was in town for a while.
I didn't really hear it early on and I had kind of a small world moment the first night I
was there.
There was a a barbecue place like right like a block away from my hotel.
It was late.
People said they did Texas style barbecue as good as they do in Texas.
I doubted it, but I went and checked it out.
Shocker barbecue in Boston is not nearly as good as it would be in Texas, but it is still
fine.
But the guy, the bartender who ended up serving me
He ended up being from Billings.
huh?
Billings, Montana.
So it was kind of like a small world moment, but.
Yeah, that.
Go on.
Sorry, I went on a tangent, but yeah.
So throughout all that, I didn't really hear the accent, but then you go to like the older
parts of town and then you hear it.
And that was kind of like my measuring stick in a few places.
for how I guess legit a place was.
So there's a, can't remember the name of it, but you can Google like Paul Revere Bar and
restaurant or something and you'll find it.
It's the oldest, I'm pretty sure it's the oldest restaurant in Massachusetts.
It's been there since like 1750 something.
And I went over there for lunch one day and I was like,
Everyone says everyone recommended to do it.
I'm like, I'm kind of expecting a tourist trap.
Mm hmm.
Whatever people say to do it.
I'll go do it.
I sit down, not super busy, not dead quiet, but just not super busy.
Just kind of normal Monday how you'd see a bar.
And I sit up at the bar and get some food and all the staff, super thick Boston accent guy
sits down at the bar, make small talk with the with the bartender, super thick Boston
accent.
I'm like, OK.
So locals go here, not a tourist trap.
And I had probably the best clam chowder of my life there.
clam chowder's really good.
They hit it different.
Like clam chowder and lobster rolls, when you get real ones, when you get good ones, it's
like life changing.
Yeah, I bet.
Speaking of accent, it is like you often hear these accents on TV and you really ask
yourself if people really do speak like that.
And I remember the first time I went I went to Germany.
I had to go through Dallas and that was in like 2010, I think.
And I was completely lost because I had never really been in a big airport before.
And asked one of like the security guards or TSA agents or whatever they're called, like
how to get to a certain gate.
And he just started explaining you have to go.
that way and take the stairs and blah, blah.
And he had like a true, you know, like Texan accent, just like you would imagine on TV.
Like, I'm not going to try to do a Texan accent because I can't do accents.
But it was it was kind of a surreal moment because I was like, wow, people actually do
speak like that because I had never heard like like a Texan actually speak before in that
accent, because I had worked with a few Texans before, but they had like a very standard
like English accent like you and me.
And so it was just kind of I was taking it back a bit.
So it was very interesting, to say the least.
I would be curious to see if anyone's ever done a study on that, because, like I said,
what I observed in Boston is when you're in the older parts of town, that's where you hear
it.
So I wonder if that's kind of how it is, like the regions of a city where people tend to
stay and where, you know, there's generations like that's I imagine that's just kind of
where they.
where you're gonna hear most of it.
Yeah, probably.
Because dialects are one thing and like slang and stuff.
think that travels easier.
But accents, think those are harder to get ingrained in a person.
That's definitely true.
But before we get too off the beaten path, because I'm gonna go on a tangent too about
accents because that's my thing, languages.
So yeah, I was also in the US.
for almost I think seven weeks six weeks seven weeks was really long and a lot has changed
in two years or at least like where I went back like to to Missouri the biggest downside
for my wife is was Walmart or like the biggest I guess disappointment because she used to
love going to Walmart because people are there very friendly and
They weren't really friendly this time.
And it's also and it's all self -checkout.
And all of the employees had like this look on their face of like, just kill me now.
They were not happy at all.
They were all just completely miserable.
I mean, at least their expressions, I don't know if they were actually miserable.
So my wife is kind of bummed out about that.
I don't really care about Wal -Mart, but Wal -Mart used to be in Germany.
And so my wife thought it was awesome.
So going to the US every year, you know, should we get like the guess like the Walmart
experience, you know, how like the big selection and like how friendly the people are and
compared to Germany, they are very friendly, which is a low bar.
I'm not going to lie.
Customer service in Germany is just is atrocious, to say the least.
But yeah, she was really disappointed with how terrible
It was because like they have I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but they have or
had so many things behind glass Like you had to get an employee to come out and open
things up.
Yes I know they do it for like even baby formula now.
Yeah That's what I saw too It was really weird And so I felt like a child having to go
find an employee.
