“I CUT OFF MY BEST FRIEND”

A caller reflects on the effects that cutting off his best friend has had on the friend group. 

Later a caller describes a supernatural religious experience they had and a caller kills time while working at an empty hotel in Amsterdam.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Hey, what's up?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey? Is this the GAK?

Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is the GEK? Who is this?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Spencer? How's it going?

Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's going all right?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Man?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
What's going on with you? Spencer?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Nothing? I'm technically at work right now. I got about
nineteen minutes left on my shift.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
You got nineteen minutes left on your shift?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Exactlytes eighteen minutes now, actually just turned to three forty two.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
What do you think should we run out the clock?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I think we should. I think that's a wonderful way
to spend my time.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
All right, let's do it. Let's run out the clock. Waits,
what job do you have?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
So? I mean, I guess my job. It's like the
title makes my job sound kind of fake. You know
you ever have those kinds of jobs?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, my title is advancement assistant. I work at a
nonprofit and I basically helped them fundraise and organize volunteer
events and do some marketing for them.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So what are you doing? What are you supposed to
be doing for the next eighteen minutes?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Working on email campaigns? But technically I am done with that, so,
you know, figured i'd call you and see what you're
up to.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Wait, So why can't you just go home?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh? I am home. I work from home.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Oh okay, all right, so you like your fire, so
you don't really have to do anything for the next
seventeen minutes. No, No, all right, pretty good. Well especially,
let me ask you this, is there anything in particular
you called in to want to talk about?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I've been trying to call in for a couple
of months now. Uh. Last year I cut off or
two years ago, I completely cut off someone who was
my best friend. And I knew all my friends supported
me in doing that because I'm in a big like
friend group with him. But but now I feel like
they kind of resent me for it because they still

(01:57):
talk to him and like him, and we're on like
a big group chat still, but it's just me and him.
They don't like each other, you know. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah? Well, I mean what happened? Why don't you guys
like each other? Uh?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, it was me that cut him off first because
he was talking a bunch of crap about my girlfriend
now fiance, and then yeah, it got to be a
little too much, so kind of told him I didn't
want to talk to him anymore. And you know, he
he tried to apologize to me. I didn't really let

(02:31):
him let him do it because it was kind of
like a recurring thing. He started doing it. I told
him to stop because he started doing it in sort
of like a joking manner, but you know, it's not
really something you joke about. He was like calling her
her ugly and shit, and I'm like, all right, like like,
don't do that. That's not respectful, Like you know, you

(02:52):
shouldn't be doing that, and and you know, and he
and he kept doing that, and if you can't, I
don't want to be friends with someone that I have
to tell them, like something as simple as like, you know,
don't talk shit about my girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
You know, did your did your girlfriend ever know that
this guy was talking about her? Uh No?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I never told her and she still doesn't know. Uh
I like she knows. She's not dumb, because like I
cut off one of my best friends that she knew,
and now we're not talking and I'm not telling her why.
She can kind of put two and two together and
be like, oh, yeah, he definitely said something about me,
But I don't really want to because he's talking like

(03:35):
about her looks, So I don't want to tell her
that and then have her be all like self conscious
and stuff like that. So I guess that's my way
of justifying not telling her, even though I know deep
down I should tell her.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Oh, I don't know. I don't think you. I don't
know if you should tell her. I don't know if
like yea, you ever heard that phrase that other people's
opinions of you is none of your business.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
That's true, and this is this is someone that I
wouldn't take advice from.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
So you yeah, no, I don't think you need to.
I don't think you need to tell her that she
he was talking about her. But I think it's it's
totally justified to be like, Yo, I don't want to
hang out with this guy, but your problem is that
everybody else is still hanging out with this guy.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah. They they still like him and they're still you know,
friends with him, and I'm not like, and I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna blame him for that, Like they
didn't do anything to them. But I feel like now
that I don't like him and I don't really hang
out with him, I don't really want to hang out
with him, and they still do, it kind of just
puts an in their perspective, probably puts like an unnecessary

