49. Summer Loving / Spanish Hell

NEW - Quizlet Flashcards: click here for link to vocabulary cards from this episode

[00:00:00.750] - Oliver (Host)

César, I have a confession to make. I'm starting to think that moving to Spain might have been an error. What about you?

[00:00:08.970] - César (Guest)

I think the same.

[00:00:09.880] - Oliver (Host)

Yeah, but what is it that is making you think this?

[00:00:12.280] - César (Guest)

Well, it's not even summertime. It's still spring, right?

[00:00:16.180] - Oliver (Host)

It's the beginning of June, technically still spring until 20th of June or something like that.

[00:00:19.970] - César (Guest)

And it's already slightly unbearable.

[00:00:23.560] - Oliver (Host)

Slightly unbearable is actually a funny way to put it. Welcome back to another episode of English and Beyond.

[00:00:29.050] - César (Guest)

Summer Edition.

[00:00:30.200] - Oliver (Host)

Summer Edition.

[00:00:31.230] - César (Guest)

And it's not even summer.

[00:00:32.330] - Oliver (Host)

Although it's not even summer yet. As always, if you find anything in this episode is difficult to understand, which might especially be the case today because we've got a little bit of background noise, there is a free transcript available on our website, www.morethanalanguage.com. And in addition to that, you can find free flashcards of the most difficult words and phrases that we're going to be using in this episode all about oppressive heat.

[00:00:59.080] - César (Guest)

Like, sweating like like a pig.

[00:01:01.120] - Oliver (Host)

Like, sweating like a pig, exactly. For me, it is sweltering. It is like as if there were a... This would be like a British heatwave. At this point, they'd probably be issuing like, amber alerts for elderly people to take care of themselves.

[00:01:16.180] - César (Guest)

Yeah, and the tube saying on the speaker, Please take a bottle of water with you.

[00:01:23.020] - Oliver (Host)

Exactly. It's really hot. Exactly. And in contrast, we're sitting here in the window of our flat, trying to get a a little bit of a breeze for this episode. I apologise, listener, if you can hear the buzzing excitement of Valencian life. But you've got little abuelas, little grandmothers, laden down with like, baggage from the shops, happily moving along. And in the UK, I think we'd all be basically lying on our back, trying not to move to feel too hot.

[00:01:54.720] - César (Guest)

Yeah, I told you yesterday that it feels like when in London there was a heatwave, but this is just like the normal...in June.

[00:02:02.840] - Oliver (Host)

Exactly.

[00:02:05.010] - César (Guest)

It's hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement.

[00:02:09.720] - Oliver (Host)

That is a very good British idiom, exactly. Expertly worked in, César. It's hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement, exactly. It is. I think it's quite interesting how in... But that's the thing, actually. It's really not. In Spain, it is only just beginning. We're about 30 degrees. But I think the difference is I've never lived in - I've lived in places that are very hot. In Beijing, it It was very hot in the summer. In Frankfurt, even, it got quite hot in the summer. In London, occasionally, you get heatwaves, but the difference here is that it is so humid. There's so much humidity in the air that I feel like I'm always sweaty.

[00:02:42.950] - César (Guest)

Yeah, that's the issue in...I forgot how much I used to sweat in Valencia. Because it's true, we've been to places like Madrid in August, in the middle of summertime, really hot, over 40 degrees.

[00:02:58.760] - Oliver (Host)

And it's not felt like this.

[00:02:59.520] - César (Guest)

But it's not humid as in Valencia, so you can actually, you know, bear it.

[00:03:04.910] - Oliver (Host)

I think the difference for me as well as a Londoner is that when you have weather like this in London, people appreciate it because they go out, they sunbathe, they soak up the sun. They want to take advantage of that sweltering heat, of that, kind of, uncharacteristic summer heat. So whereas here in Valencia, basically people have to go about their everyday lives because it's like this half the year.

[00:03:32.570] - César (Guest)

In reality, I have to tell you something. Valencians have a solution for this. Basically, many people have a second residence, a second house out in the mountain or near the beach. They normally, during the summertime, during July, August, they leave the city and they go to these places where it's either slightly cooler or you are just next to the beach, so you can actually go to the beach or you've got a swimming pool. So that's why we don't have a second residence, so we will need to put up with it. But that's what people do. Also, as we know now, many people don't work in July or August.

