Hello, guys! Welcome to another episode of the BigAppleSchool podcast, where the goal is, of course, to help you improve your English through listening. My name is Benjamin Walker, and today we have three wonderful guests with us, including...
Ken from the Philippines.
Ugur from Istanbul, Turkey.
Varya from the United States.
So welcome, guys. And today we're going to be talking about the subject of daily routines, i.e. what you do on a daily basis. And maybe we'll talk about other cultures and daily routines in other cultures, too. So let's start with the very first part of the day. So what's the very first thing we do? We go to sleep and we wake up. So we'll start with waking up and then later we'll move through the different parts of the day and we'll discuss.. Yeah, different routine schedules that people adhere to. So wake up in the morning. What's the very first thing we do? So we have an alarm clock. I guess you all use alarm clocks.
No, try to beat mine. I will put the alarm on, but I will try to beat it. I don't like to listen to. Because I have it.. I have a rooster cock-a-doodle-do. And I don't want to listen to that. So I make sure I wake up before.
So the actual ring.. Not ring tone, but the melody is a rooster. And is it on your phone or..?
And when was the last time people used a traditional alarm clock? I wouldn't say a traditional, an old school alarm clock.
Before I came here. I didn't know how to use the phone.
Yeah, because typically in movies, at least the movies from the 90s, if you would watch a scene of people waking up, they slap the alarm clock and.. Yeah, have you ever had one Ken?
No, fortunately not. It must have been annoying if I had one in the past because, you know, in the film, it's just too loud. And, you know, sometimes it shakes and I wouldn't want one for myself. So, yeah, I just use my phone even though I always beat the alarm clock. I tend to wake up way earlier than the supposed time for waking up. Um, well, that's unfortunate.
Do you have a fixed time that you wake up every day? Do you guys?
Yeah, like two o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning? Lots of times.
So you wake up in the middle.
Oh, I do the time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, all the time.
Yeah. Well, I sometimes do too. I drink a lot of water before I go to bed, and maybe I shouldn't. But, yeah, and I do take a few trips. But, um, yeah, so do you.. do you wake up at the same time every day?
No, not really. It depends on the time that I go to sleep the previous night. So it depends. And alarm clocks are my worst enemy. So, yeah, I don't like alarm clocks, but I have to.
And do you hit the snooze button?
And what do you do? Do you set a few different times on your alarm clock?
Yeah, if I need to just wake up around nine o'clock, it's like nine. It's before.. It's eight fifty five, eight fifty, forty five. So it's kind of step by step. Reaching that point in a way.
So when you.. So the first alarm clock goes off. Do you just turn that alarm clock off? Would you press..?
Snooze. The snooze button, yeah.
The snooze. The snooze comes on and ..
Yeah. And I feel myself wierdly comfortable with that. Alright, I get five more minutes to sleep. So, yeah, five minutes later again, you realize you need to wake up.
But you don't mind that anticipation, that waiting, that waiting. That would that would give me anxiety. I mean it's just get up and get it over with.
Yeah, I definitely get anxious, too. I just wake up as well. Because I get quite shaken up by the alarm clock itself.
I have that feeling too. I actually hate it because I always, you know, beat the alarm clock. But then I still go back to sleep. I try to. But then, you know, I feel anxious and you know, my mind tells me, Oh, come on, you only have 15 minutes. And then I tell myself, No, no, no, it's not, it's not time yet. It's my right to go back to sleep.
Why do we struggle every single day of our life like that? It really is. Because I remember being a teenager and the same thing. And I always would promise myself, I'm going to go to bed earlier and I never do. It never happens. And here I am in my sixth, seventh decade, whatever decade. And here I am. It's the same thing over and over. But what about dark out curtains? I cannot stand them.
We're going to talk about sleep towards the end, but we will definitely.. Will definitely come back.
Well, dark out curtains has something to do with in the morning. Yeah, because that's sun shining in at five o'clock in the morning. Next month it will come.
Yeah, because.. How long have you been in..?
This will be my third spring now. Yeah, and may I don't look forward to.
Yeah, it does. I think the Sun comes up at something like four in the morning.
Yes, it's getting light and it really shines through my window.
I mean, don't you have an eye mask?
Yeah, I I don't think I could do that. I don't know.. Maybe it makes wrinkles on your face.
It's restrictive as well. I mean, yeah. All right. Well, would you consider yourselves to be a morning person? I really want to be a morning person. I mean, I can operate in the mornings, but I, I would say more like a midday afternoon person. What about you Ken? Or you a..
Morning person? Most definitely not.
Oh... Yeah, I thought you were going to say yes.
I hate waking up in the morning, to be perfectly honest. But, um, of course it's.. It's a struggle, but I have to because, you know, we have morning classes sometimes. I see myself more as a night owl. I become more active late in the afternoon till evening. This way I know we're going to touch on this, but I'm just going to, you know, pre-empt a little. So that's why I find it also a bit difficult to, you know, go to bed, but we're going to go there in short while.
Yeah, we'll touch that subject in a second, well not in as second, in a few minutes. All right. Well, what would you say to those who find it difficult to be energized early in the morning? What would you add to your routine to? Give yourself that extra boost.