It's like can you unlock this for me so I can buy it?
And so, but yeah, so that was a really good time in the US.
It was really hot.
I don't know how hot it was up in Montana, but it was like, we were in like 90s and like
the hundreds almost every day, scorching hot.
We had our heat wave a little earlier in the year, but hasn't been that bad lately.
Yeah, so it was pretty, it was pretty hot though, because like we were trying to do like
family photos and everything, because everyone wanted to meet my daughter.
That was the whole reason for going.
And she was pretty much like the star of the show.
And so it was pretty much I go to one relative to the next, to another, to the next.
And they're like, where's your daughter?
What's her name?
And can I hold her?
And can we take pictures?
And that was just the whole thing for like six weeks.
But I took like thousand pictures.
So I definitely have enough for like a photo album later on.
Did, I guess you said the last time you there was two years ago.
Did any, what else major changed?
And they changed all the roads.
Like, cause the roads have been the same since like I've grown up there.
And so they changed the highway or not the highway, like the overpass completely.
And it really, really messed me up.
And
it made me also feel kind of sad because you have this image of your hometown and so every
time I go back, something is always different.
Like a store closes or a new one opens up or someone passes.
But you kind of don't really notice that all that much.
I mean, sure, when someone dies, of course you notice.
But the small things you don't.
But that was so in my face of they destroyed the entire overpass that I was just kind of,
you know, I was a bit sad.
I mean, it was terrible.
It was a terrible overpass.
I don't care that they got rid of it.
It was actually better.
But it was just like a like a really strong, like a strong change.
And yeah, I definitely noticed that every time I go back that everything just everything
is just different.
So and it's surprise.
It's surprising what kind of changes like that can hit you emotionally, right?
yeah, definitely.
It was kind of emotional that they changed it.
I'm not going to lie.
Not that I really care about the overpass, but you know.
But I mean, a lot of the other things kind of stayed the same.
We had to to the DMV, because I had to get my ID renewed, and my daughter got an ID as
well.
I didn't even know kids could get one, but apparently they can.
I guess it makes sense.
Yeah, like my relatives...
their thinking is that it's really good to do IDs with kids because it attaches them to
you like in like the system.
So there's more proof that it's your child, so to speak.
I don't know why you would necessarily need that layer of protection, but I've heard from
some people it's good, I guess, in case of schooling or kidnapping or whatever.
have no idea.
Yeah, I think there's been some like weird cases of like child snatching where they take
your kid and they're like,
What do mean?
This has been my kid the whole time.
Where's your proof?
Yeah, yeah.
And so that's one of the reasons why I also did it.
Plus, I'm trying to do as much paperwork for my daughter as possible.
So it was like doing the social, her passport, her passport card, her ID, like all of
that.
So that if something happens to me, God forbid, she doesn't have to worry about that.
because that's really hard when people pass to prove like citizenship and like to prove
like, like, your parents are and whatnot.
so that's a, that's a bit more difficult.
A funny story about like the social.
So like, everyone has a social, you have one, I would assume I have one.
And so you have like your social security number, which is, I think people underestimate
how important that actually is from like a
Like as a as an outsider It's everything it is that's your life in you know, like ten or
so digits.
Yeah and I was trying to tell my wife is because Germany has one too.
So Germany has a social security number, but you don't use it for anything except for I
Think maybe retirement.
It's just for your pension basically, but it's not like you use it for anything here.
You don't use it for
apartment or a credit card or for like a loan or anything so it's kind of actually useless
I don't even know what mine is it's somewhere in a folder somewhere but we applied for her
social so for my daughter's social and the lady there wanted to have her birth certificate
because my daughter was born abroad and she was like hmm
Okay, so she's born abroad.
This might be difficult.
And I'm like, why?
And she's like, well, because your daughter's born abroad.
It has to go through Homeland Security first to make sure that she's not like a terrorist
or on a no fly list.
Which to me makes absolutely no sense because beforehand they gave me a passport.
So you can get a passport without a social.
I don't know if you knew that.
that's kind of crazy.
Yeah, you don't need a social to get a passport.
You just need to be an American citizen.
So like if you're, I don't know, I guess Amish maybe, and you don't have a social, but
you're an American citizen either way, you can still get a passport.
And so your passport number, if you don't have a social, is just like nine zeros.
That's all it is, that's your social.
So that's a standard social ID.
