American: hi i'm participant c thirty three b dash p two

International: hi i'm participant c thirty three b dash p one

American: i'm gonna read the passage please call stella ask her to bring these things with her from the store six spoons of fresh snow peas five thick slabs of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother bob we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids she can scoop these things into three red bags and we will go meet her wednesday at the train station

International: i will now read the little passage please call stella ask her to bring these things with her from the store six spoons of fresh snow peas five thick slabs of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother bob we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids she can scoop these things into three red bags and we will go meet her wednesday at the train station

American: beautiful

International: thank you

American: um should we talk about our favourite things about edinburgh

International: yeah that stood out to me do you wanna start

American: yeah i think like compared with living in london before i like like the scale of edinburg i like the fact you can walk everywhere um and like being able to leave somewhere like when you're tired and i'm not needing to spend like an hour getting home on the tube is so nice like no matter kind of where i am in the city it's like it's gonna take me half an hour to get home either by bus or walking um which i really like like i think well you've said this before like i do think it's kind of annoying that it it's not always the best city to be a pedestrian in um but i yeah i just like i like the scale um of the city how about you

International: okay so the first thing that i did notice um moving here is um like i think the people of i don't know if this applies to all people in the uk but i i i feel the people in edinburgh are very open and like easy to talk to and it's very easy to make friends and meet new people in edinburgh one thing

American: yeah that's definitely not true of london <laugh>

International: that's definitely not the whole uk

American: one thing that has um like now recently um a thing that i've started to like more and more is the biking infrastructure not necessarily in the sector but sort of around edinburgh it's so nice to just bike um sort of in the in the is it called the city proper of edinburgh like they have really good

International: yeah i think i know what you mean

American: really good like these biking highways and you can go very far on a bike and just like see you know old castles the nature and the beach i really really appreciate that about the edinburgh

International: yeah i need to rent a bike and come with you one of these trips

American: awesome

International: i haven't cycled i haven't cycled in so long like i wa i don't know cycling in london seemed kind of terrifying i did cycle a bit at uni but it was such a small city i always thought like where my accommodation was and where my lectures were i might as well have just walked pretty much because it was quicker to walk through like the footpaths than bike around so i didn't use it that much yeah

American: right yeah it it was definitely terrifying to start biking in edinburgh like i literally i i think i just like um carried the bike most of the way back <laugh> from from portobello um but yeah it's gotten easier now um thankfully most drivers are you know aware of cyclists and um so yeah getting easier and easier

International: how do you find biking up the hills because that's the thing i'm like uhh <laugh>

American: this was one thing that i yeah i i meant to mention as well um so from edinburgh to the west it's all quite flat and you know um decent and you know very chill everything up to the uh south sort of southeast and actually southwest as well is like terrifyingly hilly <laugh>

International: (())

American: and i i still haven't challenged myself to do any sort of like a long biking tour in those directions but i mean along the coast either to the west or to the east so to east towards uh north berwick or to the west towards um uh bo'ness is very very manageable for like everyone

International: hmm

American: um i would say

International: i'd like to get like yeah get out of edinburgh more um just 'cause like i don't know there's so much beautiful countryside around that you don't really need to travel very far to see like going like when i went to loch lomond recently like that was so nice and like i probably yeah i could like rent a car or i think that is public transport to get there it's just like a little bit more awkward than renting a car um but like it

American: how how long was the drive there

International: i feel like it was definitely less than two hours

American: okay

International: maybe like an hour and a half

American: okay

International: um yeah something like that and like yeah there's just so many places like when i went on holiday last year like we went up to the south of the cairngorms and again it was like a couple of hours drive um and it was like such such beautiful countryside and so different from where i grew up as well which is nice like um and yeah like the other day i went to go pick up some furniture from kind of like southwest edinburgh from like a second hundred furniture store and i came across this really really pretty like flower garden i've never and like i i dunno i wanna like explore outside of my like little bubble of like where i left to the uni um which is like fucking so small um i wanna see more of that um

American: this is exactly my experience as well i felt like i was always going sort of the same routes and seeing the same things every day and then now that i have the bike uh and just like you know taking that as just like if if i want to exercise instead of just you know running on a treadmill and seeing nothing for an hour just like bike and just <overlap>

International: yeah i've never i never liked treadmills for that reason

American: no (())

