What’s on Your Bucket List? With My Mom

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My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States. Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories, I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting. Let's do it. Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm in my mom's closet right now. With my mom ready to talk about bucket list items. And I don't know about you. Have you ever made a bucket list? Yeah, of course. I think everybody has in their mind at least, okay? And what exactly is a bucket list? Things that you want to do or accomplish before you die? Yeah. So to kick the bucket is kind of a funny way to say to die in English. So things that you want to do before you kick the bucket. I know a lot of people typically do these before they say, "Oh, I want to create a bucket list before 30." Like my bucket list items that I want to do before I turn 30. When else do you hear about bucket lists? Oh, maybe. Maybe if you're going to have a baby and you're like, "Oh, we have to go and do this before the baby comes, because life is going to change." Oh, that's a bit. Won't be easy afterwards. Yeah, milestone ages or just in your mind, you know, before I get too old and I can't walk anymore, I want to go travel and be able to be mobile. Yeah, true. I think I've heard like 40 things before 40. Like people like creating these little titles for their bucket list. And do you currently have a bucket list? Sure, sure I do. Things that I've had for years traveling, there's a lot of places I want to go. One of them that your dad and I have been talking about a lot is going to stay somewhere in Europe maybe for a whole month or a whole summer just rent a house or Airbnb or something and just live there and immerse ourselves in the culture and now that he's retired and we have the pre-time to do it, it's exciting to think about. I like that idea too, that sounds like a lot of fun. Have you ever done anything similar to that? We had, well before our 25th anniversary, our wedding anniversary, I always wanted to go to Italy and so probably five years before I started saying "We're going to do this, we're going to do this" and we finally did it and we're there on our 25th anniversary. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of value and just saying you're going to do something, putting it on the calendar and then booking tickets. I mean once you just do those steps, it's going to happen and then you get all that time and in advance being able to look forward to it. I mean I even changed all my passwords to the places I wanted to go like this is going to happen. It was drilled into my brain every day. It's going to happen and it did. So where would you go on this hypothetical trip, this bucket list trip? I don't know if I'd call it a bucket list trip. I guess I could. Well it is. It's something I definitely, we definitely want to do. At some point, so yeah, it is a bucket list. Yeah. Where would you go to? I can imagine you wanting to go to either Italy or France because it's something that you've talked about my whole life like having a nice villa and tusking me. Yeah, I would love that. Or in the south of France, I just, I love the old limestone houses and lavender fields and I can just picture being there. I don't speak French at all. But or my latest one is Cornwall, which we're going to be doing the end of this month is just go travel around and if we find some place that we love or maybe go back and live in a fisherman's shack for a month or something. A fisherman's shack? I just a little, you know, it doesn't, I don't want to spend a lot of money. But I thought just, you know, something small and a little village and just sort of become locals. It's interesting because I think that idea doesn't pop out of nowhere. Like where did you get the idea of a fisherman's shack in Cornwall or, you know, a nice, I don't know if you'd say villa or chateau in the south of France. Definitely not a chateau, just a French country house. I think I'm just obsessed with French interior design and the architecture and the landscape. And everything I've heard about it over the year, I read a year in per once a long time ago and I just think I've been obsessed with it ever since. Oh, so you had the visuals in your head while you were reading. And as far as Cornwall goes, your dad and I went to the Cotswalls a few years ago. Am I on a whole trip planned? And we ended up cutting it very short because driving in England on the wrong side of the road was a nightmare. Yeah, the wrong side. And so our trip was a lot shorter than I had planned. So this time we're doing a tour, letting somebody else drive. And the idea of the fisherman's shack, I think we just looked on Airbnb one time for places in Cornwall. And they had all these little fisherman's shack. They're just small. I mean, it's just a two of us and they're cheap and they're just right by the water and these little villages and I said perfect. It sounds fun. And what does it mean a fisherman's shack? Just, are there fish inside this little house? No, no, no, no. It's where the fishermen live, you know, and they go fishing. So it's right near the water. It's just a small, you know, very casual place to sleep and a little kitchen. Nothing