Fall 2024, Episode 3

September 11, 2024

Host: Jay Cortes

Co-Host: Marina Gonzales

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome, Runners, to the third episode of the Fall 2024 Semester. It is September 10th, a Tuesday, over here at CSUB, and you’re listening to The Runner On Air. I’m your host, Jay Cortes. And I am your co-host, Marina Gonzalez. And today, we’re going to kick off today’s episode with a look at the Runner Archives. And today, on September 10th, 1997, we had a switchover to the OneCard system, which was designed for simplicity. And the OneCard system partnered with AT&T, and it transformed the way students pay for certain amenities here on campus, like printing and the cafeteria, and it allowed the use of OneCard. Previously, we used to have a campus printing card, a cafeteria card, an ID card, like five different cards, and now we only have one. I’m not sure if the one we currently have is still, like, AT&T, but we still currently have OneCard that does it all. So that’s interesting, something from 1997. Also in this article, we have a mention of Princess Diana’s death. Author John Tarhan talks about the death and how there was so much coverage and media coverage over the celebrity death. And he said it was the coverage of his death was too much hype, too much for him to handle. Something interesting from the Runner Archive. All right, and moving on to CSUB events, I am happy to announce that we have a new segment for you guys, and we’re going to be covering sports this semester. Well, more specifically, Steve’s going to be covering sports this semester going on at CSUB, and we had a pretty jam-packed weekend of exciting sporting events, and he’s going to come on and talk about it. What happened this weekend at CSUB sports, Steve? What a wild weekend of sports. The Roadrunner Classic, especially, starting off for the girls volleyball with a monster win over Oregon State, a former Power 5 school. They sweep them in three games. Sydney Dunning had a phenomenal weekend as well as the Roadrunners were able to beat Seattle University and Nevada en route to the Roadrunner Classic championship with Sydney Dunning being the MVP. Also that happened this week was boys soccer. What an upset over the number 18th team in the country in Portland. They took them down 3-2, and then girls soccer was up 1-0 until the final four minutes at Fresno State got two goals in four minutes and unfortunately took them down 2-1. Exciting stuff. Looks like we got some good dubs over here at CSUB for the Runners. Do you got anything coming up this weekend? There is a golf tournament coming up for the Runners, and then also the girls volleyball will be at Boise State for their next matchups for the Boise State Classic. They will play Idaho State, they will play Boise State, and they will play Gonzaga. Sounds good. Will you be covering any of those sporting events like golf? Maybe down the line, hopefully soon. Alright sounds good. And that was Steve with our CSUB Sports. And he’s going to be having a recurring role so listen out for Steve and he’s going to bring up sports any time he comes on and he’s going to share when we get those nice dubs. Alright, appreciate it Steve. Thank you. Thank you. Also ABC 23 reported a push for SB 966 which is a prescription drug bill that will I guess put a cap on how prescription drugs are sold and limit the amount that they could charge. So pharmacists are really pushing to pass this bill SB 966. Alright and that is local news and I have a special treat for you guys this week. We have a student who is an international student, am I correct? Yeah. Okay, so previously I was mistaken, I thought, oh I’m sorry, go ahead and introduce yourself please. Hi, I’m Nicola, I’m from Germany and I’m an international student at CSUB. Cool, so previously I thought Nicola was a foreign exchange student but she just recently schooled me that there’s a difference. So could you please talk about the program that I guess you’re in and how you started? Yeah, so I think there’s two different types of international students. That’s how you explained it to us, there’s student semester at CSUB, those are the students that have to pay for tuition as well and then there’s the category of exchange students. So if somebody from CSUB wants to go abroad and wants to study back home in Germany, they can come to my university and then I don’t have to pay for tuition here, which is pretty nice but unfortunately nobody came from CSUB to my home country, well maybe to Germany but not to my city. So yeah, I’m semester at, which means I have to pay for tuition and everything. Okay, did you receive assistance for the tuition or how does that work? Like does your government help you pay for the tuition? No, unfortunately not, my parents paid for it. Okay, well I guess that’s unfortunate but we’re happy to have you here. Thank you. I hope you’re enjoying the experience so far. Yeah, I really do. And so I just had a few questions about the program, like how did you hear about the program? Actually I was looking to go away for one semester during my master’s program and there was pretty much very fast I decided to go to the US because I don’t know, Europe is not far enough from home so I wanted to go very far and I’ve never been to the US actually so yeah, that was a great chance and I took it. And yeah, I had to apply and go through a lot of bureaucracy to come here but yeah, I think it was worth it. A lot of paperwork. Oh yeah. Okay. So at your school that you’re, what you say you’re from Germany, what city specifically? Well, my hometown is actually in the middle of Germany which is like an hour from Hannover if you know the city maybe or two hours from Berlin and it’s like in the middle of the woods so it’s a small city, nobody knows it. It’s called Wernigerode. And I study at a city called Osnabrück which is near Cologne or, it’s actually between Cologne and Hamburg, I would say. And yeah. Okay. And you said at your school you’re studying for your master’s degree? Yeah, I already do have my bachelor’s degree in economics I would say or business administration, I’m not quite sure about the title, which it is in English and yeah, I’m currently in my master’s degree and yeah, unfortunately I cannot take any master program classes at CCB because you have to have I think five years or something of work experience to do so, but yeah. Interesting. Okay. And you said you were curious about visiting the US, have you ever been to any other countries in Europe you were mentioning? Oh yeah, a lot. Like I mean, I think it’s pretty typical for Europeans to travel a lot through Europe, so I’ve been to a lot of countries in Europe actually. Okay. Which one’s been your favorite so far to visit in Europe? I think Italy and Spain maybe, so I’ve been to Tuscany in Italy and that was pretty nice, like Florence and I just love the city, it’s been amazing, but I’ve also been to Barcelona three times and yeah. Do you speak any Spanish or Portuguese? A little bit. Wow. Just a little bit. So how many languages do you speak? Well, English and well, German of course, and a little bit of Spanish. Yeah. Nice. And you speak English pretty well actually. How long have you been studying the language? Actually my mom’s an English teacher in Germany, so yeah. We actually did have some English children books I think, yeah. Can you name one off the top of your head? Oh my god, there was something about a sleepy tiger I think or something that doesn’t want to go to bed and then yeah, the mommy puts him to bed. I don’t remember that one. I remember one called Corduroy, it was like a bear and he had a corduroy overalls and then there’s like a caterpillar one. Oh yeah. I know about the caterpillar. Yeah. Okay. Nice. So you’re part of the, what was the international program for, what was it, semester ed or? Semester ed CCB, yeah. Nice. And you said that was a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of paperwork. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I think maybe it’s a German thing that we Germans love, or paperwork could be, but yeah. Yeah. The American government can be like that too, the DMV. All right. So I just had a few questions about, you mentioned where you’re from is kind of, you said like woodsy, like more rural. Would you say it was more like a city or more farmland? I think it’s more like a city. It’s the biggest city in the area, I would say. It’s like, I mean, maybe 40,000 people living in my hometown. Okay. And the city, would you say it’s like diverse or it’s more of the same kind of like traditional German people? I think it’s actually pretty traditional. So we do have a castle. It’s so beautiful. Yeah. Like a big castle. The mountain underneath the castle is moving throughout the time. So there’s a lot of construction all the time because the castle is slowly falling apart. But yeah, we do have a big castle and we do have a pretty old part of the town, I would say, with like timber framework. I’m not sure how to say that, but it’s like old buildings and they are pretty fun. Like stone and wood. Yeah, mostly wood, actually. I think so. And you had mentioned like how this castle was built like a long time ago. What kind of tradition, is there like a tradition like revolving that castle or like a festival maybe or what kind of traditions do you guys have? No, I don’t think about like the castle or something, but there are some pretty nice like festivities in our hometown. So there’s like a wine festival kind of thingy. And yeah. That’d be interesting to go to a wine festival over there because I’ve never tried German wine before. I don’t know if it’s all like German wine there, but yeah, that’s pretty fun. One thing I heard about Germany is that like usually people like to go out at around four o’clock to go out and have beer. Is that a true thing? Oh, yeah. Because I know German beer is a popular thing in that country. It is. Yeah. Everybody loves it. But is Germany, do they do like the Oktoberfest? Yeah, actually we do. Yeah. So you guys really like beer then? We really do. Yeah, that’s true actually. But I think Germany is very diverse and there are a lot of different cultural parts because like of all the history, like German was like, there are a lot of cultures. So the North is completely different than like the South or West and the East. So, yeah. Usually the Oktoberfest is happening in the South, like in Bavaria. But like everybody in Germany just celebrates Oktoberfest, so yeah, there’s even a small one in my hometown. Nice. Yeah. And there’s a lot of beer. Okay. You had mentioned that there, you guys have a castle and there’s like erosion happening where it’s like falling apart. So is that like from, are you guys near like a, I guess I don’t really know the geography, like are you guys in mountains or is there water? Yeah. There’s a huge mountain area where I live. It’s called Harz and yeah, it is pretty big actually. There was a lot of like forest and whole vegetation kind of thing, but I mean, climate change doesn’t stop before Germany. So yeah, we do have a lot of problems. It’s all dead now. And we recently had a big fire in the area. So everything burned down. There’s actually a big fire going on right now in like South Orange County area. Oh yeah. I think I heard about that. Because I recall like when I was driving through town, I recall seeing like big clouds of smoke going up in the mountains. I could, cause you like, seriously, you could see it. You could see all the smoke. Yeah. That’s scary. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Fire is pretty, pretty wild. And like the, over the grapevine catches on fire sometimes too. Okay. Um, so you, you mentioned you’d been to Barcelona and obviously you’re from Germany and is this your first time here in the US? Oh yeah. I’ve never been here before. Okay. So you, so you landed in LAX? Yeah, I did. So did you have a chance to check out Los Angeles? Yeah, actually I did. I had some trouble actually, um, coming to the US because my last name has an, oh, I don’t know how to say a new, like a U with two dots above it. Oh yeah. And it’s, it says so in my passport, but my visa has U and E. And so people were a little bit confused and tell me like, oh no, that’s not the same. You cannot enter. And I was like, well, but it is. So yeah, we kind of had a small discussion. So there was an issue with the translation. Yeah. Well, yeah, not translation because it’s literally the same letter just written down differently. But well, yeah, I’m not sure. They had to come like a supervisor or some kind to check that. Because we don’t, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone’s name U two dots. I mean, I think it’s, I mean that, a U with two dots, it’s probably common with people with European names and I’m sure like people may be from like Norway or any other country may have it in their name. Yeah. That’s interesting. I think in Germany it’s pretty popular to have a name with like something with the dots above it. Like it’s not rare for you. It’s pretty common. Yeah. Okay. So I have a question about Los Angeles. Have you like heard of Hollywood before you had come to America? Yeah. Like a lot of people were like scaring me actually a little bit. So it’s like, well, it could be a little bit dangerous. And my parents were a little bit concerned because I was, I spent three days in Los Angeles before coming to Bakersfield and I had to pick up like a rental car from the airport. There was actually a little issue because, because of the time difference, it was like three in the night in Germany when I finally got through security and everything. So there was wifi at the airport, so I could text my parents that I landed safely, but then I had to go to the rental car place and get the car and my eSIM didn’t work. So it had no access to wifi or internet or anything. And I didn’t have Google maps and I had to drive an hour to my hotel without Google maps. So that was pretty scary, but yeah. You’re back in 1990s before the internet. Yeah, actually. Yeah. Yeah. See LA, it’s always filled with a lot of heavy traffic. It’s always, it’s pretty difficult to drive through sometime cause I have, I have a cousin who lives in LA and yeah, it’s always crazy there. It’s always expensive to live there as well. That’s