Coffee and energy drink. That works.
Yeah, and do you.. Well, how much coffee do you drink throughout the day?
Oh my God. In the Philippines, it used to be minimum three, but I could go for four. I think the maximum I had was five cups. But nowadays, because I've been limited by the doctor, you know the caffeine intake. So, maximum two cups.
Oh, is it because it induces a lot of anxiety, doesn't it?
Yeah. And it also doesn't help at night. When I go to bed.
Do you drink much coffee?
Oh, I don't drink any coffee. No, I cannot.
Well, I had the chocolate and water, and I drink almond milk. But I would prefer dark chocolate almond milk, which I cannot find.
OK. I didn't know. Well, I'm sure it does exist. I' ve just never heard.
Yes, it does. Oh, yes, I used to had. That was my morning routine in the States.
So I guess it was bitter?
Yeah, yeah. And I like that. But no coffee. Definitely not.
And would you say the bitterness of it gives you a kick? It wakes you up first thing.
Yeah, because I don't normally eat breakfast. And so I need a little something like vitamin C packet with water and then that dark chocolate almond milk.
By the way, are those vitamin C packets.. Are they the rather the big pills that you plop in a glass of water.
Yeah, I.. In the States they come in a packet, so you could just pour it in a glass of water and stir it up.
Because I made a funny mistake when I caught COVID early last.. Well, last year.. I was given a vitamin C tablet to put in some water and.. And for some reason.. It was a big tablet, as you know. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's like a rather big circle shape and I try to.. I thought it was a normal pill and you drink.
Yeah, I tried to swallow.
It started foaming at the mouth.
Yeah. So I was later told that you have to put it into water. So I was choking on this tablet. Well, come into the subject to water. I drink a lot of water. The first thing I do when I wake up is drink like a I'd say, probably a pint of water. Do you guys drink a lot of water throughout the day?
Well, I wanna address first, you know, waking up in the morning. So because the first thing that I do well, I used to pray first.
Well, back in the day. But you know, I'm a satanist now. No, I'm kidding. I'm Kidding. I don't pray as much as I do anymore. So, what I do normally when I wake up is to get a cup of warm water.
For use.. Like an English person.
So I think 30 minutes before I have my breakfast. So and then throughout the day..
So you said warm water, does that help you with digestion?
Yeah. Definitely. And it also warms my body.
Well, are you seeing warm water just room temperature right? That's what you mean?
I'm the same way. Room temperature.
Ice cold in the morning...
I mean, it doesn't have to be ice cold, but you know how here in Novosibirsk, the tap water is really cold. Well, in most places is pretty cold. I like it freezing. What about you Ugur?
I don't drink that much water throughout the day, but the first thing in the morning I just put the kettle on and a coffee and I'm.. I'm just setting a bad example in here... Coffee and cigarets are my best friends in the morning.
Yeah, when I used to smoke, I used to have a cigaret in the morning. Even though my mum would hate it, I would.
That's kind of a bad habit. But yeah,
Yeah, I mean, it feels nice, I guess. Yeah. And do you..? Um. So is it literally the first thing you do when you wake up is have spark up?
Yeah, in a way. I hit the play button, I shuffle some music and that gives me kind of an energy to just rise and shine kind of thing, then hit the kettle on for the coffee, get first ciragette and just start the day.
And well, coming back to prayers. So. So you prayed. So you'd say almost on a daily basis. Now you do it like what? Like couple times a week?
Hardly ever, unfortunately.
Would anyone do? Because I practice meditation every single morning. I've done it every single morning for the last 10 years, and I guess it's somewhat similar to prayer. I mean, I don't necessarily pray to God, but I think what am I grateful for and stuff like that. So in some ways, as some.. Have you ever tried meditation before Ugur?
Yeah, when I was in Vietnam, they tried to teach me like yoga and a meditation. But after a while, I couldn't just maintain the level they.. That they had. So, I just all right guys. I'm sorry, you just go for it and I'm going to just watch you.
Yeah, it's so funny when you said I was in Vietnam that.. What that means to us, Americans, we're talking about the war.
Yeah, right, right. I was living in Vietnam.
You're living. That's different, ok. The all the army that was really progressive back then. I had no idea...
... In Vietnam. I got you.
OK. So, I guess Varya maybe you've had some experience with yoga?
No, I've never taken a yoga class, but I do certain stretches that one could say, Oh, that's yoga. And probably is because yoga is a lot older than ballet. It stretches stretch. But I don't pray. I don't want to beg anything to give me something that they're not going to give me. So there's no need to beg. And I try to remember of the things I should be grateful for. But usually it's like, Oh, things could be a lot worse. So that's kind of what motivates me.
I guess that it is type of gratitude.
Yeah, I think so. Stop complaining. Things could be a lot worse than this. So.
Hey, hey, hey, hey. I just want to say something. So, when I pray, it's not just a begging. OK, just to be clear. Because I always start with.. Well, back in the day when I used to pray, I would say.. This is how it normally goes like, Lord, thank you so much for another day. I am so thankful for everything that I have. I am more fortunate than other people. Really. I start with gratitude and then.. Wait, wait. After the gratitude. And then I ask for forgiveness. And then the last part is kind of the begging part, if you can just, you know, if..