fancy. Oh, that's fun. So you would wake up in the morning and go to the local fish market, get your fish, and then come back and make friends with the neighbors. Exactly. And then, you know, they were all in close to little village, you know, there has to be like a pub and a little grocery store and coffee shop you could walk to. And anyway, that's the image you've created in your mind. Yes, you know, and I've done a little bit of research. So I, now we're going to see it in person and maybe get a better idea. Yeah. Okay, very cool. And where can you remind us is this place Cornwall? You said Cornwall is just southern part of England. It's a whole, it's not only a peninsula. I'm not sure what you'd call it. Not just a big area in South Western England. And we watch a show which nobody's ever heard of apparently called Doc Martin, which has been around forever. And they live in this little place. It's actually called Port Isaac. And that's going to be one of the stops on our tour. So we can see where it was filmed. It's just a beautiful little village. I think you guys do this too. But whenever Lucas and I go on a trip, we always have Zillow open for one to see what the housing prices are and just see what neighborhoods exist. I think that's an interesting part of vacation to see how people live. And I mean, I guess if you're planning on doing Airbnb that could also be a useful thing to check out when you're over there. I'm not sure if they use Zillow. We do that before we leave. But when we're there, we're completely unplugged. I mean, I have my phone for emergency and to take pictures. And really, it's like, I don't look online at all. But a lot of places will have magazines that, you know, homes, prices and stuff. You know, we always look. Oh, yeah. It's interesting to, like, the front of shop windows where they have it posted to all the real-tie offices. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Very cool. I like the idea of that. And I mean, I hope that you get to do that. You got to plan it out, put it in your calendar, and then buy the tickets. Yep. Sounds like. On my bucket list document that I have in front of me, there are a bunch of different styles of bucket lists. And one of them that actually came to my mind was your friend, Christine. She has a bucket list. And can you describe exactly what it is? So she's now been married for 35 years. But before they got married, they decided they were going to go see all 50 states, one each year on their anniversary in alphabetical order. So she's very organized. Yeah, she's very organized. And how do you feel about that? I think I allow myself to change. Like, I may not think the way that I thought 35 years ago. So whatever I feel now, I would follow. I don't like being so-- I don't want my next 50 years. Vacations planned out for me. Yeah. You know, to be tied down like that. I don't want to be stuck to something. like to be fluid and be able to change whatever I feel like doing. Let's do it now. - Yeah, and maybe your bucket list item changes. - Exactly. - One year to the next. - Like, you go, oh, I discovered on, I don't know, Home and Garden channel that they have tiny houses and those tiny house villages are really cool. I'd love to go visit one of those, right? - Yeah. - Speaking of Home and Garden, you watch a lot of Home and Garden shows. - And a lot of them are house hunting, international house hunting. Same thing is so interesting to see other cultures and how much the housing costs. - Yeah. - Have you ever considered buying a house in a different country or building your own house? - I think there would be so many logistics around that. And I think the idea of, instead of having one place to go to, I like the idea of going to different places. So probably not, but then you see these villas that are $30,000 and it's like, wow, that's pretty cool. But then you'd have to go back to the same place every time. And again, I kind of like to leave it open, go with whatever I'm feeling. - Yeah. - And sometimes wing it too, right? - Yeah. - Like when you're on a vacation, not knowing what's coming next. That's part of the element of surprise. - Yeah, I like having certain days, definitely something scheduled, but every few days, you gotta leave some open space for whatever pops up that day. - Yeah, for sure. - For sure. Another thing that's on my list here, taking a road trip across the US, seeing the Northern Lights is common. Going on an African safari, visiting the country your ancestors came from. - That's something I've thought about because we have ancestors from Sweden and I've never been to Scandinavia and I thought that would be really cool to go see it and actually go to the place where there's still a big community apparently of my ancestors in this one area. That would be so cool to see. - That's something that maybe you guys don't know about my mom. She's really into ancestry.com and finding out the family heritage, looking back and saying where did the relatives come from? How did they get here? Where did they stop along the way? And also finding out what percentage of each family member, yeah, of the DNA is from which place. - Yeah. - And so you are, what's your percentages? - Perhaps Spanish. And then my dad's side, British, Swedish, mostly Swedish, English, European. - Yep, yep, all