why I never want to move to like the big city or anything like that. It is quite expensive. I spent so much on like parking and stuff. Yeah. But I liked it very much because you can, if you do have a car, which is, it is necessary, I think like everywhere here. So yeah. But if you do have a car, you can just drive around and drive to like Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I liked that pretty much. It was, it was very beautiful. Yeah. So everybody here. Yeah. And I feel like the age over 18, I feel like you get a car and a license and the ability to drive. Is that a uncommon, like where you’re from for people to have licenses and cars or they’re more public? I think everybody in my age has a license, but it’s gotten pretty, pretty expensive in the last days. Um, last years, I think like my brother just spent $3,000 on his driver’s license. Wow. Yeah. So what it, yeah, it’s, it’s pretty expensive in Germany because you have to take like a theory exam kind of thing with like questions and you cannot have more than 10 mistakes. Yeah. Yeah. We do something similar. Then you have to take driving lessons and I think you have to be in driving lessons at night and on the, you know, the German Autobahn. So like, yeah. The freeway or highway. I don’t know. Yeah. There’s no speed limit, right? There’s no speed limit. Yeah. It’s pretty awesome. Go there and check that out. Yeah. That’s crazy. A driver’s license in Germany is so expensive. Yeah. If you want to get like your, when your license expires and you have to get a new one, it’s only like 50 bucks, I think. Yeah. But it makes sense because our speed limits are like 55. Like we’re not driving like race car speeds. Like in Germany you could drive race car speeds on the Autobahn, but you go 200 kilometers. You can, but I, I mean, on the one hand, accidents do happen if you drive slowly. So that would not be like a serious argument for me, but people not go 200 on the Autobahn all the time because there, there’s traffic. So you cannot go that fast. And like, yeah. But most of the time I think would be like maybe a hundred miles or something. It’s pretty typical to drive that. Yeah. The highest speed limit we can go here is 65, but that’s only for the freeway. Yeah. If you’re going to take the freeway. Yeah. But who doesn’t go a hundred on the freeway? Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah. So if you’re going to go, if you’re going to take the highway 99 to drive all the way down to LA, the highest is 65 for smaller cars, but if you’re going to be driving like a semi truck, the speed limit for them is 55. Yeah. But with traffic, you can’t even go past 20 sometimes. Oh yeah. But you got to drive slow if the, if the freeway is backed up with traffic. So that’s, what’s kind of disappointing because in my head I’m thinking like, oh, you can go as fast as you want. Everyone’s flying like down the street, but if there’s traffic, you can’t. So there are also a lot of like restrictions. So a lot of the times there’s just like, you cannot go over 120 kilometers. I’m not sure what is that in miles, but I think it’s like 80. Could be. Yeah. Probably. When I go to, from my hometown to my, to the city of my university, there’s just one time where it’s no speed limit. And it will be like at night or during the day? No all the time. There’s just no sign. So you can just go as fast as possible. Well, that’s kind of disappointing. I feel like, I thought everyone was in their Porsche and their like Lamborghini and their, well Lamborghini is Italian. So their BMW is, BMWs are German, right? Yeah. It’s called BMW. Yeah. Oh yeah. You guys have the Wiener Schnitzel. Don’t go to, don’t go to a Wiener Schnitzel here. It’s really gross. You’ll be so disappointed. Have you seen that? They have a restaurant called Wiener Schnitzel? No. Yeah. It’s a, it’s a little fast food restaurant. They sell hot dogs, chili dogs, chili fries, milkshakes. It’s really cheap. I don’t know. Yeah. Here, guys here in America, fast food is cheap. You can probably get an item, the highest, maybe just $20. But yeah, that’s why fast food is so cheap because it’s affordable for people. Yeah. Back home, what would you say is your favorite food to eat? I would say maybe something my mom does like on Sundays. It’s typical to eat like something with the whole family on Sunday for lunch and then she cooks something. Well, it’s mostly something with potatoes and meat and a vegetable. So yeah. Okay. So what’s like one traditional dish like, um, like I like, um, I don’t know, like my favorite food is seafood. So I like, uh, I don’t know if you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s called mojarra. It’s like a fried type of fish. I’ve never heard of that. Yeah. I really like it. Um, so what would be like a traditional dish that they would serve? Well, typically for Germany, I think we do love our potato salad with like sausages or something. Oh, okay. That’s pretty typical. I think so. Yeah. So if there’s any barbecue or anything, you always find potato salad. Ooh, barbecue. I never thought of putting sausage with potatoes, with potato salad before. Yeah. And then ketchup and mayonnaise. It’s pretty good. Ketchup and mayonnaise. Mm. I’ve never, I’ve never thought of that. Yeah. So you love sausage, right? And there’s a lot of different kinds actually. Yeah. Oh yeah. Kind of like in Italy because there’s, I believe there’s different kinds of sausage in Italy as well. Yeah. Smoked sausage. And I guess you could have different animals. Yeah. And just all mix them in. Okay. Um, so when you, you had mentioned Los Angeles and your parents had warned you that it might be dangerous. I find that interesting because I feel like living near Los Angeles my whole life, I kind of already knew that because as a little kid, you would drive down and you would see like tents and graffiti and like just the people on drugs, like you would see it all, like people getting robbed in LA, it was like really dangerous. So, but I feel like every, well, I previously, I thought that maybe people in other countries didn’t really know that, like they would see it on TV or something and think something else that it’s like, Oh, celebrities are there and it’s like, um, like movies are shot there. So it looks so nice. But as someone that’s lived by there, like, I know that’s not true, but you had mentioned that your parents had warned you. So they know that even Hollywood is kind of like, has it already lost, like it’s, it’s like a glory, I guess, like it’s twinkle. I mean, I think it depends on where you go. So like, I mean, my dad has been to Los Angeles, so that’s why he said to me, like, be careful and don’t leave any stuff in your car or anything. Um, but I mean, driving through Beverly Hills, like with all the palm trees, it’s very nice. I think so. So yeah. And then we also went to downtown and I was pretty scared there. I didn’t like the whole atmosphere of downtown, we went to like Walt Disney concert hall and then to a famous bookstore there and it was, it was pretty nice. Oh, the last bookstore. Yeah. The last bookstore. Yeah. I’ve been there. Yeah. It was so