International: and just like if i'm if i'm gonna run i wanna see like i used to when i ran a lot in london i used to like i had a watch it wasn't quite as sophisticated as like a garment or whatever but it told you where you'd come from like it pointed a little arrow as to how to get back home and kind of match your route on a little line so like if you were out for a run it would be you could kind of look like it wouldn't show you the roads but it would show you like okay so i ran like southeast and southwest for a bit and so i need to kind of retrace my steps and it was really nice 'cause i mean i felt freer to like run around my area and not really plan my route particularly but i knew i could get home quite easily and yeah it's just like a nice way to see a city like i think the problem is where i am now i always just end up running you know like around like the meadows and that's just all i do and i'm just a bit bored of it but i'm enjoying going to the uni gym getting lifting weights

American: yeah how are you finding pleasance

International: yeah i think like i've gotten to a good schedule now it's not too busy when i go 'cause it's quite late in the evenings and i guess most people work out like straight after work whatever um i'm there when it's like all the fucking bros not not like not like anyone's being bro y but it's like pretty much in all guys i guess maybe that's true for a weight lifting gym a lot of the time um but yeah that'll be like i don't know there's like a couple guys i'm starting to recognize who like work out in pairs and they like hype each other up and stuff which is sweet um but i was wearing i got a free t shirt at a conference recently for an ai company and i was wearing that as workout gear and then multiple people came up to me to be like what's it like working for them and i was like i'm not i'm not real like i'm not real <laugh> i was like this would a good way to like if like pick up guys at a gym <laugh> it's just like all the like

American: yeah

International: tech all the tech bros come swarming and i'm like yeah but no i was like i don't work for them i just they gave me this free t shirt but now i don't wanna wear it to the gym because it's just really awkward like i'm just like <laugh> no i mean i don't have a job uh just i'm free

American: <laugh>

International: i just i couldn't turn down free clothes

American: <laugh>

International: i'm i'm the opposite of what you're expecting um

American: yeah

International: yeah it happened like twice and the first time i was like oh this is kind funny the second time i was like i need to stop wearing this t shirt (()) too too cringe um

American: uh unwanted the attention

International: yeah they were very friendly it was just like awkward 'cause i was just like no i'm not i'm not really like a real person who works for this company i'm just like poor and wanted a free t shirt

American: <laugh> yeah i mean like um i i'm hoping to uh be going more to the gym this summer i hope what what they say is true that like during summer it kinda drops down in terms of attendance because now after covid uh restrictions kinda lifted it's been so busy there um

International: when do you tend to go

American: when

International: yeah

American: you mean when during the week or just is when i'm back <overlap>

International: yeah like no like when during the week like what kinda time

American: oh oh i don't know um i like to go as many times as possible um but some time like i i i would typically go in the afternoon because i feel like um i i'm the i'm the type of like worker or like um like my work habit is that like it needs i require a lot of time to sort of get in the mood of working and once i'm there i'm like so fixated on what i'm doing but any interruption will just like rip me out of that so if i try to like split the day up with like pre workout then post workout it's like it has never worked for me so i try to do it either before i start working or after i work so it's either gonna be you know in the morning or in the in the afternoon for me yeah

International: yeah that's fair i think i would struggle to have like a mid day gym break um yeah

American: i really i really miss being able to so uh i used to work at a at a place that was just like just on top of a gym and i used to do exactly this like go at twelve every day and it was so nice because it you know you got a bit of a break from just work and back then i could sort of easily settle into just working again and it was really nice maybe i can just sort of re train that habit or yeah to get up (())

International: why do you think why do you think it's changed because you're doing a phd now

American: yeah it's just like different kind of work and and like it just requires you know different kinda thinking and and like stuff like back like i was just doing like uh web development and that is kinda like just like do this and do that and very like these steps that you just follow and it's easy to just jump back on that list of things you have to do

International: mm

American: um but yeah like i've i've literally when i've when i've broken up my during my phd i've literally like i i swear i had i had an idea <laugh>

International: <laugh>

American: what was that idea again <laugh>

International: oh so i feel like i like have so low control on whether my brain is in focus mode or not on focus mode so i have a list of things to do and i'll either do them like not not like at the same time but i'll sometimes like jump between things much more frequently and then sometimes i do get like quite in the zone but i've i don't try and like i guess like try and control when that happens cause my brain is just its own entity u

American: mm hmm i'm also like i'm a serial like um what is it called like when you delay everything like um

International: procrastinator

American: yes that that is what i am i'm a procrastinator and it has always worked for me in the past because like stress has been kind of helpful it just like pushes me forward so like i i work you know just a tiny tiny amounts for the you know first three weeks and then i'm like busy for the last week and uh now obviously i was um you know uh moving to a different country during this annual review and oh my god this this procrastination schedule did not work this time it was so hectic oof it was like the first time i've almost almost on um um like uh what is it called like um like an all nighter