from all over. - Low energy, unfocused, foggy. You might be dehydrated. - Gatorade zero powders have been scientifically designed to help improve hydration balance in the body with a clinically proven electrolyte blend and no artificial colors or flavors. Great tasting hydration, no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration, consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist. - Yeah, so there's plenty of different bucket list items that can also be things that you learn that might be on a bucket list, like learning a different language. Maybe writing a book is something. - No, that's something I think ever since I was probably in high school, I studied journalism in high school in English. And I thought I want to write children's books. That was always something that I thought I would do someday. - And is it still on your bucket list? - I haven't thought about it till you just mentioned it, but yeah, maybe I will. And I'll have the grant, my granddaughters will be my-- - The characters and the characters in my book. - That's a great idea. - Really cool, yeah. - Cool idea. - So what are some of the other items on your bucket list? You mentioned wanting to spend a month in Europe, possibly on the coast in England, or in Southern France, and a nice country house with also a very picturesque, areas surrounding you. What else is something that you can think of that would be enjoyable or magical? That is definitely on your bucket list. - This is another thing that's come up, it wasn't always on my list, but I think because we live in such a hot, dry, flat place, I'm aching to have a place that's maybe near a lake. - First of all, where are you located? - We're in Woodland, California, which is 15 miles northwest of Sacramento, so right in the middle of the state in the valley, Sacramento valley is very hot and dry and flat. A lot of agriculture, but so I like Crab Greenery trees, and my thought was it would be so fun to have a plot of land near a lake in the tree somewhere and build tiny houses. So I would do one for your family and one for your brother's family and one for us, and like design them and then let you guys decorate the insides or whatever, if you're interested or I would do it. I just thought it'd be so fun like a little, have a little fire pit in the middle or a little kitchen or something like a common area. I don't know, this is all in my head too. - Okay. - Where would this be? Because ideally, like maybe Lake Tahoe, which, you know, again, this is a dream, right? - Yeah. Lake Tahoe is in. - Lake Tahoe would be gorgeous. - How would you describe it? It's not northern, northern California. - No, it's yeah, it crosses the border between California and Nevada, and I would call it northern California. - Yeah, yeah. - It's very pretty there. It's gorgeous. It's an alpine lake, so it's beautiful blues around it by pine trees and lots of trails and beaches. You know, it's beautiful. - So you would buy a plot of land, plan out these tiny houses, build them from scratch. - You know, I think they sell kits. - Okay. - And then, yeah, you build them. And then-- - Yeah, how? - You can buy them on Amazon. - You can buy a house on Amazon. - You can buy a tiny house kit on Amazon. - Oh my God. - Or a log cabin. That would be fun too. They have log cabin kits. Of course, again, this is a dream. - So this is like the kids that loved Lincoln logs. Building little houses. - Exactly. - You can do this, like life size version. - Life size Lincoln log cabins, that would be so cool. - Okay. I wonder, I wonder if they turn out good. Do they have good reviews? - Yeah. Yeah, how much do these houses cost? - No, I haven't looked for a few years, but they're totally doable. They sell up to-- - Like that's doable, like 10,000? - Yeah, 20,000. - Yeah. - And it just shows up at your door, like the next day. And I mean, it would show up on the lot. Yeah, they'd be shipped and probably set on, you know, crates, crates full of building materials and stuff. And they'd leave it there. And you just gotta look at the plans and hopefully your good builder. - Yeah, which you guys are. - You have that under your belt, for sure. - Yeah, we can do it. - Yeah, for sure. - So I asked you the last time, when you were talking about living in Europe for a month, like what the inspiration was, but why tiny houses? - Again, you were talking about HETV and it's something that's sort of newish. I mean, so I've been thinking about, oh, and maybe in the last 10 or 15 years, I don't know. And you see all these little tiny houses. And because they're inexpensive, some of them are on wheels and they're mobile. You know, you can pick them up and move them. - That's cool. - That's mostly for a cost factor. And I think because I love interior design, I thought that would be such a fun challenge to do a tiny house and have everything that you need in a small space. It would just be a really fun challenge, I think. - Yeah. I think the location definitely matters too, because you want it to be a vacation spot where you can spend a lot of time outdoors, I think, because in a tiny house, I don't imagine you just, sitting inside all day, you want to be out by the lake, you want to be water skiing and hiking and taking advantage of the outside and using it as sort