pretty. Yeah. There’s, there’s a guy that sells weed out front. Oh. But it’s like, that’s LA is weird. You walk out and it’s like, what the heck? Those guys are here on a picnic table. I mean, yeah. I mean, it depends on which part of LA you’re in, because you mean you are going to see a lot of homeless people around and not to mention, we also have a lot of homeless people here in Bakersfield as well, but you know what, and, but, um, Los Angeles can be good and bad because I’ve been to LA dozens of times. And also it’s usually because my mom, my sister and I, we take trips down to Anaheim so we go to Disneyland and stuff, but you know what, if you ever get the chance to go to Disneyland, I’m telling you, it’s definitely going to make like your childhood dreams come true. Yeah. Have you heard of Disneyland before you had gone here? I actually wasn’t. Oh, I don’t know if it’s Disneyland or Disney World, but I’ve been to Paris. Oh yeah. They have one in Paris. Oh yeah. Disney World in Paris. But see the thing, the difference between the two parks is, um, Disneyland is in LA. It’s down in Anaheim. Disney World is in Florida. Yeah. Disney World is in Orlando, Florida. So if you ever want to go to Disney World, yeah, you, you gotta travel to Florida to go there. But yeah, I forgot they do have one in Europe. Yeah. They have one. They have a Disney, Disney World in Paris and they also have one in Japan as well. Ooh. Yeah, that’s true. I forgot. Okay. So, um, being here in the U.S. you say you visited Los Angeles, um, would, did you have a chance to try out like any restaurants when you were over there in Los Angeles? Yeah. Some, but I don’t think it’s anything famous. The food was good though. Yeah. Uh, where’d you, where’d you try? Uh, like some pasta place. It was pretty nice. Like fresh, fresh. Do you remember the name? No. I don’t think so. I’m sorry. Has there been anything memorable that, uh, since you’ve been here that kind of caught your eye or caught your attention or that you tried that like really stuck with you? Well, actually I’ve been to San Francisco, no, not last weekend, the weekend before that. Oh, nice. I pretty much fell in love with the city. It is so much, I’m sorry, it’s so much more nice than Los Angeles. I think so. Yeah. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I’ve only been to San Francisco once. Yeah. It’s so like a skyscraper, like skyscraper style, like they build very vertical and everything’s so like compacted in. Yeah. And also like the small houses are so pretty, like the white porches and the staircase up front. It’s, it’s really pretty. Yeah. It looks more, I think how you’d say like traditional American, like full house style, like white picket fence. Yeah. Have you, have you gone to Chinatown in San Francisco? No, I don’t think so. We’ve only spent two days there, so yeah, it was on schedule. Because when I went to San Francisco, when I was maybe like 12 or 13, we went to Chinatown and we got to try some really good, delicious Chinese food. And that’s like real Chinese food. And then we also got to go on a tour of Alcatraz Island. Yeah. Alcatraz was the famous prison from like back in the seventies. Yeah. I took that tour too. Yeah. But then they stopped using it as a prison and was basically turned into a museum. Yeah. Did you get to visit Alcatraz? No, actually not. But we did manage to catch two very, very beautiful sunsets. One from Hawk Hill and one from the beach from where you can go from the Golden Gate Overlook. So you just walked down the beach. It was, it was, it was really magical. Yeah. There’s like an overlook where you can see the bridge. Yeah. Yeah. That was so pretty. Nice. So, so far you like San Francisco the most? So much. Yeah. I want to go there again. I think so. Maybe I can. Yeah. My parents are actually going at the end of next month for their anniversary. They always go. Have you, did you get a chance to check out the, I think it’s called Lombard Street or Lambert Street? Yeah. Yeah. Where like curves. Yeah. We walked that, but downstairs. I think we walked it down. Yeah. Going down. Nice. Yeah. That was pretty sweet. Did you get a chance to try clam chowder? They’re like famous for their clam chowder. No, I don’t think so. Next time you go, maybe you should try it. Yeah. Clam chowder. It’s a very delicious type of soup that you can get at like a seafood restaurant. And sometimes you can even get the clam chowder in a bread bowl. Yeah. A sourdough bread bowl. Yeah. A sourdough bread bowl. You can just eat the soup and then you can also like eat the bowl once you finish up the soup. Oh, I think one of my friends had that when we were to Avila Beach last weekend. Oh yeah. They sell in Avila Beach. Yeah. It was pretty nice. They have a restaurant called Bodine’s. They have different ones. Like I’ve seen one in Orange County. I don’t know if I’ve seen one around here, but Bodine’s does that too. Oh yeah. And there’s also this other restaurant that my mom and I love going to. It’s in Pismo Beach. It’s called the Quarter Deck. They sell the clam chowder as well. And we always get it every time we go eat there. Anytime we go to Pismo. Yeah. I love seafood, so I love clam chowder. And every time I go to San Francisco, I’ve been there like I think twice or three times. Yeah. I always get the clam chowder from Boudin’s or even the ones like they’ll have people just with carts like on wheels and they just literally have the bowls right there. You just grab them. Yeah. San Francisco’s. Did you get a chance to check out, they have like a wax museum and like a Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum. I don’t think so, no. Have you had a chance to check out any museums, like art museums? We’ve actually been outside a lot of the times, like we did a little hike to Hawkhill and yeah. So you’re more of like a nature, you like hikes in nature? I think so, yeah. But we drove around a lot through the city. Okay. Kind of had to. But yeah. I wonder if there’s any canyons around here to go hiking. Oh, maybe Panorama, Panamera, that street that’s over like by BC College. Oh yeah, you, those are, there are hiking trails there, but just kind of be aware because there may be some homeless people down there and then you can, there’s also some. Don’t scare her. Come on. Well, I’ve read, I’ve read reviews that people posted online about the hiking trails over there and yeah, some people say that there are some homeless people that wander there. So just be aware. And then there’s also some hiking trails that you can go to in Hart Park, but you know, you just got to be aware of like the animals, you know, be aware of the, the bears, the mountain lions, the bobcats. Yeah. Yeah. Where I’m from, there’s more hiking trails. Like there’s Peter’s Canyon, O’Neill Park, and it’s more like a canyon with trees all around. So it’s, but there are mountain lions. It’s kind of sketchy. You have to be aware of mountain lions. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely be aware. Okay. And so what are your plans for, well, you, you said this program, is it over after the semester? Yeah, it is. December 17th. I think so. Yeah. Okay. So what are your plans for a while? You’re here. And then what are your plans for when you return back home? Well, when I returned back home, there’s obviously Christmas and then I’m going to continue studying after like in the spring semester and then hopefully I get my degree by Christmas next year. So yeah, that’s the plan for that. But as long as I’m here, I want to travel some more actually. Yeah. Okay. And you said you liked San Francisco. You might want to go back. Are there any other cities that you’re curious about checking out while you’re over here? I mean, Las Vegas would be pretty nice. So yeah. Oh yeah. Las Vegas is a pretty cool place to go to, but you know, there, but you know, it’s also known as Sin City because there’s, because people, I feel like you have to be over 21. Yeah. Because I’m 22. Oh, perfect. No problem. Yeah. Because I’ve been there before when I was a teenager and I couldn’t really do anything. I couldn’t really do a whole lot because I was underage. It’s not for kids. Yeah. Because Vegas is not really a place for kids. It’s mostly for, for adults who want, who want to go there to go partying and drinking and all that stuff. That sounds nice. There’s also, you know, strip clubs and all that stuff. Yeah. But you know, Vegas is filled with a lot of really cool shows that you can go check out. Magic shows and performing shows. I’ve been to, yeah. Over there. I’ve been to the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show and I saw the Criss Angel show as well. I saw The Weeknd perform there. I’ve never seen The Weeknd. Yeah. And I saw Club Drace and it was around the time that he beat somebody up in the elevator there. I think it was a cop too. Oh yeah. My, you know what? My mom and some of her friends are actually planning to go to Vegas, um, I think next month. Cause they’re going to go see the Lenny Kravitz show. Oh nice. Yeah. They’re big Lenny Kravitz fans. Okay. Um, is gambling a thing in Germany? Well, not for me, but maybe, yeah. I don’t know. Not like in Vegas though. So if you were to go to Vegas, would you be curious and gamble? I think I would try. Well, yeah. Um, have you ever played like blackjack or cards or anything? Um, like with, with friends at home, we do play poker sometime, but I don’t think I’m that good. So if you were to gamble, what, what would you try a roulette or slot machine? Maybe. Yeah. All right. So probably roulette. You’ve got to put down a color or a number. I always go with red. I know that’s stupid, but yeah. So just go down there, Vegas, put a hundred dollars on red. Well, maybe not a hundred, I’m not sure. Oh yeah, I could care less about gambling. I would rather just save my money and I would spend it going shopping in like the shopping outlets over there. Yeah. That’s a good idea too. Yeah. That’s yeah. Cause that’s why you can’t win money shopping. I know. But still I work hard. I save up my money and then I want to use it to go buy, buy things I like, you know, go buy things in the shopping mall. I’m not going to blow it off and you could win money and then go buy things with the money you want. Yeah. That’s what I’m going to do. Yeah. But yeah, but with gambling you could also end up losing money, but which I don’t want to take the risk. That’s why you got to set yourself a limit. Like this is the amount I’m going to take with me. I’m not going to pull out anymore and it’s my fun money and that’s it. When it’s over, it’s over. So if it lasts long, cool. If it doesn’t, that sucked oil, but you never go like, no, I’m going to go back to the bank and get more money. Oh yeah. I went shopping in the shopping outlet when my mom took me there to celebrate me becoming 21. Oh nice. Yeah. Cause when I remember when I said I saw the Chris Angel show, that’s what we did when my mom took me there to celebrate my 21st birthday, I got to try some alcohol for the first time and we got to go see the Chris Angel show. One of those fat Tuesdays. No, I try big drinks. Oh no. I didn’t try that at all. The first drink that I got, I got a dole whip with, it was the pineapple soft serve with Malibu coconut rum and it was so good. I have a question. Have you ever had dust boot? No. Isn’t that a thing? Don’t you German? Don’t German people drink from like a boot, a glass boot? Isn’t that Oktoberfest? Wait, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s Germany or something. I don’t know what that is. Isn’t that a thing? We do have certain glasses at Oktoberfest, but I don’t know what it’s called. It’s like a boot. It’s from a movie too. Wait, is it from like a pirate movie or something? No, it’s from Oktoberfest. I think we call it a mask. Yeah, yeah. Well, no, I’ve never seen that before. It says Munich too, Munich boot beer. So this is just like, what would it be called? Like when it’s not real, but we like associate it as being German, but it’s not even real German. So have I been lied to? I don’t know. Could be. Like it’s like Hollywood made it up. Yeah, I guess maybe Hollywood could have created it or something. It looks a little bit like this. So that’s the real authentic one. Yeah, I think so. So I’ve been lied to by Hollywood. Could be. They told me that Germans drink out of a boot. No. It even says Munich like German. That’s probably, maybe that’s a stereotype someone created. Yeah. It looks cute though. I guess it’s just a stereotype. This is what I guess Americans think Germans drink out of, a 44 ounce Munich dust boot beer. How much is 44 ounces? 44 ounces? That’s a lot. That’s like a gallon. Yeah. That’s like too much alcohol. What is that in liters? Liters? 44 ounces to a liter. Because you always have to be calculating over here. I know, right? One liter. Oh yeah. That’s actually two miles. So it’s all right. It’s like, it could last for two hours. Over here, a 40 is like, yeah, a lot for people to drink, I guess, but not abnormal. You guys really like beer, huh? So when you pump gas, do you pump liters? Yeah. Is it weird to see the gas in gallons here? Oh my God, yeah, it is. I actually never thought about that. Yeah. And it’s completely strange because if you get gas in Germany, it’s like you get, you fill it up and then you go pay for the amount you filled up and here’s it, like you have to pay first. Yeah. I didn’t know that. Yeah. So that was quite scary the first time. So yeah. Oh yeah. The gas prices here are pretty pricey. I mean, like basically I have to pay like maybe 30, $40 to put gas in my car because I think my car is like an eight gallon tank. So my tank is 14 gallons. So it’s 52 liters in my car. So to fill up my car is like 60, 70 bucks for 52 liters. I mean, what kind of car do you drive? A BMW. I drive a Jeep Compass. Oh dang, your gas price sucks. I mean, yeah. I mean, the thing, I mean, it depends on like how many times I’m driving per week, because if I’m driving every single day, I basically have to refill like every week. Okay. So one gallon of gas is like $5 usually. That means that for three liters, like almost four liters, it’s $5. Is that like regular prices for Germany? I think it’s a little cheaper than in Germany. I think in Germany it’s more expensive. Wow. And then you guys have the