Episode 134: Special Guest, Nate Douglas, Talks All About Kentucky

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Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today we have a very special guest with us—a great friend of mine who I met here, actually in Santiago in Chile—our friend Nate Douglas who's calling us live from Louisville, Kentucky. Nate, how are you? Welcome to the show.

Nate: I'm good. How's it going?

Ian: We're doing great here. So, thanks again for joining us, we really appreciate it. And so just because you're new to the show, how about you introduce yourself a little bit for our listeners at home. So, we said, you live in Kentucky but where do you live specifically and what are you doing right now during this crazy time?

Nate: Yeah, my name is Nate. I'm from Elizabethtown, Kentucky but I live in Louisville, Kentucky now. I'm like a handyman, like a tradesman, I guess. I don't know, doing a little bit of everything like renovating an old building in Louisville. So, that's kind of what I've been doing literally the entire duration of the quarantine.

Ian: So, you have been really using your hands a lot during this lockdown time making yourself useful?

Nate: Yeah.

Ian: Awesome. So again, we met when you were living here in Santiago was it last year I believe? It was before the pandemic, right? You were still living here in Santiago?

Nate: Yeah, I think I left right before the pandemic started.

Ian: Okay, gotcha. So, you left actually right before the estallido social, the social uprising that was happening here. Wow, so you got out right in time before everything sort of hit the tidal wave of shit, I guess?

Nate: Yeah, things were heating up when I left.

Ian: So, for our listeners and for us we'd really like to know what are the things that you miss about life in Chile? What were the things you loved the most about living there?

Nate: Well, the people are who I think about all the time. We had a very good group of people that I knew and met—Chileans and non-Chileans. The chillness—I think about that all the time. I really like Santiago, public transportation, access to mountains was great and you can just like go fall asleep on a bus and like wake up at the ocean or something like that. It's unbeatable. Where else can…I haven't been anywhere else where you can do that for like ten dollars, you know? And marraqueta and cooking out all the time with friends. Everybody's always down to grill out and stuff.

Ian: We used to have some awesome asados, didn’t we?

Nate: Yeah, sure. Yeah, I built one at my house.

Ian: So you built a Chilean quincho at your house?

Nate: Yeah, exactly.

Paige: Have you had any asados since you've been back stateside?

Nate: Yeah definitely.

Paige: It's nice bringing the Chilean tradition to the US.

Nate: Yeah, you know, fusing them together.

Paige: Nice, yeah. Well, I mean as Ian said, you’re from Kentucky and I'm from the US and I know literally zero about Kentucky. I don't think I even could point it out on a map, to be honest. So, for me and our listeners, just tell us a little bit. What are the vibes like? The people, the environment, stuff like that?

Nate: Because it's like, neither the South nor the North. It's like right in the middle, geographically. The Ohio River is to the north, the Appalachian Mountains are to the east, but they're not big mountains. They're not like the Andes, they're just little hills, really. And the vibe in Louisville is super chill. It's kind of like a liberal outpost in an otherwise very conservative state. So, people kind of gathered here from all across the state and it brings a lot of cool, kind of a different way of thinking kind of to the city. The city is super bikeable. Like you can bike around if you want. I don't really know; I mean it's just like a unique place. Anyone that comes here to visit usually has a really good time.

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Paige: What would you say the traditional food is in Kentucky?

Nate: I don't know if there is one really. I mean…

Ian: Kentucky fried chicken?

Nate: Yeah, okay. Well, we can talk about KFC. So, Kentucky Fried Chicken, there was one, they're all over the place. I certainly like the fried chicken. I don't ever go there to the restaurant. I don't know. I eat a lot of greens. I guess that's kind of traditional food. We make black-eyed peas on New Year's. People up north thought that it was super weird.

Paige: What’s black-eyed peas? Not the musical group, I'm assuming?

Nate: Yeah, I've got a bag of black-eyed peas. It has the Spanish name on them but they're like white peas with a little black center. They represent good luck in the New Year, but they're also just good to eat whenever. 

Paige: And you cook them up in boiling water?

Nate: Yeah, yeah. I like to throw a little ham hock in there.

Ian: Ohhhhh, a little ham hock.

Nate: Ham hock and onions and, you know, whatever you got, and then serve them with greens.

Paige: Nice. Yeah, so that's a common New Year's thing in Kentucky?

Nate: I'd say so, yeah. I mean, I lived with a guy from New Hampshire and on New Year’s, I was doing all that stuff and he was just confused. He had no idea why.

Paige: Yeah, in Boston, we just consume alcohol. There are no peas involved.

Nate: Yeah, I mean there's certainly that too. So, like no peas here. Pea-free zone.

Ian: So, Nate, myself I have spent a little time as well in Kentucky. In the past, I would go there a lot to play soccer during college and you gave a pretty accurate description from what I saw.  Life in Kentucky is a little bit slower than in other places like in really big cities that I think most people think of—New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami. It's definitely not that kind of a vibe in Kentucky. People take the time to say hello and they're friendly. It's interesting like you said, we say sort of the Midwest manners.

Paige: I would like to ask, I mean, what is the accent and Kentucky?

Nate: I don't have much of an accent but then I met someone from my hometown, who has a very heavy accent so it's hard. It's real Southern and twangy—it can be. There's a guy I worked with a couple of days ago, and it was like he was singing. I could barely understand him. I could understand him because I'm from here but I was thinking about the dialect in Chile for example, and this is kind of similar.