Gratitude, forgiveness and then begging.
When all else fails the begging.
I'm trying to get, oh my god, out of my vocabulary because I go, Oh my god, oh no, there's no God. So why do I care? Oh.. Oh my.
Yeah, exactly. Oh myself. Yes, myself.
All right. So we talked about stretching. I mean, I want to get into stretching. I'm just.. Some reason I can't really get into yoga. I can't bring myself to do yoga, cause I don't know. Maybe I need to get over it, but I just.. I just don't feel like it's right for me, would you..? Have you ever done yoga Ken?
No. But in the morning after that, you know, drinking of water. I do a little, just a little bit of stretching, maybe not in the same level as, you know, Varya's exercise in the morning. But a little bit of that because I just want to stay flexible. I don't want to be, you know, to grow old and not be able to pick up something from the ground. You know, just something that will make my body flexible.
Mintenance for. Really maintenance.
The preventative care. So you don't end up into arthritic.
But going back to your question, you were asking me if I've ever done yoga? No, I haven't. But. Well, my doors are open. But the question is, when? Only time will tell.
I don't know if there's any yogas. Of course, there's probably a yoga studio in Novosibirsk.
But I know a student who's a yoga teacher, so I would imagine that there is a yoga studio. Imagine so. So, Ugur, coming back to Vietnam?
Not the war, just to be clear.
So, how did they introduce yoga to you? Did they say, Come on, Ugur, let's do some yoga? Or did they..?
Yeah, that was kind of a part of their daily routine when I was working in a school. They have like a siesta time between 11:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon, so they sleep like one hour and after they wake up, they eat something light. Then they start the second half of the day as just practicing yoga. So they were doing it in the school and they just asked me, All right, would you like to be a part of it? And I said, Why not? And it didn't work out well for me. So because I couldn't do that, all the things.
So what do you guys think about siestas?
Oh, definitely. Oh my goodness. I need that nap. But I can't take naps anymore, really. But I used to in my ballet days. I would call it my double day where I'd have a huge, huge morning activity, and then I have to have that.
And you're just re-energized. I mean, I think in principle, it's probably a healthy thing, but maybe it might disrupt. Would you say it disrupts your sleep in the evening?
No, I wouldn't say that, but they say with if you've ever read studies that you should have a power nap and that would be like 15 minutes. So the danger is if you sleep too much, but I'd usually sleep a one hour and it's good.
By the way, listeners are definitely recommend that you check out our video podcast, which will come out later where we talk about many different vocab lists, many different words. Excuse me, and we have a video where we talk about the subjects of sleep, so definitely check it out a later day. So, yeah, I would love to have naps and..
I agree. I mean, you know, it's.. We need a little bit of break during the day just so we could re-energize and be back to battle in the classroom.
To battle. Yeah. All right. So what kind of talking about what you do after the morning? Well, let's let's talk about breakfast. So you said you don't have breakfast. Is there a reason for that or..?
Yeah, because I still think about fat and stuff like that.
I don't think you have to.
Yeah, I just think of, you know, you put something in and then it's got to go somewhere on your body. So I'm really.. I still have that mentality of eating.
OK, I guess it comes from maybe ballet. Yeah.
Ballet... Yeah, I still have a thing about eating.
Oh, okay, fair enough. And.. But don't you need..? How would you keep that energy, maintain that energy throughout? I guess that's where the nap comes from.
Well, if you were to have a nap, yeah, certainly. I don't have that now, but I don't like to depend on something. So I always want to depend on my own thoughts and my own will and my own direction. It's really important to me. Mental strength.
I've heard that. I mean, I don't always do this, but I've heard that it's important to have some protein in the morning. This is what I've heard. I mean, there's so many different sides to nutrition. You have some people who advocate one thing and other sides. But I've heard that protein is quite important in the morning. I mean, when I wake up, first thing I do like I said, drink a pint of water, a lot of water, and then I'll have something like four or five bananas.
Wow. For or five... With potassium.
Yeah, I know. I got hardcore in banas.
Maybe just a little tobacco would be enough.
Yeah, my breakfast is mainly just fruit. I love fruit. I love fruit. I go crazy with the fruit. So bananas, kiwis. Sometimes I might have some bread with peanut butter. Have you noticed? Well, do you eat peanut butter Varyaa?
And in England too. We love peanut butter. This is not a very big thing in Russia. There's still.. You can find peanut butter here, but it's not in every..
Have you found the little jars of Momo?
Yeah, it's in that kind of the health food section of the shop. And Momo is a little jar and it's really natural.. Natural peanut butter. And I put that on bananas or something.
Nice. Yeah. So I've never.. Well, I've only found peanut butter in bigger supermarkets, for instance, Ашан or OK.
Well, that's what I should say. In the health section of OK.
Oh, all right. So not just any all shop. Yeah. All right. So yeah, I go big on the fruits and.. And yeah. Maybe peanut butter. But I don't do that all the time. Occasionally, I do like a good old British fry up, which is toast eggs.
Oh, I love toasts. I miss having toast.
Yeah, it is. It is a English, and I guess.. It is American stay..
Yeah, defenitely, toast with margarine and jam or something.