Euro, right? So you always have to calculate a little bit. Yeah. Cause the Euro is worth more. I think so. It’s like, yeah, but I’m not sure how much. Cause I think it’s like $1 and I don’t know, 50 cents or something for. It’s not that much, but it’s a little bit. Okay. So it’s actually more expensive to fill up your car in Germany. Yeah. I think so. And like, um, I just, I think it’s interesting cause everyone, when you think of fast car, well, at least for me, I think of like German engineering. So, um, like when you’re out there, do you see more newer cars like BMWs or do you feel like people hold on to their old cars where you see like old BMWs from like 1970s or something? I don’t know about new cars, but I think, um, the relationship people have to their car is different in Germany than here. So I don’t know in Germany, if you, if you like hit somebody or scratch something, you go and then you fix it because like, you want your car to look as good as new, right? But I don’t know if it’s the same here that you like have to immediately fix it. No, I feel like people, there’s a lot of people that just leave their car beat up and they don’t care. They just keep driving. Yeah. So you see a lot of pretty cars in Germany because everything gets fixed immediately. And there’s even like the stereotype that people wash their car on Sundays and take really good care of it. So if you buy a car second hand, oftentimes it’s very good. It’s a new, very good. So I should go to Germany to get my used cars. Maybe. So you’re saying people have more pride like in their car. Yeah. And also there’s, um, Oh my God, I don’t know if it’s a law, but there’s like a thing where you have to get your car checked every three years. Otherwise you can don’t get it. Oh my God. I don’t know if you don’t get a license plate or if you don’t get your car registered. I’m not that sure. Well, we have something over here called smog where you check, uh, but all it checks is your emissions to make sure that you don’t. Yeah, I know about that, but it’s, it’s so much more in Germany, like they have to make a complete check of the car if everything is working. Oh wow. Oh yeah. That’s kind of like what we have to do because what I do with my car, I get my car serviced like every 5,000 miles. No, but that’s because you want to, it’s not required by the government. Yeah. But that’s what I do. I always get my car like service every 5,000 miles because I have to make sure that my brakes are working right, I have to get the oil changed, my brakes. But that’s just you being smart, like taking care of your car. She’s saying they have to do that. Like the government makes it. So you can actually be sure if the license plate on the car you want to buy has this like little symbol on it, then it is working, completely working. So you never, you never buy something and are not quite sure. Yeah, like over here, the car could be broken, but they just get rid of it because, and it happens all the time. Like, especially with Facebook marketplace or something like Craigslist. So cars are more reliable. Interesting. Yeah, I feel like we do have certain people that take pride in their cars over here. Like they’ll try to like make them super fast or like a big truck, like you want it to be like off-roading. But it’s like, it’s expensive. So I feel like if you are like that, it ends up becoming like your whole, like you put all your money into it. Like if you like classic cars, like we have like 1950s, like a Chevy, old cars that people like fixing, but they cost so much money to keep like fixing and fixing and maintaining. I had, tell me about it. Last month my battery in my car died and I had to get it replaced. Yeah. But like your car is like, you can go to AutoZone. I know. My mom went to AutoZone to get a new battery, but it cost her $200. Even if you had like, I don’t know, some really rare, like old German car from 1960s or something. It’s like, you can’t go to AutoZone just to pick up your parts. Like you got to order them specifically from somewhere and it’s like, you heard about it from a blog. Like it gets really deep for car people, for parts. Alrighty. So I just thought that was interesting having to translate all the liters and gallons and then the money’s different. You feel like it’s been a lot or the internet obviously helps. Yeah. It does. But like my water bottle, there’s like, it says 32 ounce. I don’t know how much that is. I never even checked that. It’s like, that’s so funny. Looks reasonable. Sure. So, yeah. Cause we have miles per hour. That’s funny. Okay. Um, so I guess, uh, any last things you want to say before we hop off? Anything new that you’re want to try while you’re here? Like is there anything you want, is like, there any events here in town that you want to go to? Or like, there any different food that you want to try here in town? Well, yeah, the food show, we went to get tacos yesterday and that was pretty good. So yeah, I would like to try more of the different foods. First time trying Mexican food? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I would imagine there’s not too much Mexican food in Germany. Yeah. And I’m not sure if it’s like authentic either. So maybe people try, but I’m not sure though. Oh yeah. Well, Mexican food, it’s a natural thing for me because you know, that is like also my heritage because my dad and my grandparents on his side of the family, we’re all Mexican. We have food like that all the time. Yeah. Um, like have you ever heard of, uh, tamales? No? Enchiladas? Yeah, of course. I know. Enchiladas. Okay. Um, if you want good enchiladas, I like El Puesto. Oh, my grandmother can make awesome enchiladas. Oh, you know what? I haven’t asked about music. Like I’ve heard of a German rapper before, um, somebody, cause I actually had, um, I used to work with a guy from Lowe’s who was from Germany, but it was interesting because he was from, he was, he lived in Germany, but he was like, um, from originally from another country, I think like, uh, in the Middle East. But I don’t remember if it was like Afghanistan or something. So he was like a really interesting person, but he showed me like a German rapper, but I forgot his name. Um, but what type of music would you listen to? Well, I actually don’t listen to a lot of German music at all. Really? No. Yeah. So, um, what would you say is like the biggest artist from Germany? Oh my God. Oh, I would, I have no idea actually. That’s, that’s pretty hard to tell because I’m not, I’m not quite into the topic actually. Yeah. Um, so would you say like entertainment’s not big or just you specifically or not? Maybe just, I’m not interested. Okay. I think maybe it’s big, but I don’t know. What, um, art form would you say is like the biggest, like over here I say, uh, Americans really care about their music and a lot of cultures, uh, like Mexicans too, really care about their music. Uh, and then like, I know, I would say maybe in Italy they like painting, I don’t know. So what would you say is like the art form that Germany is like really clings on to? Oh wow, that’s a, that’s a hard question. Oh, sorry. I actually don’t know if we do have