International: all nighter

American: <breath>

International: i've never done one of them i just don't think i i i like i just don't understand i guess 'cause i'm like the opposite of a procrastinator like when i have something to do i wanna do it straight away and i i've i was saying this the other day to my partner like i feel like on monday i'm really really productive cause i'll have a to do list and it's like my brain's like we must do everything like today it's like i generate and then i sort of tail off but it means that like if i'm like where it tend it tended to be like if i was like revising for an exam i'd have to try and like keep up the momentum cause i'd start really early but i'm okay i'm gonna stop revising now and then like you're revising for ages and then i just start start losing steam i didn't do that for the exam we had recently to be fair um that was uh more of a last minute scenario <laugh> but like yeah i'm trying to like yeah i noticed this yesterday that like mondays i kinda sort of start the day with this not like a panic but i like gah oh my god i have so many things to do i've got to get them done and like more stuff does come out during the week to add to my to do list but yeah mondays it's like i kind of panic and try and do well i'm like i try and do everything and then i'm like oh okay i actually didn't need to like make yesterday quite as like (()) um

American: is this like specific to like the phd or like in general or

International: i think i would i don't i really hate doing things last minute like i just got so anxious and stressed out i'm definitely like someone who likes to have like plans and know what to expect and stuff so like i've always been someone who like tries to to kind of like start things early and pace things um yeah i just don't like that feeling of like being under pressure and not having enough time um

American: how about we talk about something less like stressful

International: <laugh>

American: and we can talk about holidays do you have any holidays planned

International: i'm going to disneyland

American: oh my god

International: i'm so excited i freaking love disneyland

American: where in france

International: yeah yeah and i'm so excited i went with my the same friend i'm going with like a few years ago we just had the best time and we were like we should just definitely just do this again i think we both have a similar approach of like i don't know we're quite like cynical people but there's like a special place in our heart for really childish things

American: mm

International: like i'm like very like uh capitalism uh this uh that and then i'm just like but disney and like christmas

American: <laugh>

International: like i hate valentine's day 'cause i'm like it's just this commercial nightmare blah blah blah blah blah but then i'm like but christmas time i love it

American: <laugh>

International: so yeah i think like it kinda surprises people how much i love disneyland but i love disneyland just like the whole world they've created the amount of effort the fact that everyone's there just to like have a fun time be childish and like uh

American: mm hmm

International: i saw the funniest video the other day of like someone proposing at disneyland but they were standing in like uh like an area they weren't meant to be in did you see this and the the staff member just like ran over and just like snatched the ring <laugh>

American: this guy should be fired by now

International: what i i was a hundred percent with him

American: oh

International: because like as soon as you let one couple do it everyone's gonna do it and they're all going to be on the forbidden stage with like the pyrotechnics and stuff i was like i was like i bet they're trained to do that like it doesn't matter what people are doing if they're in a forbidden area you get them out of the way i was honestly like i was all for him i was like yes <click> <laugh> everyone in the comment obviously was like this guy like no one could be paying him enough to like be this much of a joy sucker or whatever like like why does this person hate love and i was like no snatch that ring

American: <laugh> to be honest based on the video it didn't seem like it was his first rodeo snatching a ring

International: no exactly i was like this probably happens all the time like people people were like oh i wouldn't get a photo where there's other people in the way i'll stand in this like nice like stage area where there's no one there but as soon as you let one couple do it they're all going to be freaking doing it and like

American: mm hmm mm

International: <breath>

American: yeah

International: in public i i am basically i'm just like always sided with serving staff over the public <laugh>

American: <laugh>

International: i just feel like the public we suck like we deserve to have our ring snatched

American: so so you've been once before to disneyland uh

International: twice

American: oh twice before and was it both times in france

International: yeah yeah i i've i've not been to any of the other ones i would like to go to the one in japan as part of my dream tour of japan i'll do one day when i'm finally fluent um

American: have you seen the um the new um mario world like (())

International: no you told i think you were telling me about this though

American: it's (())

International: i think i've seen i think i've seen like a clip of it maybe

American: it it it literally looks like uh like a super mario level like it's very like high detailed and like once you get into the park it's just like everything looks like a computer game and they have all these like you know <cough> if if there's like uh you know like in a mario game they will have like a question block and if you'd like you know and um punch it a coin will come out so like everyone when they come into the park they get like this little bracelet and then you can go punching question blocks around then you'll like collect the coins onto your bracelet

International: bling bling

American: yeah yeah it's so like yeah so well done i really wanna go there and if i'm lucky i might be able to do like a short um trip to japan um after korea that is if they lift the traveling restrictions for japan um which i would love i'd love to go to japan