Yeah. I do love it. Though, Ken tellme about your..
You know, it was hard to listen to the both of you. One doesn't have breakfast. The other one just have fruit. Like... How is that possible? I mean, OK, I'm just thinking from my point of view, because it's really impossible to start the day without anything in my stomach. I mean, you know, I used to have just, you know, cookies and coffee, and I thought that would be enough. But no, I remember when I was in Kazakhstan, when I went to my first class, yeah, I would hear my stomach. It's like a huge demonstration. We want food! We want food!
Really. And it's so embarrassing because sometimes my students could hear it and I would just... I would try to cough to cover up the noise from my stomach.
Exactly. And, yeah, that's why it's impossible. So for me, for breakfast, I'd like to have rice, meat. So I know it sounds heavy, right? But hey.
Do you cook that rice yourself?
So do you have to go out to get that from someone else?
Well, I buy it beforehand. So, the day before and then hit it up in the morning because I never cook. I don't cook at all.
Well, have you ever used the rice cooker? I've never used one but f I've always been fascinated, and..
When I was a kid, I used to know how to use it. I'm not sure I can still use it now, but when I was a kid because we were trained by my grandmother to cook rice. But not dishes.
Well, I know Ugur must have some experience being having fought in Nam, having.. What was a typical Vietnamese breakfast?
Breakfast... It's it was definitely Pho. Like rice, noodles with chicken or beef or seafood in it. So their typical breakfast was like Pho in the morning.
It's like.. Like all the soup and broth, that you have it so. That was a typical one.
That's one great thing about Novosibirsk is that there are so many Vietnamese restaurants here. Yeah, it's really interesting. Because in Western cultures, we wouldn't think of such a dish as being a breakfast.
Kind of a heavy in a way...
But I think it's.. I mean, what's the life expectancy of Vietnam? I would imagine it's pretty high, no?
People live too old ages.
Yes, they have.. Yeah, it's probably a good idea to look at what they do.
Yeah, they're they're living healthy and eating healthy. Rice and everything.
Imagine.. I guess in the Philippines is quite a high life expectancy too...
I think, OK, not to sound biased here, but East Asian people in general. We look young. I mean, generally, if you look at us.
And I would say, I think we tend to live longer. Sometimes my students ask me, So what's the secret? I just tell them, Well, the secret is, you have to be Asian, East Asian issue to be exact. That's the secret.
And then we in the United States have such a high rate of obesity.
Yeah. And in England too, yeah.
Yeah, I guess the sugar and all the accessitiv junk..
Yeah, not to judge people who are overweight, but, yeah, it is unhealthy.
Yes, it's unhealthy. We don't want to.. We want to be able to have yoga class, right?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's easier on your heart and everything. But I guess, so.. The Vietnamese breakfast sounds like a wonderful breakfast, and I guess there are other.. Well, I remember I went to China many, many, many years ago. Yeah, I think 15 years ago and we had prawns and rice for breakfast, which I was really surprised about.
Sounds great. Yeah, it's really nice. I was really surprised how nice it was to have it for breakfast. I mean.. But I also like pizza for breakfast sometimes if.. So it's.. I can really eat anything, or ice cream.
And breakfast is the most important meal.
Yeah. I mean, and it's backed up by research. I've read it somewhere and it says that really, it's the most important meal.
Yeah. And do you Ugur agree with the three.. Or not agree. Do you have three meals a day or do you do five small meals? Or do you do two meals a day? Do you have a..?
I usually eat two meals in a day. Another breakfast and little snack in the afternoon and a full dinner.
And what will be a full dinner?
It mostly contains protein like meat with some vegetables on the side. Maybe the peas or, I don't know, broccoli maybe. And grains may be. You can put in grains maybe. That's my full dinner without any carbs or whatever.
Doesn't sound like a lot of food, really.
Just like one little plate full, right?
Well, I will make a huge salad. So one of those big salad bowls, I'll put the whole letucce in. Put in all that stuff.
Tomatos and cucumber, yeah.
Yeah, everything in there.
Well, anyway, let's move on from breakfast and from meals for the time being, let's go onto the subject of commuting, because that's part of people's daily routine usually. Luckily, well, I and most of.. All of us, we live really close to the BigAppleSchool, so we only walk. What is it like? Ten minutes, maybe 15?
Well, let's swap flats maybe. But what's the longest commute you've ever had in your life?
Oh my God, I used to commute so much in my ballet days for years and years. There's one school that was an hour and a half away, and of course, this is through traffic. So I.. My double day would be at least an hour a commute to ballet class. To have ballet class and rehearsal an hour back. And then another hour, at least 45 minutes to an hour to an hour and 15 minutes to teach and back. So it was really a lot of gas, a lot of mileage.
So you said Los Angeles that was.
No, that wouldn't be.. In Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia.
Oh, in Atlanta. Because I having been in Los Angeles for a few months. I just remember the traffic was outrageous. It was just.. I guess,it is the same?
Oh, Atlanta. Yeah, is really bad, too. But if you.. If you're working far away anyway, like, say, 20 miles, it will take a long time. Or 30 miles. There were places where I work 30 miles away from home.
Would you have like a particular routine in your car which..?