(04:43):
rift in the friend group.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Let me ask you that, did you ever like so
and I'm sorry maybe you said this orady, but when
he was talking about your girlfriend, and did you tell him, like, yo,
stop doing that and he just he just did did
not respond at all. Yeah, he just completely.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Fucking I told him. I'm like, I told him, like,
nobody thinks that's funny except for you, because nobody was
laughing at it. So I was like, nobody thinks that's
funny except for you. Stop. He did it like a
couple more times after that, and then it was all
because of a football game too man like his football,
like the team that he was a really big fan
of lost the game. And then he like, and I'll

(05:23):
admit I was chirping him a little bit, you know,
I was trying to I was talking a little bit
of shit, but nothing too personal. And then he just
goes and says another thing about about my fiance and
that was like my breaking point with him. So like
it was known that he did it and that I
wasn't a fan of it, and that I've told him
to stop multiple times. And then after he did it
that time, I was like, all right, I don't, like,

(05:44):
don't even bother apologizing because I don't because like, you
obviously don't mean it because I've I've told you to
stop this stuff in the past, and you haven't. So yeah,
it's a tough situation.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
And how many how many people are in the group?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I would say, like ten to twelve?

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Whoa brod? Having twelve friends is crazy?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
I know, right, it's pretty fun.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Technically eleven, Well, listen, twelve, I mean twelve, So that's
a big enough group, right that you don't have to
First of all, that's a big enough group that it
can split off into several different subgroups.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
And I mean twelve is big enough that you don't
have to really necessarily interact with or be around this
guy if you don't want to.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, exactly, And that's what it's been like. He doesn't.
We don't even live in the same state because we
all met in college and then we all graduated and
I'm living in Indiana. He's off in Illinois, so I
haven't seen him in like a good year. So like,
whenever we get together as a big group, he's there
and like, it's fine, And I told him like I
can be friendly with you, I just don't want to

(06:59):
be your friend. It's like when we're there, there's like tension.
And then whenever I'm hanging out with the people from
the group that still live in Indiana and ever, like
whenever he comes up, I can tell that there's like
that they don't really want to bring him up, even
though like I don't care if they bring him up,
but like I just feel like they kind of resent
me for for you know, holding such a grudge against

(07:23):
him for so long.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Well, where's this tension coming from? Like what's so like
tension is when like there's something you know supposed to happen,
but what's supposed to happen, there's no tension. There's really
no attension here because it's like you don't like and
it is there any way, shape or form in which
you are feeding into tension. I mean it's pretty cut

(07:46):
and dry. It's like, look, I don't you know what
is there to be they don't want to be around
this guy. I haven't.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
I never really thought of it that way. I mean,
it is kind of just I guess I guess I
could just be making most of it up in my
in my head. See, this is why I need to
because I like, I've talked to him about it before
and we've come to like an understanding obviously, But I

(08:13):
don't know. I guess I just kind of feel like
there's something left to be said, and I feel like
that might be on more on my end than everybody
else's end.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
What's the what is there left to be said? You know?
I mean you guys, you said you came to an
understanding with this guy. What does that look like?

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Yeah, the understanding that the understanding we came to. Yeah, uh,
just that that we're not friends, but when we're when
we're together with our big group, like we can we
can be friends or we can be friendly. I guess
the thing that's I'm not gonna lie, the thing that's
kind of eating me up inside of that I should
just say, punch this guy in the face when he