And she's like, well, it has to go through Homeland Security, because you know, she was
born abroad and she could be a risk.
I said, okay, then I guess we'll wait six weeks, which I was really mad.
because we have to leave in six weeks.
And so we did all the paperwork.
I left.
I was kind of, you know, moaning and complaining.
And then lo and behold, a week later, I had the mail.
yeah.
So was like, huh?
I was like, maybe she met six days because definitely wasn't six weeks.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, so I definitely got all that taken care of.
You want to hear something horrifying, kind of, that happened with me with my social?
yeah.
So while I'm getting set up for this new job, the HR guy who's been like facilitating
everything with me, he reaches out and.
He texts me, he's like, yeah, I need you to text over your social and something else.
And I'm like, and he's like, I'm going to delete this as soon as you send it.
I'm like, what?
Like I did it, but it didn't feel good.
And I actually heard him in the office a few weeks ago talking with someone like, yeah,
that used to be illegal until a couple of years ago.
Now I do it all the time.
my god.
Like if I didn't know, know, know, like I have a friend who works there like, yeah, this
is the guy's name.
Here's his phone number.
And then the same phone number of that person I've been talking to also, you know, if it
wasn't all that, I wouldn't have done it.
But it still felt really weird.
Yeah.
I mean, I still feel weird on like on websites entering like my social and whatnot.
like for like credit, like if you, so like for example, if I call up like to get my
information on my credit card and I don't have my number, you can just give your social.
And so like even talking about it feels kind of weird.
But it's such like, it's such a private number and a lot of my foreign friends are like,
well, it's just a number.
was like, no, it's your entire life.
If you have.
That and this is like common knowledge to I think anyone born in the US or at least I hope
it would be but if you have that in a name, I mean you it's pretty much identity theft.
I don't do you remember that commercial way back when where that guy had a social posted
on the side of truck?
Saying like you could try and like I think it was like yeah life lock.
They were trying to show how safe their their their product was.
Yeah, I think his social got stolen like 100 times or something.
I don't know how safe the product was, but yeah, you even have like companies that will
monitor that for you.
Like I do that too.
So so nothing gets stolen.
But still, I do know you can apply for a new one if it does get.
Yeah, but it's a real hassle and you have to prove like a real reason why.
But you can apply for a new one.
And identity theft is like terrifying here.
yeah.
I don't like there's been documentaries of people who's like, yeah, my identity was stolen
15 years ago.
And they like, they'll go on like late night talk shows and stuff and talk about it.
Like, yeah, I'm so and so my parents acknowledged that this that I have all this
paperwork, but there's this other person who got one piece of my information.
And as far as the government's concerned, it's just he said, she said, I say I'm Tom, he
says I'm Tom.
And they're like, well, who knows?
And it can be very, I think the laws have improved slightly, but I remember being forced
to watch videos about that, like taking finance classes in school.
And it was like, comically depressing how easy it was to do.
Yeah.
I mean, it's definitely very, very, very serious.
So you really have to be careful.
And that's how I found out.
who someone in my class was that they were American because we were talking about credit
scores, which is an American thing.
Like you don't have a credit score in Germany.
That's really just American construct.
And there was this one woman in my class talking in German about a credit score.
I was like, why would she be talking about a credit score?
Because we were talking about money and like a finance class at the university.
And I was like, are you from like the US?
And she's like, yeah, like I'm from I think she said she was from Michigan.
I can't remember.
Which is really cool because that was the first American I'd ever met at the university.
But I don't know, we don't want to go looking on a tangent too far about social security,
but definitely look it up if you're interested.
Yeah, it's a rabbit hole.
Yeah.
Another thing that was really, that was really pain is I had to drive everywhere and
Sucks, right?
Yo, it sucks bad.
I drive everywhere here too, but it's like the distances are a lot shorter.
And over there, everything's just so spread out.
So I was driving, which driving half an hour for Americans isn't really that long of a
drive, I would say.
But for me, it feels like a long drive because Germany is the size of, it's actually
smaller than Texas.
So it's a very small country.
So I can get from here to Berlin in like four hours.
So it's super small.
And so I had to drive everywhere, which really bothered me.
And you have a baby.
And so you have to put the baby in the car seat, take the baby out, put the baby back in,
take the baby out.
It's just the, know, like the karate kid, like wax on, off.
And that was like my whole trip was just taking the baby out of the car seat and in the
car seat.