like certain art form that we do like a lot. No, I wouldn’t say that. Like if you were to go to like an art museum there, who would you see? Art museums? I don’t know if I’m, if I have been to so many art museums in Germany actually, but I think, I think it’s pretty similar to here. Okay. Like, uh, so other artists from like Italy, like where we would care about like Van Gogh or like, uh, or like, um, classical person like Mozart. Yeah. Okay. Do you have a favorite type of, do you listen to music at all or do you have like a favorite type of music you like to listen to? Yeah. I like a lot of like women artists, like the whole Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo. Of course. Sabrina Kupferner. So you like pop? Yeah. Of course. Of course. Cause my little sister is like super obsessed with Taylor as well. And are there any like, um, German actors, like movie stars that you like as well? Cause I know there are quite a bit of actors from there. Yeah. But they, I think they only play in like German movies, so I’m not sure if you would. Well, I follow, well, see, I follow this one German actor who, who is from your home country and then he moved to LA when he was young to pursue his dream of becoming an action movie star. His name is Matthias Hughes. He was a big time action movie star from back in the eighties and nineties. He was in, he was in the, um, he was in a film with Dolph Lundgren. What was it called again? I forgot what it was called. Have you had a chance to check out any movies while you’ve been here? Um, no, but I think we wanted to go to the cinema sometime soon to watch something. Just this past weekend, I went to go see Beetlejuice. Have you heard of it? Yeah. And did you like it? It was, um, it was kind of slow at first, but it was pretty funny towards the end. Um, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Tim Burton before, but he kind of has like a certain style. So if you like that Tim Burton, Tim Burton, like, um, where he does like the stop motion and like the really Gothic, like really dark. So it’s definitely like that. So if you like, and then they go into like the underworld and stuff, like die, come back from the death, stuff like that. So if you like that dark stuff, then yeah, it’d be funny. Yeah. If you like, if you like Tim Burton, cause he’s like, all his stuff is kind of similar around the same vibe. So it was definitely like interesting, funny. And then they stuck with like the theme of Beetlejuice. I think that isn’t there like a cinema near campus, like just across the street is the marketplace. And over there is the Edwards cinema. So that’s the movie theater. That’s one of the movie theaters in town. We also have, um, well, by like where I stay, it’s called the studio grill. And they have ones where they like waiters come and they bring you drinks, like you could drink alcohol. Oh wow. Yeah. Oh yeah. It’s called, it’s called studio movie grill. It’s across the street from Dwarfs ice cream. It’s an ice cream shop. Oh yeah. We’ve been there. I had the strawberry special. It was amazing. Oh yeah. They have, they have the best ice cream there, but yeah. At studio movie grill, basically once you, once they tell you that you’re, that the theater is ready for you to go in, you can order. They have a menu for you. You can order food. They’ll deliver and then they, and then waiters will come in, they’ll bring you your drinks and your food and you can just enjoy a nice meal while watching a movie. My mom and I just went there cause we saw, we saw Deadpool and Wolverine. Oh yeah. I saw Deadpool there too. Yeah. That movie was so awesome. I want to see that. I hadn’t had the chance. No? I would love to. Yeah. Deadpool is really funny. Yeah. And I loved the first. Yeah. Yeah. It’s definitely, um, I would say it’s like as good if not better than the first one. Cause there’s so many different actors in it that come in and they’re all funny and they all like play their part really cool. So yeah, I would, I would recommend Deadpool probably more than Beetlejuice just cause it’s more like action and funny, but can you still see it? Deadpool? Is it still in theaters? I think it, I think it is. I mean, but yeah, you got to catch it while it’s still in theaters before they get, before they get taken off because then, you know, there’s a bunch of other movies coming out. Let’s see. I don’t think there’s any more showings for, I think it’s like came into the cinema when I had to do like all the preparing for the trip, like all the preparations. So I kind of missed that. Yeah. They’re still showing it. There’s yeah, there’s times like at 12, four, seven 30 to see a movie girl. So they’re still showing it. That’s pretty nice. Yeah. It has 95% on Fandango, Fandango, eight out of 10 on IMDb. So check that one out. Okay. Yeah. So you want to check out Vegas he said? Yeah, maybe. And a lot of people recommended going to San Diego. Oh yeah. There’s a beach in San Diego. That’s nice. Oh yeah. And in San Diego is SeaWorld as well. Oh yeah. You could see all the prison, all the prisoner whales. Thank you for saying that. I would, I would just want to say, well, I’m not going to SeaWorld. Yeah. She’s a nature person. She wants them to be free. Yeah. Do you have any pets? No, actually I don’t have time, but I’d love to get a pet. I’d love to get a dog sometime. Maybe in the future. Okay. I have three dogs at home. So many people around here have like three dogs, five dogs at home and it’s like, I mean, you guys are in university all day. Who takes care of your dogs? Well, my grandfather who lives with us is at home all the time and he doesn’t work cause he’s retired. But yeah, he basically, he just stays at home with, with my, with our dogs until I get home from school and also until my mom gets home from work and stuff. Well, that’s pretty nice then. Yeah. But I also do a little side business of my own. I pet sit for a living to help me earn a little extra cash. I pet sit for families who want to go out of town, go on vacation. So I stay at their house and I take care of their pets until they get home. Yeah. Some people, and then they even have like pet hotels. You could drop your pet off to a hotel. Yeah. But I think, but I heard that the pet hotels are kind of expensive. Oh yeah. You’re taking your pet to a hotel. You’re already on a different level. Do you know the trick in Vegas that if you are at the tables gambling, they’ll bring you free drinks? Oh no, I didn’t know that. Yeah. So if you just sit at a table and like just play, even if you’re only playing like $1, like $1, someone will come and bring you drinks. Is that like the strategy to keep you there? Yep. Oh yeah. Yeah. To keep you there. And then once you’re drunk, you’ll spend more money. So if you go to Vegas, do that trick. Sit at a blackjack table and spend like $1 and they’ll keep bringing you drinks. That would totally work on me. That’s true. Okay. So you mentioned when you get back, it’s going to be Christmas time. Yeah. What about looking farther ahead? What are your plans? Like, do you want to start a business or do you want to work in a certain field? Because you had mentioned your