(08:50):
first did it, and then none of this would have happened.
We could have kind of moved past it.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you you you believe
that if you punch You believe that if you punched
this guy in the face, things would actually be better
and you guys could be friends.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Now I feel like you know, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Uh.
You know. See, when you put it that way, it
really doesn't sound that good.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
No, it doesn't make any sense at all, unless if
that's what you believe, unless if you if you genuinely
believe that if this guy, let like, all right, let's
say that this guy came to you. I mean, let's
say this guy came to you and he was like, listen, man,
I'm sorry, and you could punch me in the face
if you want. And then you punched them in the face,
would you? Could you guys be friends now.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Or or no? Maybe? See here's the sorry my water
botol just sell. But here's the thing. So this guy
actually had beef with another guy in the group that
the same year, like two years ago, and he punched
this guy. He punched the guy that I have beef
with in the face, and then they didn't talk for

(10:03):
like a couple of months, and then they were all
okay after that. I feel like if I had gotten
that aggression out when he first did it one, I
don't think he would have done it again afterwards, because
I think the problem is that he just kept on
doing it, you know, and like even though I would
tell him to stop. I feel like if I just
showed that aggression right away, like, you know, don't like,

(10:25):
don't talk shit about my girlfriend. I'm gonna punch you
in the face, then it would have squashed the beef
a lot earlier, and it would have gotten as bad
as it did. Hmm.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Okay, yeah, and well okay, so how about this, So
why don't you go up to him and be like, hey, listen,
we gotta fight. Yeah, sounds like you want to sounds
like you want to fight this guy.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
I don't want to fight him because he's a lot
bigger than me.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Maybe maybe, yeah, maybe maybe I just kind of let
this guy. You just gotta let this guy maug you.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yesh, I just let him, Just let him go after me.
I don't know, See, I don't know. It's just like
I don't know. I guess I just kind of feel
bad that I brought this tension into the friend group
and kind of kept it around myself instead of just
squashing it right away. It took me a while to
talk to him.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Well, what would that look I mean, when is the tension?
What would that look like? If you squashed the tension even.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
We would like we would be like we would be
friends with him, like we used to talk all the time.
I haven't talked to him in like two years. Other
than like we would talk like and I guess our
group chat would be a little bit more active. After
all that happened, our group chat kind of died out
and it's been kind of on it's been kind of
inactive ever since. You know, m.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, well, I mean, well, okay, so now the group
chat has to factor. Wait do you haven't talked to
this guy in two years?

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah? I like I've talked to him when we have
like our like when we all meet back up as
a group, But other than that, not I like, Okay,
I talked to him last year about the issues, and
that's why, like it's I said, like, it took me
a long time to talk to him about it, so
like I don't like I so it took me like
a year to talk to him about it. But like,

(12:37):
other than that, I've only talked to him when we're
in a group, you know.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Hm hmm, Yeah, I don't know. I guess you could
reach back out to him and be like, hey, man,
I think we have to You can either reach back
out to him and be like, hey, listen, let's let's
squash this beef. Like, are you ready to like apologize
to me? Because this is fucking us up? You know,
I mean you can't, you can.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Like I don't. The thing is, he's got like the
thing that I want to see. Like the reason I
don't want to squash it is because and this is
gonna sound kind of stupid, but I like, he hasn't
really changed as a person, and I knew that if
like I know that if he had the opportunity to
do it again, he would, like he's still kind of
the same person, and I would love to squash be

(13:20):
with him. I just want to see him kind of
change as a person and mature a little bit. And
like I again, I just haven't. I haven't really seen
that yet. Like he's still kind of on the same bullshit.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, I mean he's he's he's probably not going to
do that if he hasn't already.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, I mean we're all twenty four, so our brains
haven't fully developed yet, So there's still hope. Like and
when I told him, like when I was talking to
him about it last yek, I told him, I was like, dude,
like I like I don't want to be your friend,
like you're kind of just like I don't want to
be your friend right now, you're still just kind of
the same person. Yeah, but is this.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Really causing that much of a difficulty in the friends,
because why don't you just.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Like, after after talking to you and kind of getting
it all out there, it does really seem more like
I'm making up the tension in my own head and
if I just kind of let that go, then it
will go away itself too. So I'm thankful for that
because I haven't really because this is why I've been
calling you, because I haven't really talked to a non
biased third party about it, because everyone else that talked

