Untertitel (235)
0:00Hello, and welcome to bonus episode number 141
of the Culips English Podcast. How's it going?
0:07Thank you for clicking play and joining me for
this English lesson. My name's Andrew. I'm your
0:11Canadian English study buddy, and I'm happy to
be here with you today. Guys, in this episode,
0:17I'm going to tell you a story about visiting
Hawaii. Recently, my wife and I visited Hawaii,
0:23and a couple of episodes ago in bonus episode
number 139, I believe it was, I told you about
0:29some of the touristy things that we did while
we were there in Hawaii. And in this episode,
0:35I'm going to tell you about some things that we
did that maybe weren't as touristy. I don't want
0:40to say that we were living exactly like locals
or anything like that, but I think we did get
0:45up to some adventures and some fun activities that
were maybe a little bit different than the regular
0:51tourist itinerary. I'm going to tell you those
stories in this episode today. But before I tell
0:57you that story, I want to let you know there's
a free interactive transcript and vocabulary
1:02glossary available for everyone, and you can get
that just by clicking the link in the description.
1:08Plus, if you're a Culips member, then you can get
a comprehension quiz as well. Thank you to all the
1:13Culips members out there for your support. Guys,
Culips wouldn't exist without our members, so we
1:18all have to thank them, in fact, and if you'd like
to sign up and become a Culips member as well,
1:23then just check out our website, Culips.com. You
can sign up there for an affordable price, and you
1:28get so many benefits and bonuses when you are a
member. You'll get access to our weekly speaking
1:34classes. You'll get our member-only series, The
Fluency Files. You'll get helpful study guides and
1:40interactive transcripts, not just for our bonus
episodes, but for all of our episodes and much,
1:45much more. So, visit Culips.com and sign up and
become a member today, and take your English
1:51to the next level with Culips. Last month, my
wife and I were lucky enough to spend a week in
2:00Honolulu, Hawaii, and we got up to lots of things.
We did lots of activities every day. It was a
2:06very busy vacation. It wasn't really a relaxing
vacation as much. Of course, we had a wonderful
2:12time, but we did do many, many things, and I'm
going to show you a couple of the things that
2:17we did that maybe you wouldn't find on a regular
tourist itinerary. So, the first thing that we
2:24did that was really cool and just a wonderful
memory, I think we'll have it as a nice memory
2:29of our time in Honolulu going forward for many
years, was visiting a local swimming pool. Now,
2:36on the surface, that doesn't sound like anything
too exciting, but it ended up just being a really
2:41fun time. My wife is a big swimmer. She loves
swimming. She swims three or four days a week. You
2:48guys know that I love running. Well, I think my
wife is equally as passionate about swimming. So,
2:54we both have our shared passions when it comes to
exercise. She likes swimming. I like running and
3:00running is a pretty easy thing to do. You know,
you can pretty much run anywhere. But swimming,
3:06on the other hand, is not so easy to do.
And Hawaii is an expensive place. So,
3:11when we were looking into booking our hotel,
of course, my wife is interested in staying at
3:16a hotel with a swimming pool because of her
passion for swimming. But as I said, Hawaii
3:22is an expensive place. And as we were looking
at the different hotel options, the ones with
3:28swimming pools were pretty expensive. And the ones
without swimming pools were also pretty expensive,
3:34but a little bit cheaper. And so, what we decided
to do, and we were inspired by our previous trip
3:40to Australia where we did some outdoor swimming
in local community pools. We decided, hey, let's
3:46go on Google Maps. We'll search in Hawaii and see
if there are any outdoor community pools that we
3:52could go to. And if that's the case, then let's do
that. And so, I went on Google Maps. I searched.
3:59I found that in the Waikiki Beach area, like
that's where we were staying is Waikiki Beach.
4:05Within that area, within, I don't know, four
or five kilometers or so, kind of close area,
4:10there were several pools, more than enough for
us. So, we decided, hey, let's save some money.