of a home base, - Exactly. - To sleep in. - It's kind of like an RV, you know, the big RVs recreational vehicles that are like a home on wheels, but you know, a little bit more permanent and pretty, you know? - Yeah. - Not like an RV. - Yeah. I'm actually surprised Ikea doesn't sell homes yet. I know. - I don't think so. - Can you imagine reading the instructions? - Oh, no. - To the nightmare. - Oh, no. - Stick bigger pictures. - There are no instructions on this manual, just pictures. - Here's your house. - Yeah, and 10,000 pieces figured out. - No. (laughs) - Oh, yikes. That's funny though. Funny to think about. - Is there anything else you'd like to share about your tiny houses? - Mm, not really. - Just that idea. Even I thought of like at one time beach cabanas and like painting them all pretty colors. Like when we'll be turquoise and when we'll be, you know, green or pink or whatever. And same thing. I always picture it like sort of in a little circle with the common area in the middle. - I like that. - The visual of that's pretty cool too. I think of like Central America and all of those, you know, countries in there with the bright colored houses. - Yeah. - In Bermuda they also had when you guys went. - Yeah, there was a lot of pastel. Just pretty colors. - Very pretty. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Makes it nice if you have a water source nearby and then the colors have to have water nearby. That's a definite priority. Beach mountain, I'll take you the one. - Yeah. (upbeat music) - Speaking of the whole family and travel, I think you mentioned before that one of your other bucket list items was related to taking a trip with the entire family. Is that all? still on your bucket list. Yes, it is. We went what year was that 2020 or something we took. Yeah. Was that in the middle of COVID? It was. No. All our pictures we have masks on. Oh, no. We took Sean and her brother and their spouses and children at the time there were four and one on the way to Hawaii. And it was such a wonderful trip. But the kids were so little that there were naps and crying and it was a little bit stressful. I mean, everything was really fun. I have such good memories from there, but I also have those memories of being in the restaurant and then the kids start screaming their heads off and you're like, why why? Yeah, they're tired and a long trip and one of them's got a menu on her head. She's peeking through the plastic window on the menu and you and guys are rolling your eyes. The pictures are hilarious. Yeah. But then, you know, by the end of the week, everybody's pretty relaxed and so I always said we need to do this again in about five years when the kids are not at nap age and crying and tired and and go back and they'll remember it. You know, I want them to remember it too. And where would you go for a family trip? Would it be the same? They talk about going back to Hawaii, but I thought since you guys are now on the east coast and you're closer to Bermuda, I would love to do that. Such a different place. It's just beautiful. Do you think everyone would be on board? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think they would. It's actually pretty cheap to fly from North Carolina to Bermuda. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the last time I looked, it was 200 something round trip. Just like, yeah, I think it could happen. Again, it's one of those things like there's so many people involved and now kids are in school and you know, jobs and everything trying to line up all the vacations. It was easy when the kids were little because for one thing, nobody was going to school. You didn't have so many schedules to try and work out and line up. Yeah. Well, I like talking about bucket lists. I think this could go on forever because I mean, I've got other things on here. Simple pleasures and everyday bucket lists, which are also pretty charming. Like, some people might have baking the perfect pie, growing your own vegetable garden. You've done that. Reading a classic novel, hosting a large family dinner. You've done that plenty of times. Thanks, giveings. Yeah. Going fishing with someone you love. That doesn't seem like that would be a pure alley. That's a big, hard pass. See your favorite team play. Do you have a favorite team? Well, you know, Oakland A's fan. And we have seen them play right now. They're kind of terrible. So wait till they get good again to attend a concert. I've been to lots of concerts, but I don't think I have that. No, that's not a bucket list item anymore. I'm sort of over crowds. It's like I've just the thought of going to a big crowded arena or whatever. Just doesn't excite me at all anymore. I have thought about it a lot this past week after watching that movie Michael. You have to watch it. The Michael Jackson movie. Oh, man. I had no idea when I was a little little kid that those shows were happening. Oh, I mean, to be able to go back in time and go to one of those. I went to a lot of them in high school. You know, we were closer to San Francisco and you went to a lot of what concerts of concerts and yeah, not Michael Jackson. No, never saw Michael Jackson. I think my favorite one was Queen. Oh, God. It was so good. Oh, that's unreal. Yeah, I think that's my number one. Like I wish I could go back