(14:25):
to you about it, like knows people in the group,
you know, I.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Mean, what does everyone else say, Well, they'll they'll take.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
My side because it's obvious, like yeah, you shouldn't have
been talking about your girlfriend, right.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know sides. Here's the thing.
Taking sides is about, like ego and pride. You know,
it doesn't fucking do anything who won, who's right and
who's wrong. This is fucking doing it. This is a
logistical issue. This isn't about sides, you know, because listen,
you're right, he's wrong, he's right, you're wrong. Who gives

(14:58):
a fucking shit? You know what matters is logistically, how
do we move forward in this situation? That's what matters, right.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, So that's that's matter.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's the question to be solved because because oh, you're right,
you know, who give? So what what do you do
with that? Where do you where you cash that those
tokens in?

Speaker 2 (15:18):
You know?

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, the answer is like, well, how do you move
forward in the situation? The answer is, I don't know.
It depends on everyone and how your spirit feels and whatnot.
But I'm a big fan of the path at least resistance.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, I feel like I need I gotta like stop
dwelling on it and just kind of just kind of
move forward and be like, uh, all right, what happened?
Did happen? And it sucks, but we have come to
our understanding and we just kind of got to move
on from there.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
You have three more minutes left to work, right, I.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Do have three more minutes left of work?

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Is anyone coming for you? How's it? Where you go ahead?
I'll leave?

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Oh no, no, I'm just gonna ask you how your
day was going. I feel like I feel like we're
going to a good uh good conclusion too to my
to my problem. I've I've found clarity, You've helped me,
You've helped me find myself.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Okay, good, good, I'll take that. I'll take that to
the bank.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
How's my day going? My day's going? Okay, Yeah, that's it.
I don't know if I have anything else. I feel
like we have to. I feel like I want to.
I want to. I want to go two more minutes
with you because I want to. I said I was
going to run out this clock, and now I want to.
We got to Philly. We gotta fully do it.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, yeah, we we really do.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
How do you want to spend these last two minutes?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
I kind of want to get to know you on
a on a bit of a deeper level. I've been
listening to your podcast for so long and and like
I feel like I have you you figured out pretty well.
Like you're a social person, you like activities. But what
what else? I've been watching a lot of decks there recently,
so I'm I'm big into finding that that dark side
of people.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Oh god, what else? I let's see what can I
tell you about my dark side in the next two minutes.
One minute now, okay, one minute? Uh, I don't know.
I get depressed sometimes, but everyone knows that.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Nothing exciting nothing, I'm sorry exciting life.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
No no, no, no good?

Speaker 1 (17:37):
But uh uh is dexter good? Should I watch it?

Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think you'd like it a lot. I'm on the
fourth season right now, which is apparently the best season,
and so far so good, man, very very good. I'm
on like the seventh episode, Ship's Going Down. I feel
like you'd like it. We watch watch a couple of
episodes after you're after you're done with the stream, and
and tell me how you like it.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
What's your name again?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Spencer?

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Spencer?

Speaker 2 (18:07):
S p E N s E R?

Speaker 1 (18:09):
What what else was it supposed to? Oh?

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Ship?

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Really? Okay? I was when I thought of you, is like,
I was like, what the fuck else are you supposed
to spell Spencer with? But there's no there's an S
instead of a C.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yeah yeah, how about that? Throw a book or a
series of books?