Oh yeah. Yeah, it would change throughout the decades, but I would maybe slap an AC/DC or I might listen to NPR news.
Or something. Country, Western music.
I love Western music. Alan Jackson. I love him.
I lived in.. As some of our listeners might know, I lived in Las Vegas for some time and my commutes in Vegas was quite interesting. Sometimes I would drive, but I only lived about three miles from the hotel casino that I used to work in. And..
Yeah, on the strip, right on the strip. It used to be the Imperial Palace, but when I worked there, it was..
Oh, yeah. I know that one.
It was.. You know, yeah. It was called the Link Hotel. So when I worked there, I would sometimes drive to work. I mean, three miles is not particularly far, but it's far enough that if you're in a suit in Vegas heat it's probably not a good idea to.. And then also, I lived in a kind of a rough part of town. So there were, yeah, there were some gangsters around. I didn't really wonna walk.. Walk around in a suit through some hood. But um.. Yeah, one time my car broke down. And that's a whole other story, which maybe we can discuss another time, but I decided to start riding my bicycle to.. To work in Las Vegas. And it was really hot. And yeah, as soon as I got to the hotel, I would have to, yeah, take a shower. And yeah, it was..
That air it heat where you breathe it in and just hits your lungs in your nose and your..
Yeah. But cycling in Vegas is.. Because I used to cycle all the time in London and it was.. There are cycle lanes. People don't really ride their bicycles in Vegas unless they are doing nefarious things. But yeah, cars don't like bicycles in Vegas, and they get very irritated when you ride a bicycle, especially down the strip. That was.. That was amazing riding my bicycle on the Las Vegas strip every day.
Yeah, I never saw any bicyclists when I was there.
Yeah, it's not a common thing, but it was.. It was quite fun. But in England, I would used to commute.. I mean, my longest commute, I'd say, was an hour. So I worked in another hotel in central London that took about.. Yeah, solid 40 minutes on the.. On the train. It was horrible, like having to cram inside the train with all those people, especially in the summer. It was.. It was rotten, so I decided to ride my bike even though it was a nine mile commute, which was quite a long distance. But yeah, well, what about you Ken? What's your longest ever commute?
Um, about the same as that of Varya's. An hour and a half. That was when I work for the first time at a private high school. And um, I still remember those days because I also had to change, you know, modes of transport from a jeepney, which is kind of like a mini bus. And then I have to switched to..
Was it like a маршрутка in the Philippines?
I guess you could call that. Yeah, so. And then after that, I would use the subway and then after the subway, another jeepney again. And I remember back in the day I would, you know, like it was just so frustrating. Because there were times when I would arrive late and there was always a punishment, like one minute is one peso. I don't know how much that is in dollars, but anyway, so if you're late for one minute one peso and then of course, you know it goes on. Two minutes two pesos.
And I was on the verge of giving up. I like, Is this really worth it? Like, Do I really have to travel, you know, this long for this job? Although I held onto it for a full year because I thought to myself, Well, I really loved the job. I love my students. I like.. I really like the school. But it's just the distance that I had to cover and the time that they had to wake up because my first class was at.. At eight a.m.. And I had to be..
You know, I had to wake up, way earlier than that and to have my heavy breakfast, a little bit of exercise and all of that. And I just thought, well, sorry Varya, but while I was, you know, in my journey to school, I was thinking.. I was asking God, like, God, is this still worth it? Like, give me signs if it's time to go. But well, thank God I was able to complete the year.
So the commute brings you closer to..
But really, it was a struggle. And the heat. You have no idea how humid it is in Manila.
Like, Oh my God. South East Asia, in general, it's really.. It's boiling. It's boiling hot.
Yeah, because Vegas is obviously really hope that dry heat. So it's actually quite.. I mean, at times it is horrible. But 48 degrees Celsius, that's one hundred and twenty five. It was yeah, my record was 48 Celsius. That's one hundred and twenty five. I know..
Yeah, I would watch it go up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes hundred fifteen.
Yeah, when you lived in Vegas. Yeah, exact. So it was.. It was hot. But sometimes it's quite nice, actually, because it's like a sauna. Yeah.
You know, what's funny is. I still remember this. Every time I arrived at school, it looked as though I just had a workout. Like I would sweat out, catching my breath. Ok, so... And it's just the start of the day. Can you believe that? That's why I really asked myself, Is it really worth it?
Is it normal? Because obviously you worked in South East Asia. So is it normal to come to work really sweaty? Can you prevent that? Like what if you have to wear a suit? Is it normal, because..?
Well, I don't know which part of Vietnam he is, because I think the northern part is kind of cooler.
It's cooler than the southern part. And if you're living in Saigon, it's very humid, very hot. And as you said, you need to wear a special poncho when you're riding your motorbike in order to avoid the sun. But you're right, when you get into your office or the school, you're all sweaty and you need to change your shirt before you start your work in a way. So you need to just carry your spare shirt.
Because of the limitations of the climate, is it considered rude to come into work all sweaty? Beause I don't know. I mean, is it rude if you have sweat patches under your arms? Or is it.. Because obviously in England people would look at you if you came into school in all sweaty.