4:16We'll book the hotel with no pool and then we can
go to the community pools to swim instead. And so
4:21that's exactly what we did. And the pool that we
ended up going to was not too far from our hotel,
4:30probably two and a half, three kilometers or
so. And we ended up walking there because I love
4:37walking. When you go to a new place, I love just
walking around because it gives you an opportunity
4:42to see the city, right, to see the area. So, we
decided to walk to the community pool. They had
4:48some open free-swimming hours where anybody could
go swimming in the early afternoon. Of course,
4:55in the morning they have like kids swim programs
and after school they had kids swim programs. And
5:00then the evening they had swimming activities
and lessons for adults and stuff. There's only
5:05a little bit of time where you can go and actually
just free swim. But it was in the early afternoon.
5:11And since we were on vacation, we had early
afternoon availability and free time. So, we
5:16decided to do that. So, we walked from our hotel
to the swimming pool, and it was a great walk.
5:22As I was saying, it's just a nice opportunity
to see what the city looks like outside of the
5:28main tourist area of Waikiki Beach. So, we walked
through this really residential neighborhood. You
5:34can see the houses, the kind of houses that are
popular in Honolulu. We saw lots of examples of
5:39those. We saw schools, we saw shopping centers
and restaurants that were just used by locals
5:47right outside of the tourist zone. So, we
took our time walking there. I think we,
5:52yeah, probably took about an hour just to wander
and sightsee. As we walked through the pool,
5:58we passed a poke restaurant, and we had some fresh
local seafood at the poke restaurant. I had some
6:05tuna, and I can't remember what my wife had. Maybe
she had tuna as well. It was delicious. And yeah,
6:11you know, there's this old wives’ tale, this
saying, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but
6:16after you eat, you're supposed to wait about 30 to
45 minutes before swimming or else you can get an
6:22upset stomach and maybe feel sick. I don't know if
that's true or not. I don't think that's the case
6:27for me. But after we ate our lunch, we decided,
OK, hey, let's just take it slow as we walk to
6:35the pool just so that we can digest our food. And
then when we go swimming, we won't have any issues
6:40like that. So, we wandered to the swimming pool,
and it was just nice. I really like looking at
6:46people's gardens and people's houses. And that
was just a cool walk through this residential
6:52area in Hawaii. And then finally, we arrived at
the swimming pool. It was in this really cool,
6:58big, massive open park. And yeah, we got to the
front of the swimming pool, and it was closed.
7:05We arrived too early. So, we had to hang out
in the park for about 20 minutes, but that was
7:10no problem at all. And then the pool was open.
And actually, I was a little bit confused. I had
7:16to ask the lifeguards there, is the pool actually
open? Because there was nobody there. My wife and
7:22I were the only ones there. And so, I was like, is
it really free swimming right now? So, I asked the
7:28lifeguards. There were two lifeguards on duty
at this pool. And to paint a picture for you,
7:34it was probably about a 25-meter-long pool, just
a rectangular pool, and it was divided into two
7:42halves. So, one half was just free swimming where
you could do whatever you want and just play in
7:46the water. And then the other half was dedicated
to lane swimming. And that lane swimming area
7:52had two lanes. And yeah, so the lifeguard said,
"Yeah, we're open. Come on in!" So, we thought,
7:59amazing. We have this private pool to ourselves
with lifeguards watching us as well. And also,
8:06it's free to enter, totally free for anyone. And
so even though we're not American, we were able to
8:11go in and take advantage of that amazing community
pool. So, we got changed and we jumped into the
8:17pool. I stuck more to the side that was free and
open where you could just do whatever you want and
8:23play in the water. Cause that's my kind of style.
When I get into a swimming pool, I'm not really a
8:29lap swimmer, but my wife is more of a lap swimmer.
She likes going back and forth and back and forth
8:34and actually exercising. And so, she got into one
of the open lanes and then just around that time,
8:41also a grandpa from the community, an older
gentleman, probably in his seventies or so arrived
8:49and he took the other swimming lane. So, my wife
and him were going back and forth in their lanes
8:54and I was just sort of chilling there and yeah, it
was cool. It was a really unique experience and I
9:02think we'll remember it for a long time. Just a
nice way to spend some time a little bit outside
9:07of the tourist zone to talk with some of the local
people, the older gentlemen swimming there and the
9:12lifeguards. And to see what kind of infrastructure
is available to the locals who live in Honolulu. I
9:18mean, I find that fascinating. I love seeing
that and it always makes me wish like, oh,
9:23I wish in my hometown we had a swimming pool like
this. Anyways, swimming at the pool was great.