Speaker 1 (18:28):
All right, Spencer, let's end this phone call.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
All right? You have a wonderful Is.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
There anything else you want to say to the people
of the computer before we go.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Acknowledge your tribal chief.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Acknowledge your tribal chief? Yes, what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's it's a w W reference, the only thing good
thing to say. It was kind of dumb. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
It wasn't dumb. It's just I don't know what it means.
That doesn't that's not the same.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
No, it's it's it's a lot, a lot to explain.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Okay, all right, I'll see you later, see you, Gek,
bye bye. All right, we're gonna google this. We're now.
I'm not letting this get away from us. Okay, acknowledge
it's your tribal chief. This is a w W E thing.
The phrase acknowledge your tribal chief. It's a popular catchphrase

(19:28):
used by Roman Raids, a professional wrestler who identifies as
the tribal chief. What does it mean?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (19:41):
Okay. I think it's like a cartman respect my authority thing.
I'm gonna start using that acknowledge my tribal chief. I
don't know. It feels like a weird thing for a
white guy to say, but I I don't know. It
could be fun to say.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
All from rue.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
Hello, Hello, Hi there, Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Gek?

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Not much. Man, are you? Are you the guy who
texted me I recently had a supernatural encounter with God?

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, dude, that's me.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Uh Rue is your name? That's the name of the
kangaroo from that's the name of one of the kangaroos
from Winnie the Pooh. But funk all that shit. You
you had a supernatural encounter with God? What does that
look like?

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Dude?

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Yeah? So this year has been fucking absolutely kind of
crazy for me. To be totally honest, I feel like
I've been coming into the man that God needs me
to be. I've personally found God and have been on
my walk with Him and Jesus. So yeah, I'm more

(21:02):
than willing to tell you about my experience if you're
if you're willing to listen.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, totally. You know what's funny is, I've actually been
like I go to the park a lot. I go
to the park a lot to record this podcast, and
there's always somebody who's trying to talk to people about
God and I It's like I'm always like I'll go
up to them a lot actually, and I'll talk to
them about God and stuff, and I feel like.

Speaker 5 (21:30):
What do you do you like ask do you ask
them questions or do you like, well.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, well because I feel like, well, here's the thing.
It's like in New York City, it's like, you know,
ninety nine point nine percent of people who walk past
that person, they will not look at them, you know,
because nobody wants it. But I'm you know, I'm weird,
and I'm like, I'm like, I got some time to kill.
I would rather I would rather talk to this preacher

(21:58):
for fifteen minutes than look at my phone for fifteen minutes.
That's the main reason I'm doing it.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
I learned some stuff.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
I feel like a lot of people who represent faith
and represent God have kind of tainted his name, and
I've been a victim of that myself. If it weren't
for the encounters that I've had with him this year,
I would have been in the same boat. You know.
I've totally rejected God as a whole and the idea

(22:32):
of him just because of the hypocrisy around the faith
and the hypocrisy that people have brought to it. So like,
I totally get why people are super dodgy around it
because I've been there myself. But yeah, it's cool that
you are open to the idea of whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well sort of, well, okay, so I'll say, and I
want to t I talk too much about myself, but
I I want to get to your encounters. But well,
I talked to one dude I think I want to say.
It was like a they're getting funky. Used to be
like there's there's Jewish, Christian and Muslim, and now it's like, no,
he can be you know, there's a lot of funky

(23:15):
mixed religions. And I was talking to some guy I
think he was. He was Jewish. He was Jewish, and
we're talking about God. I don't know, I can't he's
kind of I don't know what exactly what he was,
but he wasn't fully Jewish. I don't know what he was.
But he liked God and he was like talking about
I I'm not there's a few things I'm not sold on.

(23:37):
I'm not sold on heaven and Hell. I'm not sold
on heaven in Hell because I feel like, so we're
all in God's image theoretically right, and so if we're
all in God's image, I almost I've I've lately have
taken on a bit of a deterministic point of view
of the world. And so like, you know, any any

(23:58):
evil that exists on the planet is almost like of God,
you know, if we're all made of God. So it's
like those two the idea that we're all created by God,
but that we also uh can make these sort of
decisions as mortals, that landis in heaven or hell. It doesn't.

(24:20):
It feels a little weird to me. I mean also,
it's like a way of completely of like absolving yourself
of any I do think humans probably maybe have choice
in things, but a lot of that deterministic. But anyway, anyway,
I don't know I'm getting I'm too much on myself.
What what was your encounter with God?