Well, you know, it is.. Well, we've already accepted it. And so we always carry with us a fan. Well, I don't know if they do that in Vietnam, but in the Philippines, we do. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. Most likely you will take with you a fan.
So that's part of your routine. Have a fan. A little fan. Well, I guess Western people tend to sweat more. I think that's true. Would you say? So maybe it's less of a problem, I guess.
But don't worry if you're talking about hygiene. We, I mean, we use deodorant, OK? Just not the smell.
I've heard that the Chinese use the least amount of deodorant because they just don't smell as bad as we do in the West.
Well, I don't know about that, but at least in the Philippines, we're very particular with the smell. So we're careful.
Because I've heard.. I've read somewhere that, um, eastern jeans tend to have less of a smell than western jeans. And I remember hearing from someone who knows something about China that Chinese people apparently think that Western smell like milk. Like dairy products and, yeah, it is true. Westerners do tend to smell more than.. Than people in the East. Yeah, it is. Whatever. It is just one of ..
It's so funny because. OK, coming round.
Anyway, OK. So we talked about.. Can you tell me about your commute?
As I said, when I was in Vietnam as living and working, not for war, I was riding a motorbike.
Yeah, it was all right. But when it is a summertime. It was kind of a torture because all the heat that you're having directly and you need to wear the poncho. And it took like thirty five to forty minutes. So it's not.. It wasn't that bad.
Did you own the motorbike?
Oh, that's so cool. And, I know it's kind of a separate topic, but did you need to get a license or was it easy..? You don't need a license there?
You only need to just.. All right, I'm living in that apartment in that street and you just need your motorbike to be get registrated in the motorvehicle kind of department or whatever. So you don't need an extra license for riding a motorbike.
That sounds like the best commute. Oh my god, I love to ride a motorbike.
Sometimes I miss motorbike. Riding a motorbike.
Well, now it's a summer.Or comeing.. The summer's coming in Russia. Be quite fun to.. Will be quite difficult to ride on the road..
Oh, yes, I think so. A lot of holes and the rain all the time.
Yeah, I would have to.. That would be my favorite commute riding a motorcycle. Yeah. Cool. All right. So we talked about commutes, talked about sleep a little bit and we'll talk more about that later. Let's talk about doing the groceries. Do you typically do? Do you have a routine for doing the groceries? What do you do? Do you do..?
When I was in the states, my rule was I only go once a week. Of course I had a car and I would put the groceries in the trunk of the car. Now I have to labor to get to the store. I have to walk and walk and carry and carry, and oh my godness. It's like a daily routine or at least three times, if not four times, if not five times.
Well, one thing I've noticed is.. Well, I've also read about this is in European cultures. There's less of this drive and do the groceries. The shops are smaller, especially in the Netherlands, for instance, where you have really small shops and people just do bits and bobs every single day. They buy a few groceries here, and the next day they'll buy another few groceries on a daily basis, as in when people need to buy products. So you used to buy your groceries every day. So no.. Every week. Sorry. Once a week. But now you do it what..?
Almost every day, every other day. Yeah, and I plan it so that, OK, I won't have to go out the house for two days. I have to plan it.
So, oh, OK. So you would say it's like a routine.
Yeah, I'd say I go almost every day now.
Yeah, me too. Um, mostly because of the food, because I don't cook. So that's first. And then I buy toiletries, and now I go to the section where you can buy, you know, toys for dogs and cats.
Did it makes a specific noise?
No, I actually don't understand why. I mean, there must be something with this particular ball because it smells in a particular way. Um, I don't know, because this dog, I mean, he has his own ball at home. Yeah. That was bought by my friend, but he's not too obsessed with it. But with this particular ball, it's orange. I don't know. It's smells rubbery to me. Maybe it smells something else to the dog. He's just so obsessed with it. Like he wants the ball all to himself. Such that whenever I grabbed it from him, he wouldn't let go of the ball. There must be something, you know, in this ball.
Yeah, so that's the dog's daily routine. I really wonder if animals have a.. Have a daily routine. Maybe, maybe some animals do, I don't know. Or humans the only animals that have a daily routine? I don't know.
Humans are the only animals that have a daily routine.
I don't think so. Animals too
Yeah, especially those animals that scavenge. Animals also have, you know, they also live in society. Like communities. And they have a function and they also.. They have their own time during the day of what to do, when to make love. I mean, you know, seasons for that. You know what I mean.
So, yeah, come on. You're too, you know, you think humans are the best.
We are still animals. All right. So we got a little bit distracted because I heard..
I'm sorry about that dog thing.
You're talking about squished toys.
We're talking about the groceries. Yeah, I do that every day, including some dog stuff.
And do you.. Do you venture out to the bigger supermarkets or do you like to stick to the nearby supermarket?
Nearby mostly. But if I need something extra I go directly to the mega malls kind of Okey or the bigger ones. But mostly the small ones coming in for me.
