Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
I'm Connor from polyglossa.com and you're listening to episode 21 of the Listening Time podcast.
If this is your first time here, welcome.
I'm glad you're listening.
This podcast should be a good tool to help you improve your listening skills in English.
The way this podcast works is that I choose one or two topics each episode to talk about, and I talk about these topics in a normal way, using normal words and expressions, but I speak a little bit more slowly and a little bit more clearly than the average native speaker speaks.
So this should help you understand me a little bit better than you might understand a native speaker.
So the goal with this podcast is to help you train your listening skills and understand better and better each time, so that in the future, you can eventually listen to normal podcasts made for English speakers.
So in each podcast, I talk about a different topic, but I don't read a script, okay?
So I'm not reading anything.
I'm just speaking as the words come to my mind.
So it's completely natural, just a little bit slower and a little bit clearer.
And remember that with each episode, you have the transcript available.
So you can access that in the details part of the episode.
And I always recommend listening to each episode a few times.
The first time without the transcript so you can just try to understand everything.
And then the second time with the transcript, so you can see all those words and phrases that you missed the first time.
And then one more time, without the transcript again, so that you can see if you can understand those words and phrases that you missed the first time.
So that's just a recommendation, but you can use this podcast however you'd like.
So on today's episode, we're going to talk about my recent trip to Morelia, which is a city here in Mexico where I live.
So it should be an interesting episode.
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Okay, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
All right, so let's talk about my trip to Morelia.
So first of all, I want to mention that it was a road trip.
If you've listened to other episodes of this podcast, you probably know by now that I like road trips.
So I think this is the fourth road trip episode of this podcast, if I'm not mistaken.
This is a good phrase for you to use in English, if I'm not mistaken.
We use this when we're not 100 sure about some information, but we want to say it anyway, and then we just add this phrase, if I'm not mistaken.
So, if I'm not mistaken, this is the fourth episode related to some kind of road trip that I've taken.
Remember that the phrase road trip just means a trip that you take in a car.
So we didn't fly anywhere.
We drove to our destination.
So the drive to Morelia was about three and a half hours.
And honestly, the trip didn't feel very long because I really enjoyed the landscape.
The word landscape just refers to the natural scenery around us.
So I really enjoyed the landscape, because recently it's been raining a lot and so all of the grass and plants and trees are are doing really well right now.
Everything is green, everything is flourishing.
The word flourish just means that it is succeeding, it is growing, it is doing well, So all of the nature around us here is flourishing right now.
So it looks really beautiful and the drive to Morelia was really nice.
I enjoyed the view pretty much the whole way.
It was spectacular.
And one other thing that I don't know if I mentioned in previous road trip episodes, is that here in Mexico, when you drive on the good highways in the country, you have to pay a fee.
And in Spanish, we call these spots where you have to pay, we call them casetas.
So at these casetas, you have to pay... an amount of money to pass and to use these highways.
So this is one of the bad parts or downsides, as we say in English, of taking a road trip in Mexico.
You almost always have to pay this fee because the best routes always cost money here.
So it's a little bit annoying, but it's worth the money, because if you don't pay this and you want to take the free route, it's usually much more dangerous.
The road conditions are much worse and it's just not good.
So it's much better to take these paid highways because it's safer.
You'll get to your destination with no problem.
So that's what we always do.
We always pay this fee.
The word fee just refers to an amount of money that you need to pay for some reason.
You pay a fee.
So we went to my wife's aunt's house.
She lives in Morelia and she has a pretty big house.
So there were a lot of us there.
Let me think.
In total, I think eight or nine people lived. stayed at this house at the same time.
So there were a lot of us there.
But like I said, it's pretty big, so it wasn't a big problem.
The one issue is that they only have one bathroom in the house.
So this is not normal.
Usually houses have a couple bathrooms if the house has more than two rooms.
So this was a little bit annoying having to share the bathroom with everyone, but it's okay.
The hospitality was fantastic.
My wife's aunt cooked us a lot of food and just really made us feel comfortable there.
So we really enjoyed our stay at her house.
So let me talk to you just a little bit about the city of Morelia and a couple of the towns nearby that we went to.