Speaker 5 (24:37):
This is this is this is the way the conversation
is flowing. Let's let's keep it going, Okay.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
So I can style, I can.

Speaker 5 (24:44):
I can only speak on my own experiences. Like I said,
I'm new in the faith, so I'm a horrible person
to give facts. I can only speak on on my
own accord. But as far as I understand it, you
say that you you're not sold on the whole heaven

(25:06):
and hell thing. So my idea of it is everything
that's wrong with the world is the absence of God. Right,
God in in itself is love, God in in itself
is wholeness. Okay, so hell itself and everything bad in
the world is the absence of God. In my own head, Okay,

(25:28):
there's a lot of there's a lot of scripture that
I can quote that can back it. I actually don't
have my notepad with me. I have a lot of
that in there.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, I get it, I get it. I get it.
I always I get it as like an allegory, Like
you don't even like to believe in what you're saying.
I don't even think you have to believe in anything
beyond uh, the empirical.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
To find empirical, because I have no idea what the fuck.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
I mean, Like, I'm I don't know the whole thing
of Like, you don't have to believe in anything supernatural,
I think to believe in what you're saying, because everything
you're saying is just allegorical, Like God is just God
is just being nice at that point, you know.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
Right, Okay, I see what you're saying. But yeah, God, okay, Yeah,
So I guess I'll just kind of open up about
my experience. So in the beginning of the year when
I actually have had a few encounters with God himself
this year or just like the presence of what is holy.

(26:37):
So in the beginning of the year, I at the
end of last year, I went through a horrible breakup.
I went through kind of just like a really horrible
time in life, and I felt that God called me
to him through kind of just like the people around me,

(26:59):
kind of opened up my eyes as to who He
is through his creation, you know, like I look around
everything that is and ever was, and everything is so
perfectly fine tuned that I say to myself, how can
there not be a God?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
You know?

Speaker 5 (27:17):
And I feel like God opened up himself through that
kind of opened up my eyes that fact.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm such
an asshole. But is everything so perfectly fine tuned?

Speaker 5 (27:37):
Well as far as like the chaos and everything in
the world, but like at yourself, get your brain, your heart,
everything nature, the bees flying around me right and there's
literally a bee flying in my face right now. Sorry,
you know, just stuff like that, Like you go to
like a waterfall and everything is running in fine tune

(28:03):
and all of that. I understand what you're saying. Like
the the bad things in the world, you know, is
that kind of what you're getting asked to? You don't
think that things are are finely tuned?

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, I mean I don't think things are perfect, and
they've never been, but I I I'll things are good.
I think they're but they're like, for as bad as
they are, they're pretty Like I'm surprised that the world
functions as well as it does currently, even though there's like, uh,

(28:39):
you know, war and uh famine all as bad stuff.
It's like the fact that you know, I mean, it's
not gonna be a hundred set perfect, but the fact
that it functions as well as it does currently.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
It's pretty pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
It's pretty crazy. I agree with that. I'll buy that.
I'll buy that.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
Yeah, I think the idea of consciousness in it itself
is fucking crazy. Like I remember being a kid and
gaining consciousness. I don't remember when it was, but I
remember gaining consciousness and being like what is this, you know,
and looking at myself and being like like, I'm a

(29:16):
person and I'm experiencing I'm experiencing this experience and everything
just kind of works, you know.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Okay, So you were going through some time. So let's
get a little less philosophical, a little bit more personal.
So you were going through some stuff and then you
know what happened. How did you kind of you seem
you strike me as a peaceful and optimistic gentleman. How
did you arrive there?

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah? Man, thank you.