9:29We had a wonderful time, probably spent about
an hour there and then afterwards we wandered
9:34back to the Waikiki Beach tourist zone. Back to
the tourist zone and our hotel, but we were glad
9:40that we got to get off the beaten track a little
bit and to live life a little bit like a local,
9:46a local swimmer in Hawaii might do. The second
thing we did during our time in Hawaii that was
9:55a little bit off the beaten path, maybe is not on
the itinerary of most tourists who visit Honolulu,
10:01was go to an area called the North Shore. And
Honolulu's on an island, right? The island of
10:07Oahu and so it's kind of near the Southwest part
of the island. Whereas the North Shore is more to
10:14the north of the island and to get from Waikiki
Beach area in Honolulu, where we were staying to
10:21the North Shore took us a couple of hours. And
the reason that it took us a couple of hours was
10:26because we took the bus, the local bus. Now going
to the North Shore, I think is actually a popular
10:32tourist activity, but so many people who visit
rent a car and drive up there that taking the
10:39bus was our way of maybe doing it like a local
would. Although I guess a local would probably
10:45have a car as well. Most of them, but anyways, I
don't know. Personally, it's a way for us to save
10:51a little bit of money because renting a car is
expensive. And also, my wife and I are not super
10:57confident drivers and yeah, we just decided to
take the bus for those reasons. But personally,
11:02I love taking the bus. Even a local bus ride for
two hours is maybe not the most pleasant thing,
11:09but you look out the window and you get to see the
surroundings and see some areas of the Island that
11:16you probably wouldn't get to check out otherwise.
So, we took the bus up to the North Shore and the
11:22North Shore is a pretty touristy area. There's
a little village there with lots of touristy
11:27shops. We went to one shop that sold peanut butter
exclusively and I'm a huge peanut butter fan. So,
11:35I was so stoked about that. I went in and I
got some coconut flavored peanut butter. That
11:39was delicious. I've already finished the whole
bottle, of course. But yeah, a lot of different
11:45touristy shops and gift shops and souvenir shops,
that kind of thing, which we wandered through,
11:50but didn't spend too much time checking out.
The reason that we went to the North Shore,
11:55first of all, was because my wife wanted to go
snorkeling at this beach, which is supposed to
12:01be famous for snorkeling and just beautiful,
amazing place to snorkel. So, we did bring our
12:06snorkeling equipment with us. We had our bags with
our flippers and masks and snorkels. And when we
12:13arrived at the beach, finally, then we realized
quite quickly that there was no way we were going
12:19to be able to snorkel at that area because the
waves were super intense and the beach, in fact,
12:25was closed. You know that kind of yellow tape
that police put up around a crime scene? The
12:32beach was taped off with that yellow, do not enter
tape. And yeah, we couldn't even get in. I mean,
12:40you wouldn't want to go in that water anyways.
You'd probably drown in a second because the
12:44waves were so strong. But yeah, they had sectioned
it off just so dumb tourists like us don't get in
12:50there and hurt themselves. So, that was a bust and
"a bust" here means unsuccessful. Going snorkeling
12:56was a bust. It was totally unsuccessful. But
that's OK because my wife had another couple
13:01of places that she wanted to check out. The
next place was another beach, not too far
13:06away. And we just walked down the shore to that
other beach. And we wanted to go to that beach
13:13to see giant sea turtles. So, there are these
amazing giant sea turtles that live in Hawaii.
13:20And I guess every day they come onto the shore to
sleep on the beach. And if you're lucky enough,
13:26you can see them while they're sleeping on the
beach. And we were lucky enough to actually see
13:31them while we were on the beach. It was amazing.
There were these massive giant sea turtles.