International: i'm really hoping that that'll be like the bias related workshop or like conference in japan at some point that i can like go to i mean i wanna go anyway and like it's one of the like i'm not a big fan of like long haul flights for the environmental impact but it's not a country you can practically get to any other way um

American: hmm

International: but i feel like yeah it would be like the dream holiday

American: yeah

International: like all all all these years of attempting to learn japanese finally worth it <laugh>

American: yeah i'm just like i'm very excited about the food in particular um this is a food culture that i can really like

International: you like japanese or korean

American: or korean um probably japanese as well i mean um but yeah i i have a korean friend here in iceland and she she cooks the most amazing food it's just it's so like in some sense it kinda reminds me of like not taste wise but like traditional korean food kinda reminds me of traditional italian food in that it's very like few and simple ingredients that just together make something very amazing tasting obviously very different tasting foods but yeah may maybe that's how most traditional food is very simple but but that's not how like traditional french foods comes across to me that's very complicated and like a long process and um

International: and traditional british food is just like we had loads of meat so we ate the meat <laugh>

American: <laugh> and then we

International: how come traditional english food is like we mash together the spices we stole from various countries and some raisins and then we served it with a meat gruel delicious that's like like like a traditional christmas pudding minced pies it's just like spices and raisins spices and raisins you just like stir it

American: <laugh> what's a what's a gruel

International: gruel i don't know like a thick sloppy gravy

American: <laugh>

International: yeah that's how i would describe a gruel

American: (())

International: it's like a savoury soupy sort of baby food ish type of thing like it's not like fancy it's an old fashioned term it's not something someone would like cook but you might describe something as a gruel like oh it's like

American: i don't i don't know if like if if you have um noticed this or if there's any truth to this and you happen to know about like i feel like with like old you know culinary words often they kinda sound like what they would sound and like i feel like gruel just kind of sounds right for description you just made of it

International: like an onomatopoeia almost yeah

American: yeah that's like particularly to an icelandic like where like a stew is <foreign> and like whenever i hear the word <foreign> i just imagine like the sound of like a ladle going into a soup like pfft like <foreign> <laugh>

International: yeah it could have an influence on what words stick like we do associate certain sounds with certain types of meaning like there is this test it's like kiki and the other one's called baba i think but there's like two shapes and you ask anyone like which one's kiki and which one's baba and kiki is the spiky one like obviously because like it's a spiky sound so it wouldn't surprise me if like there's quite a lot like japanese language has a lot of sort of they call it it's called an onomatopoeia but it's not exactly onomatopoeia sometimes it's more obvious how the sounds are related to the thing but it's like two repeated sounds um like pikapika but like sometimes it's more obvious how they're related to the onomatopoeia in the way i would understand it which is that it sounds like the noise the thing is making um

American: pikapika i mean obviously that's what pikachu says does that have a meaning

International: i have a feeling it means something like yeah it does it means glitter i thought so it means it does mean something i thought it meant like flashing maybe it's glitter um so yeah that's like an example of like a pattern there's a few more like um they're obviously all immediately gone from my head but there's a few more like like i don't know just like repeated sound pairs like that kind of it's a bit like onomatopoeia there's a good bit in my favorite book um where it talks about the fact that like glitter gleam and like glisten all sound like the thing the light is doing in those words like gleam is like shining and then glisten is like greasy and glitter is like sparkly sparkly kind of noises um that's a good little a little passage

American: yeah passage

International: passage

American: but like is it kiki baba is that the experiment kiki

International: i think so it's one of them one of them is called kiki but i can't remember what the other one was called like bobo or baba or something like that

American: yeah

International: but it's like a round floofy shape it's like a cloud versus like a star kind of shape

American: yeah

International: but they've done it to people like all over the world and regardless of your native language it seems to be most people think kiki is a spiky shape

American: hmm i wonder if that has like changed a little bit after like you know um kiki started meaning like let's have a kiki

International: that's not general enough tha that's too obscure like

American: <laugh> because there's a club here in in in iceland called kiki and like now when someone says kiki to me i think of something like more you know soft and fluffy than before when it was more like

International: hmm you're you're maybe it'll influence you (()) average person

American: mm hmm

International: also you know about the experiment so it's not gonna work on you anyway

American: yeah i would be just be like oh they're both soft and fluffy to me yeah

International: um yeah i don't think that's mainstream enough to have an influence

American: mm hmm so if we go back to disneyland um is there anything in particular that you are like ex are you like excited for the rides or just the experience or