So Morelia is the capital city of the state of Michoacan.
You might have heard of this state before.
Maybe, maybe not.
It has a little bit of a bad reputation because there are some dangerous parts of this state.
But if you go to the normal touristic parts of the state, There's really no problem.
It's just like anywhere else.
It's not too dangerous.
There's probably a low level of danger, but nothing too crazy.
So this is the capital city of Michoacán.
And one thing that you'll notice very quickly when you go to the downtown area of Morelia is that it's a cute city.
I think I've taught this word before.
The word cute is a word we use in English to describe something that's beautiful or nice or pretty.
But we usually use it when we're describing smaller things.
So we don't use the word cute when we're describing something that's relatively big.
So, in this case, Morelia, even though it's a capital city in Mexico, it's actually not that big.
It's quite a small city, in fact, so I would use the word cute to describe it.
However, I wouldn't use the word cute to describe a place like Mexico City, because it just feels too big to use that word.
Maybe other English speakers might say that, but for me this is kind of the feeling that I get when I use the word cute.
It feels like it's something small.
So like I said, the downtown of Morelia is very cute.
It has really cool colonial architecture.
In my opinion, the architecture looks nicer than the city where I live, which is Guadalajara.
So of course we have cool architecture here as well, but I think it looks a little bit nicer in Morelia.
And another main thing that you'll notice about Morelia is is that it has an aqueduct.
So this is some kind of structure that transports fresh water throughout the city.
So it usually has the shape of like a long series of arches.
That So there are many arches, and on top is where the water goes and it is transported to different parts of the city.
These aqueducts that exist here in certain Mexican cities are not used now, I don't think, but they're still there and they make for beautiful architecture.
In English, we use the phrase make for when we want to say that something serves a certain purpose.
So if I say, that city makes for a good day trip.
I'm saying that I consider that city to be a good place to take a day trip to.
So these cool old aqueducts, they make for good architecture.
They make for cool buildings, cool structures.
So, a couple other things about Morelia.
There are many festivals there.
So there's, I think, a music festival, a film festival, an opera festival and probably many others.
But I think it's pretty well known for these different festivals and many people travel there from around the country if they're interested in one of these things.
So how about the food?
So the food in Morelia is good, in my opinion.
I think there's a lot of variety.
A few of the traditional dishes you might find there are are the uchepos, I think they're called, and corundas.
These two things are... They're two different styles of tamal, or tamale, as we would say in English.
So they're types of tamales that are made... I forget exactly.
I think the uchepo has...
I think it has fresh corn.
It's not dried like some of the other tamales that you can find.
I don't really remember exactly how it's made, but both of these types of tamales are very tasty.
I tried both of them.
And they don't taste exactly like the tamales from other parts of Mexico.
So they're definitely unique to that area, that region.
And then one other dish I want to mention, which is really strange in my opinion, is gazpacho.
So I know that there is a dish in Spain called gazpacho, which is a cold soup.
But that's not what I'm referring to when I say gazpacho when I talk about this here in Mexico.
In Morelia.
Their famous gazpacho consists of fruit like mango pineapple jicama, things like that, with orange juice and cheese, chili and sometimes onion and vinegar.
It's an extremely bizarre combination in my opinion, and I'll be honest, I don't like it at all.
It's one of the very few things in this world that I don't like in terms of food.
I usually like every type of food, but for me this food is not appetizing.
The word appetizing just means delicious or tasty.
If I say that this food isn't appetizing, I'm saying that it's not good.
I don't like it.
But other people, like my wife, go crazy for it.
This phrase, go crazy for, is used when someone really likes something.
They're really passionate about something.
My wife is passionate about gazpacho.
She loves this dish.
I don't, but that's okay.
I'm happy to take her and watch her enjoy it.
So let me talk to you about two magic towns that are located close to the city of Morelia.
If you remember from a couple of my other episodes...
A magic town in Mexico is a town that has some historical and touristic value.
And these towns are usually well maintained.
And the government really pays attention to these towns because many tourists go there.
So one of these towns is called Pátzcuaro.
