REAL English Conversation | FAST English!

I'm the worst right now. Sometimes life does that.

Let's study real English conversation on a trip to  

Spain. As with any trip, not everything went well.

I throw up, I felt terrible.

But overall,  I had a great time traveling with my husband.

I feel like I have this energy that I need  

to get out and I don't know how to do  it and it might be like punching you. 

During our trip to Valencia.

Just going to go walk up the tower,  

is that what, Torres? Yes. 

Yes. This trip is a good opportunity  

for me to practice some Spanish. Got them. 

Them and him sound the same when they're reduced. Got them could mean got him or got them. Notice  

how the words link together with the  flap T, Got ’em. That's very smooth,  

very American, got ‘em. And don't worry,  I'm not the only one who does this. 

Rainy day for this lunch and just it was kind  of random that we got him there but yeah,  

that's how y’all. That’s how we first met.

But and, and I learned that you could actually  

negotiate with people. This one person offered  me three cents and I got them up to three and  

a half. I even knew at a seven-year-old age that I  could actually get a fractional percent of a cent. 

Climbed into this little tire like on like  a cattle guard grate and was like hiding  

from the wind. And he was still nursing  when I got him and so when I first got  

him I was like trying to like I was like I  just didn't know what to do and we didn't  

obviously have dog food with us or anything.

Okay, let's test your listening comprehension.  

I'm speaking pretty quickly here  what kind of a building is it? 

So the one with the flags  is a government building? 

Yes. I think that's a residence of the  governor of Valencia. Government. Said quickly,  

the first syllable is stressed. Government.  Notice that the NT at the end, the T isn't  

released. Government. Government building. Didn't know Spain still had a king? 

Alright, should we keep going?

Wow. Steve can you point to where you guys are? Mas o menos?

David said ‘mas o menos’. More or less  

in English. Steve answered roughly. Roughly in  this case means approximately. Roughly an hour for  

example or that's roughly the idea or you could  just describe something to someone and then say,  

‘this should give you a rough idea.’ Roughly  an hour, roughly the idea. Maybe not exactly  

the same idea that I had but close to  it.

This surface is pretty rough. Also,  

Steve said it's roughly $10 a day to rent a bike. Rough is the opposite of smooth. We already saw  

how roughly means approximately. It can  also mean to do something with harshness.  

He roughly threw the dog in his crate. Rough,  roughly. O-u-g-h making UH as in butter plus  

F. Rough. It rhymes with the word stuff.

The trip started out promising and then. 

I spent the last 24 hours in this bed. It all  started yesterday morning. I woke up with a  

stomach ache. I had told my friend I would go to  the gym with her and I wanted to go. So we went,  

we did a 30-minute abs class where I learned  things like plank, in Spanish is ‘plancha’.  

The whole time I had a stomach ache but I  didn't feel terrible. Then after the workout,  

I felt terrible. So my friend at this point was on  a machine doing some cardio. Cardio is short for  

cardiovascular exercise like running, biking and  so on. Anything that gets your heart rate up and  

isn't about strength training specifically. And I I wasn't sure what to do. I couldn't  

tell what direction this was heading.  So I just sat down on the gym floor,  

and then it became pretty clear that it was  heading not in a good direction. So the guy  

who works there was about 20 feet away from me  and I said, ‘Por favor!’ I just yelled at him. 

Here I'm reducing him and linking into at with  a flap T. This is just like got’em from the  

beginning of the video. At him, at him. Yelled  at him becomes ‘yelled at ‘im’ or ‘yelled at ‘em. 

And uh, he came over to me and I said  in Spanish, I was very proud of myself,  

could you please go get my friend Christa, I  think I need to leave. So he went and got Christa,  

and Christa said she came up to me, I'm sitting  on the floor and she said I was white as a sheet. 

White as a sheet is what we say when someone  looks very pale like from being sick or from  

being shocked or scared about something.  She was like, ‘Oh wow okay we're here.’  

So they helped me up they get me out of the  gym, I sit down on the sidewalk and within  

about 5 seconds I puked. I throw up, I vomit. Puke, throw up, vomit, all mean the same thing.  

Barf would be another way to say this or upchuck. Um, yeah, that was embarrassing. The guy from the  

gym goes and gets me a coke because he says I need  some sugar. After I'm done throwing up I move to  

a bench and you know, you know how after you throw  up you start to feel great. I was so relieved that  

that nausea had passed. This word can  be pronounced a couple of different  

ways like nausea, but I prefer two  syllables. nausea, nau-sea, nausea. 