and see Queen. That was my favorite. Just a few more here that I'm going to mention spend an entire day without a phone. That's got a weird bucket list item. Gosh, that would be so easy for me. Maybe maybe you're a different generation. It might be harder for you guys. I learned to make a perfect cup of coffee. Don't that. Take a scenic train ride as the last one on here. That's something that we've talked about too. And I'm more about being somewhere instead of getting there. To me, I don't enjoy the getting there part, but maybe a train ride because you get to look out the window and as long as it's not too long, I think that would be really nice. That's actually an interesting thing to research. Like what are the most scenic train routes throughout the United States? There are a lot of them. They go to into the mountains into Colorado. And there's one that goes to Reno, which is easy. Of course, you end up in Reno, which is not exciting. But yeah, it could be pretty in the winter maybe. There is one that goes to the great smoky mountains from I believe from Bryce. Let's see them. I'm going to take a look at the map and see where Bryson City. So yeah, there's actually this other train that is really beautiful. It looks like a train from the 1800s. I'm going to just show you a picture here so you can have the visual of it. And it's got, I guess, the steam. Yeah, steam train. Yeah, it's beautiful. And it goes through very scenic landscapes. So if you're in the great smoky mountains, you can see the color full foliage during fall. Yeah. And then it's great time to go. Yeah. And then if you're there in winter time, they have like the polar express where Santa Claus comes. It's decorated for Christmas. You can see they have the holly and pine. And it's very, very special. So I think that would be a fun one to do at some point in time. That would be really fun. You definitely have to do that. And you also have that in California, right? You guys, there's trains that run is Amtrak that runs up and down the coast. Yeah, the Starlight Express. I think they call it. It was on the big bank there. But yeah, but again, you know, that's it's probably scenic once you get down towards Santa Barbara, but going through San Jose and all that and then stopping it every stop. That might be a little bit. It takes a long time. Yeah. But that's actually a good recommendation, though, to look at a map of Amtrak, see where all the trains go and then see what they, what stops they stop at. Yeah. Along the way, I know that when I lived in New York, I took a really, I got a really cheap ticket up to Montreal from New York City, thinking, oh, this is going to be so magical. And it was really nice. It was also a lot of stops. But, but you know, you end up somewhere beautiful and then you have an experience. Yeah. I remember when we went to Italy in 2010, taking the train from Rome up to the coast to Tinkuatera and just driving through Tuscany and seeing the leaning tower of pizza out the window and pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. That would be awesome. It's been lunchtime. But I mean, it was a great way to travel is comfortable and the scenery was beautiful. And so yeah, that was so hands-off. And like everybody gets to enjoy even the driver. Yes. Yeah. Well, I enjoyed talking about bucket lists with you. I'm sure we can continue this conversation for much longer. And we will after this call ends. Yeah. Is there anything else that you want to share? No, just now you've got my mind going. Now I might add to my list. Yeah. See if you can put 10 things on your list. Maybe I know I have to stick to it now that everybody's heard it. Yeah. We'll check back with you and tell you this and see if you've done it. How about three years? Three years. Okay. Yeah. I like that. Put a timeline. Yeah. Nice. All right. Well, thanks for coming on the show today. Thank you. Bye. Bye. All right. That's the end of this episode. I hope you enjoyed hearing my mom talk about her bucket list items. I find this topic very fun. It's a great way to practice conditionals. Where would you go if you could? What would you do? There's a lot of opportunity to practice and to dream, which is half the fun of living in my opinion. It's dreaming of the future and what's to come. So if you would like to talk about your bucket list items, be sure to check out the Academy this month. We will be talking about things on our lists and I guarantee that it's going to be a great conversation. So you can find the link to the Academy in the episode notes or on the website at AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Bye guys. Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English podcast. Remember, it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how to speak like someone from the states. If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode, or you just want to support this podcast, make sure to sign up to premium content on AmericanEnglishPodcast.com. Thanks and hope to see you soon. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax, and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1,800 contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts. At Kroger, we love helping you save with pick-up and delivery. 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