economics, like, are you interested in the stock market? Is there a European stock market that you’re interested in? Yeah, I’m not that good at stocks though. No. Yeah. I mean, like, in the last years, it’s like crisis, crisis, crisis, so that’s also pretty hard to calculate, but yeah. I would like to concentrate my studies onto taxation. Okay. So I also have like a taxation class here in Bakersfield and it’s pretty hard because… Taxes? No. No. It’s really interesting. It is though. Really. So if you learn the game, you can play it, you know? Yeah, of course. It’s pretty interesting in Germany as well. And I wanted to do a taxation class here so I can put that on my resume that I also have like a little bit of experience. So once you like finish your education and get your degree, like, are you going to plan to probably like stay at home and like work there, get a job there? Or will you possibly plan on maybe coming back to the States to pursue a career here? I don’t think that I would love to live permanently in the US. I don’t think so, because no, I want to maybe work at a big consulting company in Germany. That would be pretty nice with like all the health benefits and like they pay for your gym and you have like home office and live in a walkable city. That sounds fun. Yeah. Taxes, though. I feel like so many people are scared of taxes that they’d rather just ignore them. But you want to like dive in head first. I think it’s like for a business, it’s pretty important to know about. Yeah, of course. And you mentioned that Germany is like super bureaucratic. It seems like more bureaucratic than America. Could be. Could be. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Americans definitely have taxes. I definitely don’t want to get into that. Definitely don’t want the conversation to turn into taxes, but I’m glad that you find that interesting because we definitely need people to file taxes every year for us. I think so. I think it’s easy to get a job in that. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. It’s like if somebody doesn’t want to do it, then that leaves the lane for someone that does open to charge whatever they want to because it’s like no one else knows about it. Especially if you go into like business tax, because that’s way different than like regular tax for like. That’s what I want to do, actually. Nice. Yeah. I’m curious about that, but we’ll save that for another day because I feel like that would be a whole another hour of conversation. Just talk about taxes. Yeah. It could be. And different paperwork. Like taxes are just like, what paperwork can you file to make you money? But we’ll talk about that another day. Okay. Well, thank you so much for stopping by today. I feel like I learned so much. Like I cleared up a lot of things. Cleared up a lot of like strange stereotypes about Germany. Yeah. Like things that Hollywood lied to me about, about Germany. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t believe everything Hollywood says about other countries and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t believe the satire movies when they talk about other countries, because they’re being like dramatic. It’s all fake. We found out the real Germany today. Well, mostly every stereotype about beer is true. I think so. Oh, okay. So it comes from some sort of truth. Yeah. I think so. Just not a boot. I wonder where the boot came from. I’m like mind blown. That sounds like something that came from like a pirate movie or something. Maybe I just haven’t seen it, but I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t know. Or maybe it’s an old, old thing that people don’t do anymore. Could be. I don’t know. Um, what’s, you guys like soccer there, right? Oh, yeah. We do. Um, didn’t Germany get close? Did Germany get close to the world cup or not world cup? Or was it the cup, the European cup? Yeah. European. Oh, no, I don’t think so. I think we, well, I think we lost in the quarter final. I think so. Yeah. I just remember. Is soccer called football in Germany? It is because you play it with your foot. Yeah. Just like in, yeah. Just like in, yeah. Just like in England. Cause they, cause England also calls soccer football. Just like everywhere. Literally everywhere. Yeah. And then when you hear, when you hear football, you like, you immediately get confused. Like, whoa, am I talking about soccer? Am I talking about American football? That’s why they say American. They always say American football. Yeah, we do. And like, yeah, Spanish football, European football, and then American soccer. Okay. I think you should check out the LACMA museum. I know you said you’re like a natural, natural nature person. So it’d probably be cool for you to check out the sequoias. Yeah. I wanted to go there. And I heard they have like giant trees the size of like buildings that are ginormous that you never imagined. Yeah. I know you said you’re a nature person. I don’t know. But I guess that doesn’t mean you would want to go to our local zoo either, because we have a, yeah, we have, we have a local zoo here in town called Calm. It’s basically a sanctuary for, for, for our native animals that they help. Oh yeah. We do have native animals here too. Like the fox. What is it? We have, well at Calm Zoo, basically it’s a sanctuary. They rescue sick or injured animals and they take them to the zoo where they nurse them back to health and they like keep them under observation until they’re ready to set them free onto the wild or they’ll keep them there. That’s basically what they do. They help animals. If they can go back to the wild, that’s actually pretty sweet. Yeah. They have to wait to see like if they’re ready to be back in the wild or they’ll just keep them there at the zoo. Because they have mountain lions, bobcats, they have two black bears, they have foxes, they have a reptile house. They have a duck pond over there. So yeah, they have, it’s basically all animals that are native to California. Cool. Cool. Yeah. And you said that’s over here? Yeah. Yeah. It’s over on the like far side of town. Kind of like if you were going to drive all the way to BC, but you have to drive through Hart Park in order to get there. There’s also an art museum in Bakersfield too. I think it’s in downtown. Yeah. The art museum is downtown. Cool. All right. So signing out. Check out any fun places and then, I don’t know, maybe we could catch up later and see if you got to visit the places, maybe if you got to check out like somewhere where it snows or the beach. Like, have you had a chance to check out the beach yet? Yeah. We’ve been to Avila Beach. Nice. Yeah. On last Saturday. That was pretty nice. So maybe we can catch up, see if you got to do anything new, try any new food. Maybe we’ll have some stuff that you experienced that you weren’t expecting to. And hopefully you have a fun time while you’re here. And I hope you enjoy yourself. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you for stopping by and signing out for episode three here at The Runner On Air. I’m your host, Jay Cortes. And I am your host, Marina Gonzalez. All right. See you guys next week. Cheers. Take care.