Speaker 5 (29:52):
I still struggle with the peaceful and optimistic part of life.
If I'm being totally honest with you, Okay, I will
open up about a specific thing that I've been kind
of going through. So I've been real big into the

(30:14):
reeve scene. Okay, I've been real big into the reeve
scene the last like three years of my life, which
I feel like God right now in the current point
of where I'm at, is telling me to step back
from that.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
I'm not really sure how this correlates to what we're
speaking of if I'm being totally honest, but I just
feel like I just feel like I should say it. Okay.
So I've been in this circle for the longest time. Okay,
over the last like month or so two months of
my life, I have just felt a really uneasy and

(30:55):
just like dark presence in those areas. Okay, as far
as drugs go, you know, I've been in a struggling
addict since I've been like sixteen years old, pretty much
have tried everything in the book. Just people around me

(31:16):
have pulled me down to some dark places regarding the
rave scene and all of that. But yeah, I recently
the encounter that I've I'm speaking of kind of had
a lot to do with that and about my struggles
with addiction. I was sitting in my well, hold on.

(31:41):
I had a weekend where I went out, Okay, okay,
hold on, hold on, hold on, gek, I'm getting ahead
of myself.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Let me backpedal.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
So I came to God in the beginning of the year, okay,
and I cut off a lot of that stuff for
a long time, and then I went back to it.
I fell back into old habits. I fell back into
a lot of drugs, and I fell back into a
lot of that kind of stuff and felt myself kind

(32:13):
of floating away from God.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Now I had a.

Speaker 5 (32:17):
Mentor for the longest time, and he reached out to
me and kind of asked me how things were going,
and I opened up to him. I was like, yeah, man,
I fell this is where I'm at. And so he
set a date a few weeks ago, like a few
mondays ago, and he was like, I'm coming to get you.

(32:39):
We're gonna talk things out, and I must see where
you're at. So I told myself, come Monday, this is it. Okay,
Come Monday, I'm going in and I'm looking back to God. Okay. Now,
the weekend before that Monday geck was the craziest weekend

(33:03):
I've ever had in my life. I went out and
almost it almost felt like I had to get it
all out of my system.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
You know.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
I went crazy. I did everything. And there's a story
in the Bible where the devil takes Jesus Christ around
and about and he tests him. He tells him make
these rocks into bread. If you are Jesus Christ himself,

(33:39):
throw yourself off of this sledge, and the angels of
God will catch you for it says, a foot will
not strike a rock.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (33:53):
The devil tempted Jesus Christ with all of these things
in that moment, and I felt like I was in
the exact same situation that weekend. It was the craziest thing.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
The devil tempted Jesus to jump off a fucking cliff. Yeah,
that's more of a day or than a temptation.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
That's more it was like, yeah, yeah, the way I
ordered it kind of sounds like that.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Man, but uh so the devil, the devil.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
It was more like it was more like prove yourself.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah the devil shit tested him.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
Yeah yeah, it was more like prove yourself. Okay, anyway, Yeah,
so I went through something very similar to that the
weekend before that Monday, Man, I told myself, I was like,
come Monday, this is it. I'm walking back in ghek.

(34:54):
Let me tell you about this weekend. Okay, I've never
in my life had so many women thrown at me.
I've never in my life had so much put in
front of my face. I had so many drugs offered
to me, I had so many friends offered to me.

(35:16):
Like typically a regular like night of me going out
and like raving and going crazy, I go to a rave, uh,
get fucked up and go home. But this specific night, man,
I got like connected to a lot of people, and
I've got I got connected to a lot of like

(35:39):
people in the scene in my area in Charlotte, and
it almost felt like the devil was kind of like
showing me what he had to offer you. Know if
I like went this way.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Okay, and so all right, so let me like, I'm
gonna like your story so far is okay. So you
were not doing well, you had a mentor sponsor, let's
say almost, and uh, your sponsored was like okay on Mondays.
You call your sponsor Friday Monday, He's like, all right,
we're gonna come down, we're gonna talk. And then you're like,
all right, before I, you know, start getting my shit

(36:16):
together with this guy, I'm gonna go out for the weekend.
And you go out and the devil starts tempting you
with with with drugs and women, and yeah, okay, and
then what happened? What happens? What happens? Come Monday.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
So Monday had an even pain geck comes Sunday, Okay, Sunday.
I was coming down off of a lot of shit, okay,
and I was going a little crazy, man. I was
low key spiraling. And there was a like, I want

(36:57):
to say, like a four hour period Sunday night after
just being depressed all day because I went crazy the
weekend before where I felt genuinely felt like I was
going fully manic, and it was honestly really scary Gek.