And then I had the brilliant idea, actually from my dad, it's cause you have the car seat
and you have like the station.
So you lock it in and you can take out the car seat and just leave the station in the car.
And so, which is what I did.
And so just took that and putting in the shopping cart.
So I'd have to care the baby the whole time So that was that was really nice that works.
yeah, definitely I feel like as a parent you need every shortcut you can figure out.
yeah, it was really you know, it was a lot I'm not gonna lie traveling with a baby Was
really hard especially on the airplane because I was afraid of being like that That guy
who has a baby
Have you ever been next to a baby on a plane?
No, not right next to.
Well, I mean, be glad.
So, we have my baby, and then on the other end there's another one with her baby.
And then in between us was a teenager.
And she looked like to her left and to her right.
And I swear to you, she asked like the stewardess, like, hey, can I sit back there with my
friends?
Because there's an empty seat.
And she's like, well, I don't know, because we're about to take off.
I don't know if you can actually sit there.
And so, lo and behold, 10 minutes later, she was gone and she was sitting back there with
her friends as opposed to between us, between two babies screaming the whole time.
that's probably better for everyone.
Well, I know it actually does matter sometimes because they want to keep the plane in
relative balance.
Yeah, they say that.
I actually believe them, too.
Some guy tried to steal another seat and she's like, no, you can't sit there and
everything's balanced and blah, blah.
That was a direct flight.
How long was your flight to Boston?
So I had to fly out of Billings at like four in the morning or so.
wow.
My flight was to Minneapolis, which is about two hours.
And then I think from Minneapolis to Boston is like three and a half, four hours.
So not horrible.
And, know, all planes these days, unless you're flying super cheap, they have like movie
screens and stuff.
it's.
It's pretty bearable.
even yours?
Because I've been on short flights in the US and never had a movie screen.
The shortest, so last year, coming back from Green Bay, Wisconsin, we did Green Bay to
Detroit.
That was like a 40 minute flight that didn't have screens.
Yeah, I've been on like really small flights, like an hour or two, and they didn't have
any screens at all.
But this one was a direct flight.
Almost.
So we flew from Dusseldorf to Frankfurt, which was an hour.
And then from Frankfurt to St.
Louis, which was nine or 10 hours, I think.
that's not too bad.
I would have figured worse.
it was like it was heaven on earth.
I mean, it's funny when I say that because we were like only 10 hours and it sounds like a
lot.
But the alternative is
24 hours because you fly to four different countries and you have three different
layovers.
So that's not fun.
I mean, you can basically just think of it as a day at work.
You're going to to work shift and then when you get off work, you're done for the day.
Yeah, I mean, it was like it was paradise.
I mean, it felt like luxury.
I mean, we were an economy, but it felt like first class because I didn't have to go to
four different airports.
And this was like a new route that they opened up.
So it had only been around for about two years maybe.
So I really appreciated that.
But yeah, that was pretty much my whole trip without going like too far into like the
weeds.
It was pretty much just visiting family, you know, getting a bunch of paperwork done,
which was really boring.
And I don't know if I would call it a vacation.
Because traveling with babies isn't vacation.
It's just not.
But it was really nice seeing everyone again.
It was really nice seeing my family.
Because my family is really big.
So it's impossible for them to come here.
So we just fly down there.
And next year, if I'm lucky, we'll be back there too.
And then hopefully she'll be able to walk and talk and all that fun stuff.
I'm glad it was overall pretty positive.
Yeah, it was really positive.
I mean, the end was pretty sad, but you know, that's how it is.
But it felt really, really good to be there, but it feels good to be back.
I mean, you're only in Boston for how long are Boston for a week?
It's about five days.
Did you experience like any culture shock being in Boston besides the language?
So a little bit.
So one thing, there's a couple of misconceptions people have about people in the Northeast
US.
And a lot of people say they're all rude.
That's true.
That is a common, common stereotype.
It's a little bit more complicated than that.
And one thing I read the other day that I think is, is more fitting is they're nice.
They're not kind.
For example, I bought my week pass to use the public transportation over there.
And I had just spent an entire day outside walking.
I'll tell that story here in a little bit.
But the cards they give you are like paper.
And so I have this paper scan card and I'd been sweating all day in these clothes and it,
the paper card didn't like that.
So I go up to the thing.
like, I'm like, I just want to get back to the hotel.