[00:04:19.790] - Oliver (Host)

Especially August. I remember when I lived in Milan, in August, people just left. I think I was basically the only person in the office in August in Milan because I didn't have any holidays left, holiday days left. But in Milan, it didn't feel as oppressive as it is here. I've recognised that I spent five minutes talking about how awful the heat is here, but this is literally why British people come to Spain and why every time I told someone when I was living in London, "Oh, I'm moving to Valencia", they were like, I am so jealous. But I don't know. I am a, I'm a person that 'runs hot' anyway. I am a person who naturally, even in winter, when everyone else is wearing jumpers and coats, I'm literally in a T-shirt, kind of like fanning myself a bit.

[00:05:13.280] - César (Guest)

You don't even have winter pyjamas?

[00:05:16.290] - Oliver (Host)

No, I sleep in boxers the whole year around.

[00:05:18.810] - César (Guest)

Or a T-shirt, something. But interestingly, apart from having a second residence, how do you think people cope with this heat in weather like this. Do you think they go... In Spain, we've got different types of coffees, well, anywhere in the world. But do you think people go for like a Café del Tiempo in Valencia, which is like iced coffee? Do you think that's better? Because I'm just saying this because, apparently, when it's really hot, you shouldn't have cold stuff. It's better to regulate your body temperature to have hot stuff, like hot coffee, for example, like when it's really hot.

[00:06:00.360] - Oliver (Host)

Literally hot, or like room temperature.

[00:06:01.150] - César (Guest)

No, no, hot.

[00:06:02.280] - Oliver (Host)

That's interesting. I don't know.

[00:06:03.980] - César (Guest)

I don't know the chemical (chemistry) of it.

[00:06:06.570] - Oliver (Host)

I know that one of the newspapers that my parents read, they complain a lot about young people because it's definitely a newspaper for older people. I remember one of the articles basically complaining about young people always needing to have a bottle of water in their hand, that they can't cope with being out without a water bottle for even an hour. I guess that the most important thing is probably just to make sure that you're not getting dehydrated. Even though I may be indicative of young people being in my mid-30s, I think that that's the thing that I would do, just constantly having water.

[00:06:39.950] - César (Guest)

Yeah, it's really important to avoid sun strokes.

[00:06:43.680] - Oliver (Host)

I've also the other thing that I'm doing is I've put on some clothes for this episode because basically at the moment, I am spending 90% of my time almost naked because I just can't cope wearing anything more than that. I'm not walking around the streets like that, I hasten to add. I am at least putting on a tank top when I walk down the street. But I-, you know, when we're in the flat, I'm wearing almost nothing to avoid it, basically, I would say.

[00:07:11.200] - César (Guest)

It's getting complicated when it comes to recording podcasts, for example, because, well, firstly, it's really hot, but also there are works on the street, there are works on (in) different flats around us. So yeah, it's difficult. What is this person doing? We're just filming from our balcony, and there is a random person. It's probably an Airbnb, right?

[00:07:34.590] - Oliver (Host)

No, I don't know, but they've got an inflatable ring around their neck.

[00:07:39.260] - César (Guest)

Maybe they've got a little pool.

[00:07:40.660] - Oliver (Host)

I was going to say maybe they are very sensible. Maybe they have some outdoor space. This lucky person has an attic flat. They have a terrace at the top of the building.

[00:07:51.840] - César (Guest)

We should make friends with them.

[00:07:53.210] - Oliver (Host)

We should make friends with them. We can actually start waving from here. But that's not a very reasonable solution, I think, to this. Actually, I have a question. I know that you went to New York for a couple of months or a month or something like that.

[00:08:06.230] - César (Guest)

One month.

[00:08:07.400] - Oliver (Host)

When was that? Was that in the summer? Because I know that New York is notorious for being totally unbearable in summer and equally unbearable in the winter for cold.

[00:08:17.940] - César (Guest)

There got really extreme weather, that's true. So I actually went in September, the whole month of September. When we got there, it was really hot. It wasn't hot, it was really humid. Worse than in Valencia. It was really humid.

[00:08:32.760] - Oliver (Host)

Wow, that's disgusting.

[00:08:32.800] - César (Guest)

I was like, Wow, it's going to take me a while to get used to this weather. But after one week, it started to be actually the perfect weather. Not too hot, not too cold. And by the end of the experience, it was slightly cold already.