This was the second time that I've been there.
And this is a town that was founded around the year 1320, so a long time ago.
And it was part of the Tarasquean state.
So this was a state that was an enemy of the Aztec Empire. you've probably heard of the Aztecs.
This was a famous empire in Mexico up until the mid part of the last millennium.
So the Tarascan state was an enemy of the Aztec Empire and they had many wars against each other.
And so Pátzcuaro was one of the main towns or cities in this state.
And the people there at that time, they spoke a language called Purépecha.
Purépecha.
This is one of the indigenous languages here in Mexico.
I'm sure that some people there in that region still speak this language.
And this town is located right next to the lake, which is called Lake Pátzcuaro, actually.
And it's a really nice lake to look at from afar.
It looks really nice.
We use the word afar in English when we're talking about something far away.
We say from afar.
It just means from a far distance.
So this town of Pátzcuaro is also located next to not right next to, but somewhat near the town of Tsinsunsán.
It's a very funny name.
This town was actually the capital of the Taraskan state.
And so in this town, or right next to this town, you can find the ceremonial site that the indigenous people used there.
And you'll see ruins and pyramids, really cool structures like that.
The pyramids are interesting because they're actually in the shape of a semicircle.
So like not a full sphere or something like that, just like a semicircle shape.
It's kind of hard to describe.
I recommend you look up this site and you'll see some cool pictures of it.
And one thing that I forgot to mention about these towns, like Pátzcuaro and other towns in Michoacán, is are that they have an interesting appearance.
So like in Pátzcuaro, the whole town is like the same color.
So the buildings are mostly white, with some brownish red color also.
And all the buildings have this same color, the same design, the same roofs.
The roof is the part on the top of a building or a house.
So all the buildings look similar.
And it looks really cool.
It looks like it hasn't changed much in many centuries.
And many of the towns in Michoacan have these same colors and this same style.
And it's really attractive, in my opinion.
It looks nice and it gives the town a cool, unique feeling, in my opinion.
So one other town that we visited is called Quitseo, and this is located to the north of Morelia.
And it's also located by a lake, and this is called Lake Quitseo which, if I'm not mistaken, is the second largest freshwater lake in Mexico.
The word freshwater just refers to water that isn't saltwater, right?
It's not seawater.
It's a lake.
You could probably drink the water if you clean it.
So it's a big lake, but at this time, it's mostly dry.
So there isn't a lot of water there.
And some people are worried that the lake will never be restored.
But we talked to some locals there and they said, no, we'll have water by the end of the year.
So I don't know.
I don't know what will happen with the lake.
But when we went there, there wasn't a lot of water.
So this town looks very similar to Pátzcuaro because, as I said, all of these towns have the same colors the white and the brownish-red color.
And the structures look pretty similar.
But the town of Quitseo has a very interesting monastery there.
And nowadays, I think it's just used as a church.
And so this is the main attraction there.
And then one notable thing about this town is that it was founded in 1550 by Augustinian Catholics.
So this was a group of Catholics that follows a certain tradition of Catholicism set forth by Augustine of Hippo, who was a famous person in Catholic history, I think.
So, yeah, it was a cool town to visit, and it was a town that our hosts had never been to before.
The word host just refers to the person who receives a guest.
So we were the guests, the people invited, and then my wife's aunt and her family were the hosts.
So they had never been to this town, and I had the idea to go there since they had never been.
And they said, OK.
And so we went there together and we all experienced it for the first time.
So that was pretty cool because all of us got to see it with fresh eyes.
Right.
For the first time.
That was cool.
So overall, the trip was really fun.
It was a great experience.
We really liked everything we saw and everything we did there.
And we liked everything that we ate there.
So I would say that it was a good experience overall.
All right.
I think I'll stop there.
Remember to share this podcast with anyone who might find it useful.
And please give it a like, a rating, a review if you can, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts.
And remember to sign up for our $1 listening practice seminars at polyglossa.com.
And I hope you'll come back for more episodes in the future and you'll continue practicing your English listening with me.
So thank you for listening to this episode.
And I hope you'll come back for episode 22 of the Listening Time podcast.
