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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're very excited to have a special guest with us on today. We have Karl VonZabern, who is a good friend of ours from actually down here in Chile. We lived together here for a while—Karl and I—and we spent some good time down here having fun so we're really excited to have Karl on here today and talk about something that is really unique that he's done. He has spent some time living up in the enchanted state in the land of Alaska. And this is something that's very uncommon, so we're really excited to pick his brain today and just understand what that experience is like. So, listeners, as always, make sure to go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Karl, thanks for being on. We're excited to have you.
Karl: Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm really excited.
Ian: And so, since this is your first time on the pod, how about you go ahead and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
Karl: Yeah, so my name is Karl. I ended up going down to Santiago for the first time when I was studying abroad in 2016. So, I spent the semester there and then liked it enough that I moved back there in 2019. I taught English for a year at Dynamic English so, I love the company and I really enjoyed teaching English. So yeah, it's great to be here and it's great to be part of the pod. I actually showed this podcast to a lot of people when I was an English teacher.
Ian: I was going to say, I forgot to mention that Karl is actually a former Dynamic English teacher himself. So, some of our listeners today, probably, are familiar with his voice and he does a great job of teaching English himself. So, it's going to be great to have you on and we were lucky enough to have your lovely girlfriend, Maggie, on a few weeks back. So, you guys are sort of the podcast power couple. Were excited to get this going.
Karl: It's an honor.
Ian: Great. So, Karl—we're on today to talk about a few things but the most important is to talk about Alaska. This place is an amazing and pretty mysterious and unknown place. Not a lot of people get the chance to visit it. So, for our listeners and for us, could you give us sort of a little nutshell on what Alaska is like? You know, geography, weather, etc.?
Karl: Yeah, sure. So, Alaska is, obviously, the biggest state in the US. It's about a third of the size of the continental US so, it’s huge. It's really massive. It's pretty wild. It's a really rural place so, there's maybe one major road system that connects Anchorage, maybe the biggest city, up to Fairbanks, one of the other biggest cities that's kind of inland. A lot of Alaska is actually reminding me of a lot of the south of Chile. All of Southeast Alaska is pretty much like Patagonia, similar to the Carretera Austral region. You can't get around in a car, you have to take boats places. So, it's actually really similar in a lot of ways. In terms of foods, people eat pretty different up there. They eat things like moose and fish and stuff like that. So, it's a lot of caribou. I actually went up for the first time right after I graduated from college in 2018. I wanted to go on a big climbing road trip and I needed the funds to do it. So, I looked for a job that was pretty short term and I can make a lot of money and ended up on a commercial fishing boat up in Alaska. So yeah, that's kind of how I went up there for the first time and a pretty wild experience.
Paige: I have to ask, I mean, are you from the West Coast? Alaska just feels so far away, but did you grow up near that area?
Karl: No. So, I actually grew up in New York until I was twelve and then moved down to North Carolina, but a friend of mine from college had been going up there so, I just found it through him and realized that could be a really cool adventure and a cool way to make some money in a month. So yeah, it was great. It's an intense job but yeah.
Paige: At least you went in the summer. I feel like I had a friend, it probably like you said Alaska is so large that depends on where you are in the state but I had a friend who was out there and she was training for a marathon and it was in the winter and there’s barely sunlight. So, she had a very short window of when she could do her long runs because it was dark all the time. Very cool.
Karl: Yeah, that's why it was the opposite for me. So, I was up there and there are twenty hours of daylight. So basically, it’s sunny all the time which is really cool. You feel pretty energetic all the time because when it's nighttime, your brain releases a lot of melatonin to make you tired. So yeah, it turns out you can stay up for a really long time, which is necessary when you're on a fishing boat.
Paige: Yeah, I think it'd be a good thing. It's better than the alternative, the opposite of that. But it would feel like you would constantly want to work or that you'd have to be productive during those twenty hours.
Karl: Yeah, it's tough to get sleep when it's light out and the sun is shining.
Ian: So, Karl, tell us what was a typical day like working on a fishing boat. I'm super curious of what that consisted of.
Karl: So, I was fishing for salmon. So basically, there's a really short period of time where salmon return to the freshwater stream or lake where they were born, where they spawned. So, they spawn in freshwater, then they go out to the ocean for two years, two to five years depending on the species, and then come back all within the months of June and July. So, there's just 64 million fish that come back to this pretty narrow place in a month period. So, the schedule is run basically by that, managing that species. So, you basically fish for eight hours on, and then you have four hours break and then you repeat that cycle, basically, until the season's over. So, you're working all the time, you're sleeping very little. It's really intense.
Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?
Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?
Paige: Nope, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.
Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?
Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes. You can be living anywhere.
Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?
Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.
Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.
Paige: I mean, I have to ask you said that number really stuck out to me. What does that look like? I mean, is there just salmon everywhere in the river? There's space for them?
Karl: Yeah, it's crazy. They're jumping out of the water; people are sinking their boats filling up with it. It's a crazy experience. Yeah, it's really insane. You can literally see hundreds of fish jumping out of the water. In terms of a natural phenomenon that still exists, it's unlike anything I've ever seen.
Paige: Do you fish with nets? Because there are so many. Do you just scoop them up?
Karl: Yeah, so it's like a gill net fishery. So, you have one hundred fifty fathoms of the net? Yeah, something like 130 meters of net out and you reel it into this on the boat and you have to take every fish out with your hands. So, it's crazy. Yeah, and the weather sometimes is insane.
Paige: that's cool, though. I feel like that's a pretty cool sight to see.
Karl: Yeah, it's an experience for sure. I don't know if I would recommend it.
Ian: So how many people are working on the boat? It's you and a few other guys or it's a big crew? What's it like?
Karl: So, they're small boats. They're only thirty-two feet long. It's a conservation thing. They have to limit the size of boats and nets so people don't catch too much. So, there's a pretty small boat with four people typically in a crew so you have to pull your weight.
Paige: You spent, like you said, most of your time on the boat. But were you able to—before or after—explore Alaska? Are there any cool things you were able to do and see?
Karl: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, Alaska is an amazing place to explore so, I ended up, after I fished for the first time, I ended up taking a road trip up the Glenn Highway and walked on a glacier and went ice climbing, went rock climbing. So yeah, there's so much to do in Alaska. And then this past year, I went to Kodiak Island, which is famous for gigantic grizzly bears as part of my research project. So yes, it was really cool.
Paige: So, it seems like obviously, natural beauty is the best thing about Alaska. What do you think the worst thing is?
Karl: I don't know. The worst thing probably…
Paige: The Wi-Fi? Just kidding.
Karl: It's just hard to get around. A lot of people fly to get places there. Even somewhat locally, a lot of places don't have road systems that connect so, they're really isolated little villages. So, it's really out there.
Ian: Karl, I’ve got to ask, I've heard that the mosquitoes up in Alaska are enormous. Like you can't avoid them in the summertime. They're almost like birds they're so big flying around. Is that true or have I been told lies?
Karl: It's insane. Yeah, it's insane. I went camping. I like to cowboy camp. So, I like to sleep outside. My sleeping bag had a little hole and I cinched it shut and then mosquitoes were landing on my face. Yeah, they're insane. You can't do anything without a bug net or something. Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Paige: They really are bigger? They're more than just more of them but they're large?
Karl: They’re large. Yeah, it's weird. I don't know why.
Ian: Mutant mosquitos.
Karl: Yeah, pretty scary.
Ian: So, your advice for people coming up to visit would definitely bring some bug spray, maybe a face net, maybe some protection against that if you want to have a good time in the summer?
Karl: Yeah, definitely. I would also just say to plan your trip well because there is a lot of cool stuff but stuff is really far. So, you have to know exactly where you're going to go and stuff like that.
Ian: What other kinds of things would you tell someone to prepare for the trip clothing-wise or anything like that? It's such a wild frontier. I imagine you have got to be pretty prepared before you get up there.
Karl: Yeah, just dressing really warmly, having a lot of jackets, maybe a scarf, really good rain jacket. It rains all the time. Yeah, it's actually really similar to the weather to Patagonia. It could just flip and be super cold and rainy all of a sudden. So yeah, just have everything you need.
Paige: And it seems like you said this past summer you're doing a research project. Do you plan to go back to Alaska to continue that or just go back to explore more?
Karl: Probably not to go back to do more of a research project and I am writing the paper now. So, I basically collected surveys about how the fishing industry is going to adjust to climate change. I think I have enough data for what I'm writing right now. But yeah, maybe. I don't know. Maybe I'll go back.
Ian: Can you take us? Can you take us fishing? I'll pay you to be our fishing guide.
Karl: Yeah, it's going to be a long flight for you guys.
Ian: Worth it. Okay, Karl. So, we've talked about Alaska and now we're going to transition and wrap up with a fun little question game that we play with our guests who have spent time in Chile and are familiar with the culture. So, do you think you're ready for these questions?
Karl: Oh yeah.
Ian: Alright. Well, let's go ahead and do it. So, I'm going to start with the first few and then we'll move to Paige after me. So here we go. Favorite Chilean food?