[00:08:46.790] - Oliver (Host)

Okay, wow. I guess it's a little bit like you were saying as well that the people who can afford it have another house, like have a house in the country or have a house on the coast. But we're already on the coast here. The beach The beach is like 15 minutes away.

[00:09:02.410] - César (Guest)

I'm going to go to the beach for the first time in seven months that we've been living here now, right after this episode.

[00:09:08.620] - Oliver (Host)

Exactly. Obviously, you are from here. You are theoretically used to this, and we actually have spent a summer here before in your mom's flat where she has no air conditioning.

[00:09:20.770] - César (Guest)

She has got two little fans.

[00:09:22.360] - Oliver (Host)

Two little fans, emphasis on the word little, because I remember very many sleepless nights there. You're totally used to this. You've lived Valencia summers without-

[00:09:32.320] - César (Guest)

Not anymore.

[00:09:32.840] - Oliver (Host)

Without air conditioning.

[00:09:33.460] - César (Guest)

I'm not anymore.

[00:09:34.060] - Oliver (Host)

This was going to be my question. Have you been ruined by many years in the UK?

[00:09:37.610] - César (Guest)

Yes, I have.

[00:09:39.260] - Oliver (Host)

You have no words of wisdom for me, particularly. Nothing, nothing - I mean, we already talked about having some water, but from your own personal experience, anything that you would eat or anything like that that you think is... Because I'm supposed to be bulking at the gym. I'm supposed to be kind of consuming almost 4,000 calories a day.

[00:09:58.300] - César (Guest)

So you're eating more to get bigger.

[00:09:59.880] - Oliver (Host)

Exactly. I have no appetite because of the heat. Yeah, that's the issue.

[00:10:05.280] - César (Guest)

Well, if I remember what I used to do to cope with heat back in the day in Valencia, during my summer holidays would be, firstly, have a siesta. Because if you sleep during the time that is the hottest during the day, around 4: 00 PM, you wake up and it's slightly cooler. Then have a lot of gazpacho, which is a cold soup that we have Spain, very healthy, made with tomatoes, red pepper, green pepper, like bell pepper, olive oil, the best.

[00:10:39.420] - Oliver (Host)

The best in the world.

[00:10:40.870] - César (Guest)

In the world.

[00:10:42.770] - Oliver (Host)

Take that, Italy.

[00:10:43.120] - César (Guest)

Cucumber. Many different veggies. Sandia, so watermelon.

[00:10:51.400] - Oliver (Host)

Watermelon.

[00:10:51.750] - César (Guest)

Yeah, or melon. So yeah, really fresh. I think it's normal to eat less during hot weather as well because you need less calories, right?

[00:11:01.990] - Oliver (Host)

Fewer calories.

[00:11:02.780] - César (Guest)

Fewer calories, thank you.

[00:11:03.740] - Oliver (Host)

Well, that would be sensible, yeah. That's the thing I should do. But in fact, I've basically just started this bulk. And it's also I've noticed because I've had one long bulk before and then I've done a cut, you actually just feel more uncomfortable in hot weather when you are carrying more weight. When I have carried more weight in the past. Because last summer, I got up to, or the summer before, I was up to 100 kg. I just did feel more uncomfortable at that weight, just in the heat. But needs must.

[00:11:38.760] - César (Guest)

Yeah, exactly. Needs must. Now that you've had a little mosquito on your face, like four seconds ago.

[00:11:46.350] - Oliver (Host)

Probably stuck to it because I'm sweating so much that my skin is probably acting as sticky paper for them.

[00:11:57.700] - César (Guest)

No, I was going to say that actually that's one of the consequences of hot weather as well in countries like Spain. The mosquitoes show up and also things like cockroaches. Have you seen cockroaches on the street already?

[00:12:12.980] - Oliver (Host)

I've only seen dead cockroaches so far. I saw one cockroach in our bathroom.

[00:12:17.990] - César (Guest)

Yeah.

[00:12:18.510] - Oliver (Host)

And I killed it. I killed it, and I did feel really bad about that.

[00:12:24.910] - César (Guest)

What do you want to do? Raise it?

[00:12:27.060] - Oliver (Host)

Yeah, I trap it and keep it as a pet. I know that -

[00:12:31.280] - César (Guest)

People are looking at us.