13:37We even saw some of them come out of the ocean
and then dig themselves into this little pit
13:42that they make so that they can sleep there
on the beach. And we saw some other ones wake
13:47up and go out of their pit and slowly crawl
back down to the ocean and go into the sea,
13:54which was so cool to see these just majestic,
amazing giant turtles that are probably,
14:00I don't know, like 200 kilograms. I'd have to
Wikipedia search and see how big they are in fact,
14:06but these huge, huge, huge turtles, the biggest
turtles I've ever seen in my life. And I kind
14:11of feel like we were really lucky to get that
experience because as we were riding the bus,
14:16there were some people talking on the bus. One guy
was a local and some other people were tourists
14:22from California. And they said they were going
to see the turtles. And the local was like, "Oh,
14:28you won't see them. They're not out this time of
year. They're not out this time of day." And so,
14:33he was saying like, don't even go there. There's
no chance that you're going to see them. And so,
14:38I'm overhearing, I'm listening to this
conversation. And I think my wife probably wasn't
14:43able to understand the conversation that they were
having. Of course, my wife is not a native English
14:48speaker. So sometimes those things can be hard
to hear, right? When you're on like a loud bus
14:53and people talking a way away from you. But me
as a native speaker, I can tune my ear in, and
14:58I can eavesdrop and listen in. So, I heard them
talking and the local guy saying, no, you won't
15:04see any of the turtles. But I didn't want to burst
my wife's bubble. I didn't want to be like, no, we
15:09won't see them. Let's not go there. That guy said
no. And I'm glad that I just kept my mouth shut
15:14and didn't say anything at all because that local
guy was totally wrong. Once we got to the beach,
15:20there were five or six giant sea turtles there.
And I did take some pictures and some videos. So,
15:27I'll put that onto our social media on Discord
and Instagram. And if you're watching on YouTube,
15:31I'll put some of the videos in the YouTube version
so you can see these amazing, amazing creatures.
15:37So that was really cool. That was definitely a
highlight of that day. I think in the North Shore,
15:44what else did we do? We just wandered around, ate
an acai bowl, which is one of the foods that we
15:50ate a lot in Hawaii. Ah, and on the way back, we
had to take the bus again for a couple of hours
15:57on the way back. And yeah, again, it was kind of
cool. Like there were a lot of locals on the bus.
16:03There were a bunch of high school students on the
bus and just to eavesdrop on them and hear like
16:09what they're talking about and a little glimpse
into their life was funny. All these high school
16:14students were carrying band instruments like
trumpets and tubas and saxophones, I guess. And
16:20they were going to a band rehearsal at their high
school. So, it was kind of funny to eavesdrop and
16:25listen in and just see what they're talking
about, something that I can't really do very
16:29often here in Korea to the same extent as I can
in a place like that. So, I enjoyed the bus ride,
16:35the public bus ride. And on our way back, we
stopped at this other area that was kind of in
16:41between downtown Honolulu and the Waikiki Beach
tourist zone. And we stopped there because there
16:48was a record store that I wanted to visit. Of
course, as a music lover, I love going to record
16:54stores and checking them out and even sometimes
finding some hidden gems. I like to go digging and
17:00see what kind of music I can find that could be
interesting to take back home with me. And I was
17:07really curious to see if I could find some cool
Hawaiian music to take back with me to Korea here.