Karl: Vegan empanadas.
Ian: Favorite Chilean drink?
Karl: Pisco sour.
Ian: Okay, I guess that answers the next question. Pisco or Terramoto?
Karl: Pisco every day. Yeah. Terremotos are kind of weird.
Paige: They're pretty gross. It's more of a special occasion drink.
Karl: When you want to have a weird time.
Paige: Okay, favorite place in Chile you visited?
Karl: Oh, that's so hard. I think this place right outside of Coquimbo. There's, it's right south of La Selena is a little town called Coquimbo and there was a really cool place right next to the ocean that had really good rock climbing. That place was really cool and I want to go back there. It's kind of off the beaten path as well.
Paige: That leads me to my next question that you said good rock-climbing—the best place you rock climbed into Chile besides that place?
Karl: Probably Chochamó. Valle de Cochamó.
Paige: Where's that?
Karl: In the south. Yeah, it's kind of right outside of Puerto Varas. It’s incredible. It looks like, you've seen pictures of Yosemite Valley? It looks like that, but it's pretty remote. It's harder to get to. Yeah, it's really, it's really cool.
Paige: That's awesome. I know. I was in Chile for two years and traveled a bunch but there's just not enough time to travel in that country. There's so much. It's so large. There's so much to see and it's all so different.
Karl: Yeah, I want to go back. I've spent a lot of time there but not enough. Yeah, it's just so incredible.
Paige: Okay, last one—favorite chilenismo?
Karl: I thought a lot about this one and I'm pretty sure it's “palta”.
Paige: That's avocado, right?
Karl: Yeah. I because so I like all sorts of other chilenismos like “ahhh ya” and “taco” and stuff like that. But “palta” is just what it is. It's just, an avocado is “palta”.
Ian: Exactly. Super chill and easier than “aguacate” also, so I prefer the shortened version.
Karl: Yeah.
Ian: Well, awesome. Well, Karl, it was a blast to have you on today. It's always great talking to you and get so much information and insights on life in Alaska. I feel like I want to get on a boat, pull a “Deadliest Catch” kind of a lifestyle, and really go for it like you did. I'm sure that those are experiences that you'll never forget and really gave you a lot of memories for your life. So hopefully, ourselves and others, our listeners, we can get up there and we can enjoy it. And like I said, you can be our Alaskan guide. That's our plan, I think.
Karl: Yeah, that sounds great. Let me know. I'll be up there.
Paige: Yeah, all paid for by Dynamic English.
Ian: Yeah, sounds good. Okay, well, once again, thanks for joining us and listeners, as always, like we said, go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.
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. enchanted (adjective): filled with delight and charm.
a. The enchanted place is somewhere you should visit.
2. to pick one’s brain (idiom): to ask someone questions to better understand something.
a. I really enjoyed sitting down with our guest today to pick his brain on life in Alaska.
3. nutshell (noun): a shortened or summarized version of something.
a. In a nutshell, tell us about your experience.
4. to spawn (verb): to release or lay reproductive eggs.
a. The salmon spawn at the same pace every year.
5. phenomenon (noun): something that is remarkable and cannot be explained clearly.
a. The phenomenon of jumping is is something incredible to see.
6. to scoop (verb): to pick up and move something.
a. He scooped up the remainders and kept on moving.
7. fathom (noun): a unit of length equal to six feet used usually to reference the depth of water.
a. The measurement came to around four fathoms which were reported to the captain.
8. to reel (verb): to bring something attached to a line, especially a fish, toward one by turning a reel and winding in the line.
a. I spent all summer reeling in fish until it became natural.
9. to pull one’s weight (idiom): to perform one’s job or role sufficiently so that the entire group functions well.
a. It’s so important to pull your own weight if you want to work well.
10. to cinch (verb): to secure something with a belt.
a. I had to cinch the net to the boat in order to secure the fish.
11. off the beaten path (idiom): in or into an isolated place.
a. There are so many places off the beaten path to explore in Alaska.
¿Alguna vez has sentido curiosidad por saber cómo es estudiar y vivir en Holanda? En este episodio 181 de tu podcast favorito, Coffee with gringos, seguimos a un Chileno que estudió música y vivió en Holanda, también compartirá sus pensamientos sobre las diferencias culturales entre Chile y Holanda. No te pierdas esta inspiradora historia de un Chileno que vivio y estudió en el extranjero! 😲
Read the full transcript here: https://www.dynamicenglish.cl/coffee-with-gringos-podcast-clases-particulares-de-ingles/episode-181-chileno-viviendo-y-estudiando-en-holanda-paises-bajos