[00:12:32.800] - Oliver (Host)

Are they? Here?

[00:12:34.490] - César (Guest)

I don't know why they're like, What are they doing?

[00:12:37.490] - Oliver (Host)

Okay. Getting ready for the OnlyFans -. I, I -  Is it sensible to kill them? Because I've heard, I don't know if it's true, but I've heard that some bugs, when you kill them, they release a pheromone that attracts others to come and defend them.

[00:12:56.320] - César (Guest)

Ants do that, right?

[00:12:57.570] - Oliver (Host)

I think so.

[00:12:58.190] - César (Guest)

That's why you have to clean properly once How do you kill it.

[00:13:01.750] - Oliver (Host)

The cockroach.

[00:13:03.360] - César (Guest)

I think so, yeah. Also because of the eggs, maybe. I don't know. I'm not an expert in cockroaches. But another thing, I know it's a silly thing, but one of the things I don't like about summer, it's like breaking a sweat, sweating a lot, sweating like a pig, and having this mark. Do they have a name when you have the marks under the armpit?

[00:13:24.780] - Oliver (Host)

Well, as you know, English is an extremely inventive language, and so we call them sweat marks.

[00:13:30.890] - César (Guest)

How creative.

[00:13:31.950] - Oliver (Host)

How creative, exactly. I do tend to avoid wearing clothes - because I sweat so much - which are going to show the sweat marks, because I personally don't care if other people are covered in sweat, but I worry that I see other people, people tell me that they find it disgusting. I feel like I don't want to disgust people too much.

[00:13:55.050] - César (Guest)

I don't find it disgusting if it's fresh sweat. I mean, we're human.

[00:14:00.250] - Oliver (Host)

No, and sweat only really smells when it's dried, right?

[00:14:03.990] - César (Guest)

Oh okay.

[00:14:04.580] - Oliver (Host)

I think so. Or it smells worse when it's dried. What an episode this is becoming.

[00:14:08.060] - César (Guest)

Well, and as you know, they're different type of sweat, right? The sweat that comes from fear, that's the smelly one.

[00:14:15.630] - Oliver (Host)

Yeah, but you could use a horrible word. I actually really hate the word smell. I think smell is a horrible word.

[00:14:20.830] - César (Guest)

Scent?

[00:14:21.860] - Oliver (Host)

Scent, you could say, but that's quite nice. Pungent is a good adjective for something that smells bad.

[00:14:28.960] - César (Guest)

Odour?

[00:14:29.960] - Oliver (Host)

Odour. Odour you can say as well, which is where you get deodorant from - to 'de', to get rid of that odour. These are all great words that you can use for the sense of smell.

[00:14:43.220] - César (Guest)

Amazing. It's the expression I used before to break a sweat, something that you say when you start sweating, or it's only for when you do something really difficult?

[00:14:53.080] - Oliver (Host)

I think people use it quite metaphorically, but also literally in the context of maybe it's If someone is, let's say you've got two people running a race and one of them wins really easily, you could say, Oh, he didn't even break a sweat beating his companion. So you could say something like that.

[00:15:14.650] - César (Guest)

One word I learned as well preparing this episode that I thought it was quite interesting is the word torrid, which means really hot as well. But you can also use it in a figurative way to talk about a love affair. And we use it in Spanish. I'm going to start using torrid all the time. Oh, yeah?

[00:15:32.680] - Oliver (Host)

Sorry, you put something in your eye. Not a mosquit...

[00:15:34.940] - César (Guest)

Eyelash? Cockroach?

[00:15:35.620] - Oliver (Host)

I'm sorry, that was done very badly, wasn't it? You almost lost your eye.

[00:15:39.950] - César (Guest)

Why did you pull my eyelash?

[00:15:43.980] - Oliver (Host)

Yeah, so, torrid we do, I - I've never... Well, I'm sure that it is used to describe weather, but I almost have exclusively had it used to describe relationships, like a torrid affair. I would say, especially adulterous relationships where you get that theoretical passion.

[00:16:05.210] - César (Guest)

Juicy.

[00:16:05.560] - Oliver (Host)

Juicy, yeah, exactly. César!