Ian: So, Nate, another thing that's really popular and well known in at least Louisville, and maybe not to foreigners but at least people in the US, is the Kentucky Derby horse race. It's a really big event. People come with their really fancy clothes, they wear these big hats, and it's usually about twenty horses that are racing and people bet a lot of money. Gambling is really popular. There's lots of drinking. And the race is only about a little bit more than two kilometers, and the race itself only takes about two minutes to finish. So, it's a really quick event as it's happening. You really have to watch the event going on or you're going to miss what happens but it's funny because the event itself is for hours the day before and then even days before, people are taking a vacation and partying and really enjoying themselves. And then the event itself is so short, it's pretty funny in that sense. So, Nate, how about you tell us a little bit more about the Kentucky Derby. What's it about? What are the people like?

Nate: Yeah, it's cool, it's like the biggest horse race of the year. People wear large hats and drink a lot of bourbon and wear pastel colors because it's right around Easter. It's the first weekend of May. Ian, lost a lot of money on the Kentucky Derby, unfortunately.

Ian: It’s true.

Nate: We bet on it in Chile. That was fun. You can't gamble on sports here but you can gamble on horse racing so people do that.

Paige: It is too, I feel like the Kentucky Derby is kind of like this weird mix of an elitist type sport or like you said, it's all the celebrities go and they're dressed to the nines and they're all in fashion design clothes.

Nate: Yeah, but the infield exists also and you can get like a twenty-dollar ticket, and the infield is full of mud and a lot of rowdy people in the inner ring of the horse race crowd on it. It's got a dark underbelly. If you come, you know about it.

Ian: That's where we would belong.

Nate: Yeah, right in the infield.

Paige: It sounds like it would be great people watching.

Nate: Oh yeah, it's cool. I mean, just all across the board because all the people dressed to the nines are super drunk and fun to watch also.

Ian: Okay so need to wrap up our podcast today we're going to do something fun that we've done with a few other special guests in the past and we're going to ask you some random questions, some rapid-fire questions. And for our listeners, Nate does not know these questions so he is going to have to answer them on the spot. So, Nate when you're ready, Paige is going to ask you the first couple of questions.

Paige: Okay. Are you ready, Nathaniel?

Nate: Yeah, ready.

Paige: Okay, favorite Chilean food? There so many you cant decide.

Nate: Yeah, “completos” from a cart.

Paige: Completos, okay. Definitely don't miss that. Favorite spot you visited in Chile?

Nate: Well, Osorno.

Paige: Okay, next one favorite “chilenismo”?

Nate: “Weon”, I guess. No, no, no, what's the one that's like that's “boring”?

Ian: “Fome”.

Nate: Fome! I like that one a lot. We laughed a lot about that.

Ian: That's one of my favorites too.

Paige: That's fair, that's fair. Okay, on to you.

Ian: Alright, Nate. Cristal or Escudo beer?

Nate: Escudo for sure.

Ian: Nice. I'm an Escudo guy myself as well. Favorite Pisco brand?

Nate: I don't know. Whatever you bought. Whatever you all had.

Ian: Whatever we drank together. It was probably a whole mixture of different brands. It's all a blur when you're drinking Pisco anyway so it doesn't matter.

Paige: But is it Peruvian or Chilean? That's important.

Nate: Well, I'm going to say Chilean, of course.

Ian: Of course. Of course. Okay and last question—pastel de chocolo or pastel de jaiba?

Nate: Pastel de choclo for sure.

Ian: Alright, so, Nate, thank you so much again for joining us live from the Bluegrass State where you're doing so many great things, and we miss you here in Chile. We hope that once all this pandemic nonsense goes away that you can come back down and visit and we can have a series of asados again and enjoy “la vida chilena”.

Nate: That's the plan for 2022 for sure.

Ian: Perfect. We'll see here. So, listeners as always, if you get lost, go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. As always, thanks for joining us.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Paige: “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     handyman (noun): a person who makes repairs, renovations, and builds things.

a.     Nate is a handyman living in Louisville, Kentucky.

2.     to renovate (verb): to fix or restore something to a good state of repair.

a.     We need to renovate different parts of the building.

3.     chillness (noun, slang): the state of having a relaxed and friendly personality.

a.     The people are known for their chillness and their great food.

4.     marraqueta (noun): a type of Chilean bread.

a.     Something that he misses most about Chile is the delicious marraqueta.

5.     asado (noun): Chilean-style barbecue.

a.     We will have asados for days whenever he can return to Chile.

6.     quincho (noun): Chilean-style barbecue grill.

a.     I built my own quincho so we can have our own asados.

7.     to fuse (verb): to join or form two things together.

a.     The fusing of cultures was such a great experience.

8.     vibes (noun): the energy or atmosphere of a place or people.

a.     Nothing but good vibes in Kentucky!

9.     outpost (noun): a remote part of a country, empire, or another place.

a.     Louisville is a liberal outpost in the state.

10.  ham hock (noun): leg meat of a pig.

a.     Nate likes to eat ham hocks and peas.

11.  twangy (adjective): Southern-sounding accent.

a.     His voice is deep and twangy like a country music star.

12.  dialect (noun): a particular form of a language that is specific to a region or group.

a.     Kentucky has a very interesting dialect that is different from anywhere else in the country.

13.  bourbon (noun): a whisky distilled in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

a.     He decided to meet some friends to drink some good bourbon.

14.  elitist (adjective): demonstrating a superior attitude or an elite behavior.

a.     The Kentucky Derby can be seen as an elitist event by some.

15.  dressed to the nines (idiom): to be dressed in very formal clothing.

a.     They were dressed to the nines to see the horses race at the track.

16.  rowdy (adjective): wild and misbehaved.

a.     The crowd at the bar last night was really rowdy.

17.  underbelly (noun): a hidden unpleasant or criminal part of society.

a.     The event also can attract people from the underbelly of Louisville for gambling.

18.  to wrap up (phrasal verb): to finish.

a.     Now it’s time for us to wrap up and head home.  

19.  on the spot (idiom): without any planning or previous knowledge.

a.     We are going to ask you some questions on the spot.