Fair enough, you know, I like to go.. Sometimes I go to Ashan, the big one in the.. You know Сибирский Молл? Yeah, yeah. So it's the big place. And it's.. Oh, that's Аура just down.. Сибирский Молл is another mall. That's not too far from here is about, I'd say it's over a mile or two kilometers or so from, yeah, from the BigAppleSchool. Yeah, I'd like to stock up on some things there. It's a good place. All right. Anyway, okay. So we talked about groceries. Let's look at, well, dinner. We talked already a little bit a lot about food. Um, do you have a ritual whereby you do the dishes immediately after eating? Do you.. Do you clean the dishes as soon as you finish?
I only have one dish. I have to wash it.
Yes, the same one. One plate, one fork. That's it.
Hey guys, If you need more dishes I can give you some. Because a have a few.. Too many. Yeah, I've always got a maintain to clean. I always.. Well, I try to do it every day, but sometimes..
I do sweeping every day. Every day the floor must be swept.
Yes, it is dusty here. Especially here.
Dusty, dirty and then all the other stuff that would be.
Yeah, I mean, I don't get the opportunity to do it every single day.
If I have a lot of lessons, I can't.
Every three days, or maybe one.
Wow, that's amazing. So you don't go around barefooted there?
Because if you go barefoot, you're going to feel every little piece.
..You can get slippers here.
I have. I have the slippers, but under slippers, there's also dust kind of. I know, I know.
And what about you? Do you?
Yeah, do the dishes after dinner.
Well, it depends on my mood and how much energy is left after, you know, at the end of the day. Um, I don't want to sound like, you know... OK, but okay, there are times when the dishes, they just sit in the sink. And then I'll just find that the energy to wash them later on, perhaps the next day.
Yeah, that's OK. I mean, I do that.
Do you ever go into your kitchen and think, Why didn't someone do the dishes?
Should be there doing them.
Really. If only I could afford to hire someone to do it...
..Why don't you do your dishes? Well, you know, I was waiting for you to do your dishes.
Yeah, it's quite.. Yeah, because it's funny.. Because we don't say to wash. I mean, do you say to wash the dishes?
You could say that. I mean, I always say, to do the dishes.
I'd say to do the dishes.
Yeah, definitely do the dishes. Definitely.
In Britain, we say.. Well, I don't know, in America do you say to do the washing up?
I don't know. That means washing up with the body.
Oh, no, no, that's only dishes in England. If you say to do the washing up..
Clean up. Because if you say to do the washing up, it doesn't mean showers in England. It means to only do.
Washing up would mean the body.
Interesting because we would just say to wash yourself. Go wash yourself. But we have washing up in England. Yeah. Oh, interesting. I didn't even realize that.
You also say clear, don't you say clear. When we say clean.
Actually clear is like tidy. Clear it's a tidy. Clear up.
You could clear off a table. But clearing up is not clean.
Oh, interesting. That's the phrasal verb past because we have often up. So in America, you say clear off.
Clear off the table. Take all the stuff off the table. Clear off.
But clear up. Clear up some problems.
Yeah, clear up some problems. That's interesting. Yeah, no.. Clear up the table... But we can also say it for wheather I believe. This while the sky has cleared up. You could do that too. All right. Okay. So as a promise, we're not going to talk about bedtime. We already talked about morning.
Are we going to talk about bedtime stories? No, I'm kidding.
Oh, maybe. You can read some lullaby if you are so inclined. Well, maybe that was a routine for you when you were a kid. Did your parents or someone reads a lullaby to you before you went to bed?
Oh, yeah, my mom would sing to me.
Cool. Books mostly.. Mom just read the books before bedtime. So not lullaby sing or singing. But read the books. Oh, look at that, just like.. Look at the lion, just rolling.
I remember my dad would sometimes read me books, which is really nice. And he, I remember, he read Harry Potter to us. When it first came out. In the late.. What was it? Ninety nine or something? It was quite a while ago. So he read the book, one of the books to us, when it first came out. Maybe not the whole book, but of course.. You all know the character Hermione. So he.. We had never come across the name Hermione before. I mean, is this a name that you've seen before reading Harry Potter? It's a strange name. So he thought she was called Hermione.
To be honest with you, that's how I used to read that.
Oh, okay, so it wasn't just.. Yeah.
And then when I heard it in the film, Oh, okay, got it.
It was an 'aha' moment. So yeah, we thought it was Hermione the whole time. My dad's like a well read person. Like, he's not.. Yeah, he's, yeah. And no one had ever come.. I wonder where J.K. Rowling found that name, how she came up with that name. So, all right. So lullabies, books. What else? Do you have like a bedtime routine? Do you have like a pre bedtime?
Yes, I have lots of tasks to do, everything has to be perfect before I get in bed. Yes, yes, yes. Curtains have to be just right, you know, things have to be tidied up, as they say in the UK.
Yeah, everything has to be just right.
Do you watch TV before? But I'm.. I do.
I watch TV before bed. Yeah. What about you Ken?
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Couple of episodes of a series or whatever. Yeah.
Yeah. I watch it until.. It helps me fall asleep. Some people say. Some people say, Don't watch. Or a lot of people say, Don't watch TV or watch digital devices before bed. But it helps. I feel that it helps me fall asleep. It makes me tired. What about you Varya?
Yeah, it's a very interactive. So that bothers me because you have to get up and then switch this and that. Yeah, I don't like the interaction.
Is your TV not next to your bed?
No. So my computer, my laptop..