[00:16:13.190] - César (Guest)

This is like a way to introduce the -

[00:16:16.960] - Oliver (Host)

Well, they actually do say, don't they, that in summer, your blood gets hotter, right? One of the reasons that they say the Mediterranean people are so passionate, dramatic, is because the heat boils their blood. We say in English, my blood was boiling. Either you're already angry or something like that. But there is a romantic, passionate, maybe sexual implication to the heat as well.

[00:16:49.690] - César (Guest)

I do agree. I think people, maybe because they're on holidays during the summertime, but I think people are more sexually active, maybe, despite the heat. In Spanish, we've got a phrase, we've got a saying that says, La primavera, la sangre altera, which translates as:

[00:17:08.740] - Oliver (Host)

Oh, I wasn't even listening. What was it? La primavera, la sangre.

[00:17:13.950] - César (Guest)

La primavera, la sangre altera.

[00:17:17.200] - Oliver (Host)

Oh, okay. La primavera, la sangre.

[00:17:21.360] - César (Guest)

I will translate it myself.

[00:17:21.720] - Oliver (Host)

I want to do it. La primavera, la sangre

[00:17:24.700] - César (Guest)

Altera.

[00:17:25.760] - Oliver (Host)

So like, the spring modifies the blood, alters the blood.

[00:17:29.560] - César (Guest)

Yeah. Like you are more -

[00:17:31.600] - Oliver (Host)

 The spring? Well, after the winter.

[00:17:36.370] - César (Guest)

Yeah.

[00:17:37.400] - Oliver (Host)

Okay, fine.

[00:17:38.310] - César (Guest)

I think that could be applicable to summer. We haven't talked about something very summery as well, which is like summer love.

[00:17:49.660] - Oliver (Host)

(sings) Summer loving.

[00:17:50.820] - César (Guest)

Have you ever had any... Yeah. Andy, Sandy? What were their names? The main characters from Grease.

[00:17:59.630] - Oliver (Host)

Danny and Sandy.

[00:18:00.140] - César (Guest)

Have you ever had any Danny in your life? Or Sandy?

[00:18:03.350] - Oliver (Host)

Or Sandy. I guess you, no? I mean, it was September.

[00:18:10.030] - César (Guest)

It was September. It was still summer. Was it? Yeah, it was still summer.

[00:18:13.870] - Oliver (Host)

No, I feel like I I don't really actually had that.

[00:18:17.790] - César (Guest)

How sad.

[00:18:18.630] - Oliver (Host)

Not like a summer romance, because I would say my summer romances have probably been too brief to qualify as a romance as such? I think it's a shame. I've had crushes, summer crushes, definitely, especially when I was a teenager and young enough to go to those activity clubs. I definitely had summer crushes, But unfortunately-

[00:18:45.360] - César (Guest)

Like the Latin camp and things like that?

[00:18:47.710] - Oliver (Host)

I wasn't thinking of Latin camp, my residential Latin summer school, but instead with my parents on holiday. But I don't think that ever... I actually did have a crush on someone at summer camp, but I don't think that those crushes have ever been reciprocated. I don't think that it was ever requited love.

[00:19:07.280] - César (Guest)

You're sweating.

[00:19:08.630] - Oliver (Host)

But never mind. Listen, thank you very much for joining us on this surprisingly complicated episode in the dog days of late spring.

[00:19:24.130] - César (Guest)

Dog days?

[00:19:24.760] - Oliver (Host)

Dog days. Normally, you say dog days of summer. But it's actually something that comes from Latin. For kind of describing that sweltering heat. But we're not there yet, but I feel like we are. So thank you very much, listener, for bearing with us. And please like, subscribe, follow, and anything else.

[00:19:46.260] - César (Guest)

It's very important. I checked, only 50% of the people who listen to the podcast or watch the videos are subscribed. So if you listen to it or watch it, subscribe. That way you won't miss any episode.

[00:19:57.410] - Oliver (Host)

I mean, if you've gone to the end here, then that would imply you, for some reason, have enjoyed this episode, or you've hate watched it enough that maybe you could enjoy hate watching another.

[00:20:08.540] - César (Guest)

But don't hate comment, though.

[00:20:10.930] - Oliver (Host)

Well, it makes me sad if people hate comment, but feel free if you like. Thank you very much for listening anyway. Until next time.

[00:20:17.700] - César (Guest)

Thank you. Bye.