It's the hottest day of my trip.
I don't know why I picked today to do the multi -mile walk.
and it wouldn't work.
And some other dude just came and was like, I got you scan.
And I went through and I went to thank him and he was already gone.
Like super nice thing he did.
Like people got places to be.
not like, they're not much for pleasantries out there.
They're very, they'll help you, but then they're leaving.
They got things to do.
like really like direct to the point.
like here I'll help you.
Okay, bye.
Okay.
Would you say people where you're from are more into pleasantries?
Yeah, I can't say I'm a huge fan of it, but I'm used to it.
So I would say it's more like a southern thing, like southern hospitality.
That's what it reminds me of.
It's also pretty Midwest, not that we're Midwest, but I don't know.
Now I've been watching or reading a lot of memes about Midwest.
I don't know if I'm
I don't know if Montana really councils the Midwest.
we're not we're just pretty culturally similar
I'll take that.
Yeah.
But anyway, the reason I was out there for that walk.
So Boston is a city of history.
It's very old city for us on the US scale.
So there's historical landmarks and revolutionary war landmarks and things like that
everywhere.
Just walking through the city on my first day, just seeing normal buildings, I almost kind
of just look up and like.
I just take the spectacle in because it's like walking through history and some of the
roads are like brick and it's just very cool.
But the more famous ones are on something called the Freedom Trail.
it's a trail.
it's very famous.
You can look it up.
But it's a it's a trail that I think starts in the Boston Common, which is like their big,
large public park they have there.
I walked past it many times and it goes to
graveyards like Paul Revere's house, a bunker hill monument, the USS Constitution, which
is the United States ship of state.
And 10 more.
There's so many.
There's so many things on it.
And even as you just walk the Freedom Trail, you go through historical neighborhoods, you
just see beautiful sights.
It's a very good
way to just experience boston you get to go through the north and district which is don't
don't call it this okay but it's their little italy they don't like it when you call it
that it's north end
but it's super Italian.
All the restaurants there are Italian.
Some of the signs are in Italian.
Like there's Italian speaking dentist office I went by.
Like it's very Italian.
Super cool place though.
There's a place called Mike's Pastries.
Super famous for their, I think it's their cannolis.
I wanted to get in one and you could even see people were coming out with their Mike's
boxes and like taking pictures of themselves.
It's not a line at Mike's.
It's a wall of people and you have to figure out how to get to the front of the counter.
So I, I ended up deciding I would try another day, but every cause there's like three or
four Mike's locations and every time I walked by one, was packed.
So I never ended up having Mike's, but, it was a beautiful day, walked through the whole
city, got to experience so much.
And I highly recommend it.
That was the day I actually went to that Tavern Paul Revere frequented, because what they
say is the smart move is you do the Freedom Trail in reverse.
Because everyone starts the Freedom Trail at the beginning, at the beginning of the day.
So all the stuff you're going to pass is going to be busy.
But if you go in reverse, you know, there's not as much people you have to contend with.
Although I think that's a pretty
common tip now.
still less busy, but I think something like 35 % of people do it in reverse now.
So it's not a huge secret.
Hmm, but it's very very interesting especially
I don't know.
don't being living somewhere where old buildings here are like 50, 60, 70.
And the really old ones might be 80 years old.
Going someplace where just like the common architecture is that old.
then you go into the revolutionary period stuff.
It's it almost felt like I was walking through like movie sets or something.
And it's all is it like all like authentic or is it?
yeah.
yeah.
my God.
It's it's beautiful.
Lots of brick work, lots of red brick work.
I really can't say it enough.
There were times I tried not to look super touristy and I got asked for directions a
couple times, so I think I pulled it off.
But I tried not to look super touristy and just take pictures of normal buildings on the
road, but I couldn't help myself a few times.
Like the neighborhood I stayed in, if anyone wants to look up the Back Bay District of
Boston,
beautiful area.
where I stayed.
Like I just walked outside and took a took a picture of the normal homes and apartments
and it's just I love it.
Like I almost put the bug in me that like I want to move here someday.
Hmm.
Like everything everything here just works.
The public transportation just works like there's great food everywhere.
It's great.
Is it so you really think you're going to move there or that is that just like a feeling
you have?
No, I probably won't.
But it put like that like, I could see myself in another life just living here.
I could see it.
I don't know if I'd survive on the East Coast, truth be told.