International: the whole shebang like the rides i do like rides um especially they're so good with the the way they use video as well is like really cool and then like we stayed in a hotel that was like designed like a castle not like the most expensive fancy one they offer but like one of the less fancy expensive ones it still had like a castle vibe like there was like random like medieval statues and stuff around the place like i like just like all the food being themed and like the different areas i like the exploring around like uh it's like uh there's a festival called boomtown which has a very different vibe but has a similar thing of like different worlds that you can go between so like you you're in like the kind of like slightly racist aladdin area and then you're in that slightly racist like uh what's the the one that was set in south america with the day of the dead stuff lo loco or something

American: oh yeah yeah

International: coco coco

American: coco in rio right

International: yeah i think maybe

American: i haven't i haven't seen it

International: i have i haven't seen a lot of the newer disneys

American: (())

International: i'm a i'm i'm an og disney fan but yeah i'm just like you know there's like a kind of little like paddle boat so like some of the areas aren't necessarily specific to like a movie i guess the paddle boat is like the very early like the first mickey mouse thing i think it's like well maybe it's the steamboat but but anyway like i i just yeah the go between the different worlds and like i don't know there's something nice about being there with people especially this time of year we're going like where everyone's loads of people there were like big fans and they have like matching t shirts saying like the girls disney trip twenty twenty two whatever which and like they're wearing all matching ear buns it's sweet like people being that like hyped up um

American: yeah what about like like i've been thinking about going to uh what is it alton towers is that like

International: oh yeah that's good i've been

American: um obviously not as like themed or like pristine prestigious as as disneyland but like you know something close enough to edinburgh to travel to although i have to say like i've looked at travelling to that like alton towers is like in the middle of nowhere and it

International: where is it again because i feel like i went there so it must be near where no not necessarily near where i grew up but like driving distance this from where i

American: stoke on trent it's like

International: wait is there is there another one

American: there's one like out like between sheffield and birmingham

International: is there another alton tower

American: well i wouldn't

International: because i've been to alton towers but i don't remember driving that fricking far i guess i wasn't i wasn't the one driving i guess we just go especially where it is i'm like that that would actually be really awkward to get to from where i come from because where i came from had no fucking roads that worked i do not remember going that far

American: yeah it must have been a dream or maybe there is literally another one i don't know

International: maybe i went to another um i'm gonna into another one

American: but the

International: no i think went i'm pretty certain i went to alton towers

American: mm hmm

International: and like i guess we just drove i wasn't the one driving so i was probably like asleep for half of it

American: yeah the biggest one in iceland is like an amusement park ha it has a brilliant name like this <laugh> it's so literal it's called <foreign> and it means the family and farm animal park and <laugh> and on the family side what they have is like a go kart track and like a you know the thing that spins when you ride on a horse um

International: a carousel

American: carousel

International: is it

American: that's it

International: yeah

American: that's it when it comes to the family side and then they just have like cows and pigs

International: <laugh> that sounds like a village fair like there's like a like the village show or like the the county show that would happen like once a year and they'd be like you know little an animal stuff

American: and i like when i was growing up it was only the go kart thing there was no carousel

International: i'll go with you to alton towers (())

American: i would love that yeah so so like i don't know this happened like maybe ten years ago they were like okay we're gonna add a thing to the park and there was like a special like group of people that went abroad and tested all sorts of new <laugh> amusement park rides and they were like came back and they brought like a freaking carousel with them

International: carousel is it <laugh> i love the idea that they like i don't know got to england and then didn't get any further than like a village fate over like oh this must be the height of entertainment <laugh>

American: yeah <laugh> oh yeah oh yeah i would love to go to alton towers like i really like rides and just you know i mean we we kind of did that once the the one in uh the meadows

International: mmm

American: almost puked to be honest i

International: <laugh>

American: <laugh>

International: they're always pretty rough i think those kind of ones the touring ones they always put me a little bit on edge because like i don't know something like alton towers i feel like i trust

American: has like a regular maintenance schedule

International: yeah i trust like not that the village y ones aren't trustworthy because i think like but it's just like it's often they're both probably run by kids but at least the alton towers i feel like the kids aren't being managed by other kids

American: right right

International: which is the vibe i get from most touring ones sometimes i don't know especially because the i think is the fact that like the touring ones aren't like screwed into the ground that's what i want i want the reassurance that this thing has been like built into the concrete

American: exactly and hasn't hasn't been like put up like two days prior as well

International: yeah yeah

American: yeah

International: just like a little bit more like comfort i still go on those like touring ones and like they're fine i mean i'm not dead yet so

American: yeah

International: but yeah so uh alton tower it's a little bit more like foundation

American: well um

International: time is up

American: time is up um do we have a final message <laugh>

International: <laugh> i think we just stop it there

American: yeah all right um