So we walk home, I take a shower, I lay down. I'm  thinking maybe I'm past it. Maybe I'm through the  

worst of it but no. I didn't leave this bed until  noon today. I was not done being sick. I had cold  

sweats, hot flashes, I had goosebumps and then  like dripping sweat. At one point, I felt like  

every muscle and bone in my body was aching.  I felt like I'd been put through a wringer. 

A wringer is an old tool used in doing laundry to  dry clothes. Very old-fashioned, not used anymore.  

But this is what my body felt like. Like it  had been crushed, put through the wringer.  

We now use the phrase ‘to put someone through  the wringer’ as an idiom to mean to put someone  

through difficult challenges or experiences. I took Tums, I took Advil, I took Tylenol,  

I took everything I brought, and I woke  up today feeling like a million bucks. 

The phrase ‘to feel like a million bucks’ means to  feel absolutely great. For some reason we always  

use bucks with this phrase and not dollars. I feel  like a million dollars. What you'll hear is I feel  

like a million bucks. You can also compliment  someone by saying they look like a million  

bucks. You look like a million bucks today. Okay, not quite a million but I feel much  

better. So, I've lost a day of vacation, no big  deal it's sunny here in Valencia, I have no idea  

what we're going to do today but I'm ready for  it. Let me show you the view from the window. 

Perfect temperature 70 degrees, full sun. It's  going to be a great day. Well, it was an okay day,  

but that night wasn't great. The next day I went  on a walk with David to try to improve my mood. 

How are you enjoying your vacation? It's terrific. 

What day is this, 4? Yeah. Yeah, it's been amazing. 

I've not had a very good vacation. And why is that? 

I was sick for 36 hours, and then last night,  okay, I should say because I was sick I was  

sleeping a lot and yesterday I slept in  until 11:45 in the morning. I slept late,  

didn't sleep. Went to bed about 10:00, took  a sleeping pill, 12:30 still wasn't asleep,  

I was like, I'll take another one and then  I'll definitely be asleep in like a half hour. 

Another. I never slept. I never slept. I honestly  

don't know if there have been any nights in my  life like that where I've slept zero minutes.  

And I'm going to be honest I'm starting to get a  little annoyed with everything. So anyway I'm just  

annoyed at everything right now. It's true she's annoyed. 

Okay, what's a good way to get un annoyed? Think  about things that are exciting and that I should  

be lucky for. There's a lot of that I just don't  feel excited or lucky for any of it right now,  

even though there's a lot. I feel like my mood is  getting worse by the minute. And I'm not hungry,  

like I just feel not good Because of your stomach. Yeah,  

you were sick in the stomach. Yeah. I feel like I have this  

energy that I need to get out and I don't know  how to do it and it might be like punching you. 

So David and I split up and read for a while,  and usually being alone does help my mood and  

this did some but the rest of the day was kind  of a bust for me. If something's a bust that  

means it didn't go well, didn't turn out as  planned. Luckily, I did get a normal night  

of sleep that night. The next day, we went to  Central Market to get some groceries for dinner. 

Ahora mi esposo va preparer la cena. Yo bebo un poquito de cava. 

In English it's more common to  say make dinner than cook dinner. 

David is making dinner he's making paella, a  vegetarian version and a meaty version. What  

meat is going into your meat version? Chicken, chorizo, shrimp, that's it. 

Okay. And here's the red pepper,  they're going to go in the Paella. 

Here's the asparagus. David went to  the market this morning and bought  

everything. All the produce is super fresh.

Okay, David finished, it looks exceptional. David  

should I put lemon on either of these things, both  of these things, or is it just for the paella? 

The Paella.

The Paella. Okay, looks fantastic  I went for the vegetarian one. 

I said I went for the vegetarian paella.  ‘I went for’ is just another way to say  

‘I chose’. I chose the vegetarian paella. David you did an excellent job with this meal. 

At the very end of the trip, we did  maybe my favorite thing which was a  

bike ride along the . We had  a great time in Spain visiting friends and  

I want to thank you so much for watching  this video and learning English with me. 

Keep your learning going now with this video and  don't forget to subscribe with notifications on,  

I just love being your English teacher that's it  and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.