17:14And of course, Hawaii has got a really interesting
musical tradition. They've got their own unique
17:18style of music. And of course, the ukulele is
famous from Hawaii and Polynesian-style music,
17:26right? The local native music. I don't want to say
that I'm an expert about Hawaiian music at all,
17:31but I thought it would be cool to pick up some old
records of Hawaiian music and take it back here
17:36with me to Korea. And that's exactly what I did
at this record store. They had this big section
17:41of 45s. And a 45 is like an old record. Sometimes
we also call them a seven inch and 45 stands for
17:50the RPM of the little record spins on the record
player. It rotates at 45 spins per minute. So
17:59that's why it's called RPM rotation per minute,
I believe. And so, all of these old 45s were only
18:07$3 each. So, I didn't know, you know, like
which one is good, which one is bad. So,
18:12I just randomly picked one and I got this cool
looking hula music 45 from 49th state Hawaii
18:24record company from Honolulu, Hawaii. This was
made in, who knows? There's no date on it. I'm
18:31just looking at it now. If you're listening to
the audio-only version of this, I've got it in my
18:36hands. But if you're watching the YouTube, you can
see actually what it looks like, this cool 45. So,
18:41this must be from the fifties or sixties, I would
imagine. And there's only two songs on it. On one
18:47side, there's a song called "Lovely Ginger Lei",
and a "lei" is that kind of flower necklace that
18:54is famous in Hawaii. And then on the other side,
there's a track called "Melody of Hulas." So very
19:03cool. And when we got home, we put it on, and it
sounds amazing. It's really cool. And yeah, it's
19:10great. Some nice Hawaiian music. So, I thought
this is a great kind of souvenir. I'm happy that
19:16I picked this up for only $3 so much better than
just a regular touristy trinket in my opinion. So,
19:24I'm quite happy with that purchase. And when I
want to remember my visit to Hawaii, I'll put
19:29that on and listen to that music and I think I'll
have a really great memory of my time there. And
19:35then after we are super hungry, it was time to get
dinner. So, we went to a local restaurant. We were
19:41just walking by, and we saw a restaurant that said
they were serving authentic, local, traditional
19:46Hawaiian cuisine. And we thought that sounds
amazing. I wanted to try some local food. So,
19:52we went to that restaurant, and we ordered just,
they had like a combo platter where they had, I
19:58don't know, five or six dishes that were authentic
and local, and I can't remember the names of all
20:04of the specific dishes right now. But again, I'll
put a photo online so you can see what the food
20:10looked like. There was some dish, I want to say
it was called lau lau, if I remember correctly,
20:15that was maybe made with meat, like some pork that
was cooked within some leaves. I think it was like
20:20cooked in the ground is probably how they would
traditionally cook it. That was delicious. There
20:26was some salmon. Oh man, there was lots of stuff,
and it was really, really good. And yeah, my wife
20:32and I pigged out on the local Hawaiian food. And
I have to say it was the best meal by far of the
20:40trip for me, in my opinion. I really enjoyed
that. And then probably after that, some of the
20:46seafood that we had was a close second. So yeah,
some good eats there in Hawaii. And I'll put some
20:52photos of these dishes onto our social media and
on YouTube here. So, you guys can see it because
20:58as you can tell, I'm not really a huge foodie.
I'm not good at describing the food that we ate,
21:03but it was good in the end. We had a really busy
day that day, visiting the North shore, riding
21:09the bus for several hours, and then going to the
record shop and digging in the used record shop,
21:14and then eating the local authentic Hawaiian food
at the end. By the time we got home at the end of
21:20the day, we were totally wiped out. And I think
we probably slept really, really well that night.
21:26And yeah, I can't remember what we did the next
day after that, but I'm sure we were busy. So,
21:32it's a good thing we got that rest in. Anyways,
guys, I think I'll leave it here for now. Thank
21:38you for listening all the way to the end of
this episode. And thank you for listening to
21:43my Hawaiian adventures. After Hawaii, my wife and
I stopped in Japan. And for me, the Hawaii part of
21:51our trip was amazing. It was so fun and so just
wonderful. But in Japan, it went from wonderful
21:59to terrible. And I'll tell you all about that in
the next couple of Culips bonus episodes. So, make
22:07sure that you tune in next week for that story.
But before I let you go here today, I do want
22:12to share the completion code with you each and
every week. I give you a completion code and as
22:17a homework assignment, you have to use the phrase
or the word from the completion code in your own
22:23example sentence. And leave that example sentence
on our social media or our YouTube comments or
22:30our discord community. And that will signal to me
and to all of Culips listeners out there that you
22:36finished this episode, that you did it. And then I
will say, good job. Well done, you made it all the
22:43way to the end of the lesson. So, for today, let's
go with the phrase. I taught you this cool phrase,
22:49this cool expression in this episode, "Off the
beaten path." Off the beaten path. And we use
22:56this to talk about traveling somewhere that's not
so popular, maybe where most tourists don't go or
23:02don't see or don't visit. So: "Off the beaten
path." My wife and I went off the beaten path
23:08when we went to the local swimming pool and the
North shore in Hawaii. I want to know what your
23:14example sentence is with this expression. So
go, go, go. You have your homework assignment
23:18and I look forward to reading your comments. So,
everyone, please take care. Have a great week of
23:23English studying up ahead here, and I'll catch you
in the next Culips episode. Until then, bye bye.