I mean, I'm from the Midwest.
I definitely don't feel like it, but I feel more comfortable in the Midwest.
Yeah, I also am doing that thing where it's like, wow, I'm associating good memories with
a vacation.
Once you live somewhere, it's different.
I know that.
Yeah, it definitely is.
I mean, it's the same here.
Like, I moved to Germany because I had really good vacation.
I have had a very pleasant experience living here, which is odd for a lot of people
because I've been in lot of forums.
And a lot of people have had less than pleasant experiences living in Germany because of
the bureaucracy.
But definitely you have people who watch like Emily in Paris and suddenly want to go to
France forever.
I've seen those too.
I don't know.
I would like to go to different states someday.
So when we fly back to the US, we always go back to Missouri, which some people said to my
wife, feel like I feel bad for you because you always come back here.
So so next time, I think when we go to the US, we want to do like maybe like an internal
vacation and.
maybe go to like Louisiana?
Because I really want to go to Louisiana.
Have you ever been?
I have not.
I do kind of want to go there and like hit up Bourbon Street one of these days.
Yeah, so I definitely want to go like Louisiana or like Chicago, because Chicago is super
close.
It's like an hour flight.
But from what I've heard, it's mad expensive.
So I don't know.
their public transport is very confusing.
I had a friend who went there for a concert about a year and a half ago.
and he got super lost on their trains.
Yeah, I mean, I've heard that too.
Like you have public transportation in St.
Louis isn't the best either.
But that only exists like in the city of St.
Louis.
Once you leave it, you're kind of on your own.
And I didn't feel like driving one day and my wife was like, I'll just take a bus.
It's like, good luck finding one.
Let me know if you find one.
It's also dicey taking a bus probably most places.
yeah, definitely.
I wouldn't take a bus to go anywhere.
except for to school.
Well, know, I'm just saying Boston might be a good choice and because it's on the East
Coast and train transportation is a real thing there.
You can take a train to New York.
You can take a train all the way up to a few cities in Maine.
Like there's so much you can do.
God, I want to go back already.
There's so much I didn't do that I want to try.
Well, I mean, I don't think it's going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
the way, did you say you're working?
Yeah, hopefully.
Like, so are you working from home or do you actually go to a no, no, no.
I have a 20 to 30 minute commute every day.
I get to fight the busy traffic in the morning and coming home and I get to merge and I
have three merges on my way to work.
I'm horrified for what that's going to look like in the winter.
I might just start coming in an hour earlier and leaving an hour earlier just so I can
dodge the worst of the traffic on both ends.
Do you miss working from home?
Yes and no.
kind of like the idea of like, like I have my own office at my new job and having my own
office is, is pretty cool.
I, like the level of response.
Like what I do, I don't think it would work that well remote.
I mean, it would work okay, but drivers come in some and you know, they want face to face
time and, and I can't say I blame them either.
It's, I think it's easy to like dehumanize people and say,
Unkind things to people if you've never met them face to face But you know if I've you
know spent time with this driver in my you know five feet from me I'm probably less likely
to say something messed up to him and vice versa.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I really want to do that anyway, but I Work from home I think as a child that was my
dream to work from home honestly, I'd like to work in an office or
outside of the home.
don't necessarily want to be in an office, but my work is so far away.
It's like 50 minutes.
So driving that every day would be real pain.
So I'm glad that I have the luxury because it is a luxury to work from home.
OK.
I was I wasn't really sure if you actually went there or not or worked for.
I sure do.
I sure do.
All right.
So we're coming to a close here.
Yeah, so that's pretty much my vacation compressed into like 20 minutes.
like I said before, it wasn't really a vacation because it was just with my baby.
But my baby got to meet everyone and they got to meet her and we had a great old time.
And so now I'm just back here doing the, you know, regular just working and saving up for
a house.
So that's my goal for the future.
Do you have anything you want to add before we get out of here?
Anything you want to throw in there?
know what?
One small thing I highly recommend if anyone does go to Boston, which I hope I'm pushing
hard enough that I recommend you go to Boston.
Go to Harvard University and they do student -led tours and they're very interesting.
Harvard is a wacky place with very weird history and it's fun.
It's America's
oldest higher learning institution so it's great times.
okay well I might check out Boston I'm not gonna fly directly to Boston but if I'm in the
States I might do that.
Alright thanks so much for listening we'll see you all in the next one take care bye bye
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