So you just close the laptop and put on the floor? No?
Oh no, you couldn't do that. That's not proper.
In Varya's vocabulary that's not proper.
No, I just have the TV opposite where I sleep, and I just turn it off and put the remote on the floor and off I go.. Off I go to sleep.
But I do it the same way as Varya does. I, you know, turn off my laptop, make sure that it's back on the table before I go to bed. Yeah. Like, I do it properly, too.
And another question, do you wear pajamas? I don't wear pajamas. Do you wear pajamas?
I used to when.. I mean, when I was a kid. But now, no, I'm too old for that.
I Don't like guys in pajamas. The look kind of silly. Like if they wear sweat pants. OK. Maybe a T-shirt. OK. But not the little button up pajama.
But I don't wear pajamas because in case of some emergency. So I have kind of lounge clothes that I wear.
Well, fair enough. Alright, guys. Well, before we finish off, I have a few. Um.. So I have a few different cultures we can talk about in terms of their daily routines. I have here on my computer. There are several cultures and they will of course, do different things. Here we have Bolivia. Do you guys know much about Bolivia?
I just know the capital city, La Paz.
La Paz. Yeah, La Paz. So let me just quickly read through the daily routine. So the breakfast they have these things called Saltenas. What is Saltenas? Is anyone know?
I don't know. So the breakfast is that.. Then they commute to work by foot and then a typical worker.. Well, this worker is called a pastoralist. What does a pastoralist? Apparently someone who looks after alpacas. So he works.
An alpaca carer. He will go by foot to work and then play with the alpacas.
Yeah, that's the job. And then for lunch, you have this Sopa de mani. Sounds interesting. And then he will have a break, a break time. You have a little party, a little fiesta, dinner
And then for dinner, he will have this dish called a Mon don go. Have you heard of a Mon don go? Sounds very interesting. Oh, it must be Spanish. Hispanic name. And then he goes to sleep in a western style bed. Well, anyway, coming back to beds. What kind of bed would you sleep in? Would you sleep in a Japanese style bed on the floor? Or would you only sleep in a western-style bed?
You know, that's interesting, because when I was growing up again with my grandmother, we used to sleep on the floor. But of course there's a mat. Yeah, but we still have our pillows, of course.
Oh, that's interesting. And was it really hard?
At that time it didn't feel so hard. Maybe I was just too young to actually realize that. But of course, nowadays I.. Yeah, I sleep on a bed or a couch.
Yeah, or couch. OK, fair enough. Ok, so that's the typical Bolivian daily routine. Maybe it's not, but let's.. Let's look at another daily routine from another country. Nepal. So a typical Sherpa mountaineer, I think, you know, Sherpas. Yeah, people..
Yeah, that would be a hard job.
Mountain guides. So they're breakfast Dal Bhat. Whatever that is. Do you know what Dal Bhat is?
Bat? Transportation or walks by foot and then does more walking. When he walks in the mountain.. Walks around the mountains for lunch, another Dal Bhat..
So that's something that is delicious, yeah?
For fun he does some dance or something called a Cham. I don't know. And then for dinner, a Thupka or that's Thupka. So шапка is hat in Russian.
Oh, really? That's where it comes from so?
Russian must have taken it from.. That's really interesting.
Oh, my God, just had a.. Well, a eureka moment. Oh yeah, because a lot of Turkish words. Interesting. So that dinner is Thupka. And they sleep on a platform bed. So those are two interesting cultures which are different to Western cultures. Let's look at a South Korean typical day, which I'd say is actually not so different to a typical Western day. A typical Korean high school students. Well rice for breakfast, soup or whatever. Take the bus to work. Exam preparation. Then they'll have some more soup or kimchi. They'll do.. Play video games at night, and they'll have some interesting evening ritual called Hug Won. I'm not sure if..
It's like an after school. It's like, you know, preparation for exams or for the different subjects that they have difficulties.
Even in school kind of, yeah.
So they have a heavy, pretty heavy schedule. Yeah. Like in the West too. Especially.. Yeah, maybe not Scandinavian cultures, but they have a much more relaxed daily routine. But yeah, American and South Korean and perhaps British daily routines sound to be more hectic. But what would you rather.. Would you rather a more packed, hectic daily routine? Or would you rather play off some alpacas and..?
At this point in my life, I'd rather go with the alpacas.
I think, yeah, I think maybe we can take a step back from our Western cultures and probably learn a lot from these different cultures whereby they have a more relaxed.. Maybe not relaxed, but a more, would you say, simple or minimalistic style of living? It sounds more refreshing. It sounds more..
Minimalistic sounds good.
Yeah, minimalistic sounds much better. And I would personally prefer..
Well, I think we can all agree that playing with alpacas is a.. Is a must do. Ok guys, it's wrapped up for today. Thank you very much. And guys, please do share your thoughts. Let us know if you have any ideas for future podcast episode titles, so let us know. And also check out our website www.BigAppleSchool.com where you can find a range of interesting articles, videos. Yeah, other interesting stuff too. And also sign up to our social media platforms where you can.. Yeah, where you can stay up to date with what we.. What we offer at the BigAppleSchool. So that's it, guys. Thank you very much and we'll see you next time.