(37:18):
So I'm gonna just give this pretense for absolutely no reason.
I meal prep my breakfast in the morning, okay, Okay.
So I was out of groceries at like ten PM.
I was like, oh shit, I need to go get
groceries to meal prep breakfast in the morning.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
I go.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
And get groceries, get back to my house with said groceries.
I'm sitting in my driveway. I shut my truck off.
I'm sitting in my driveway and I do not feel well, Gek.
I feel horrible, I feel sick, I feel heavy. My

(38:05):
soul feels heavy. Okay. And there was a solid hour
where I felt these presences. Okay, I don't want to
I want to call them demons, geg, but I don't
want to give him a name. But they felt heavy, dude.

(38:28):
They felt so heavy, so dark. And I'm sitting in
my truck and it felt genuinely felt like God himself,
Jesus Christ himself was looking down on me and looking
at all of this unfold. Okay. I have never in

(38:54):
my whole life felt a presence like that. And I
could you know what the crazy thing, Gek is is
that I could differentiate. Okay, I could differentiate set presences.
Like I said, I felt these presences, these dark beings

(39:16):
around me, okay, and I knew that they themselves were
dark and evil, But I could also differentiate the presence
and the holiness of God in that moment, and I

(39:37):
felt God looking at me and watching all of this
unfold and watching me go crazy. Okay, These said dark
presences genuinely were making me go crazy gek And I
don't know how else to explain it other than they

(39:58):
were telling me I was going and crazy. There was
a voice in my head screaming at me to call
nine one one, screaming at me to screaming at me,
telling me that I'm going into psychosis, full blown psychosis.

(40:19):
And I can't help but feel like something left me
that night.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Did you call nine one one?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
No?

Speaker 5 (40:31):
I did not. I can't help but feel like something
genuinely left me that night. I don't know if God
called it out of me, if God called it out
of my soul, but it feels like God told me
to lock in for real, as corny and weird as

(40:53):
that sounds, and so God.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
And so what happened, and so what happens on myny
when you went to go see your person.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
Man, so I was kind of creeping up on that.
But like I said, it felt like I was going crazy.
When I talked to my mentor, he was like, yeah, man,
I have one seen this. He told me that he

(41:25):
wasn't expecting me to come out of my house. He
had this exact same situation happened with like some woman
that he was like pulling trying to help out of
the pits of addiction. And it was the same kind
of thing where he reached out and he said, I'm

(41:49):
coming to get you and we're going to talk it out.
The day that he came and got her, her peers
said that she tried to overdose the the night before.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
You know.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
And I can't help but think that I crossed paths
with the same kind of entities. I don't want to
call them that were trying to convince me that I
was going crazy. And because think about it, Gig, had
I called nine one one, had I gave in, okay,

(42:30):
I wouldn't have went with my mentor.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
You know, And you're never hold on, You're not You're
not gonna, You're not gonna. I I think, if if
you have a voice, I'm gonna go ahead and say,
if you have a voice in your head screaming at
you to call nine one one, shourobably do it?

Speaker 5 (42:51):
Yeah, that's the thing, man, that's the thing. But this
ship is real, and I will everybody.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I'm gonna I'll let you, I'll let you, I'll let
you finish before we go.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Okay, Okay, okay, okay, I want to I do, and
I am very interested in your input. But I will
say to everybody listening, okay, and I would really appreciate
if everybody went at this with an open heart and

(43:27):
open mind, because this ship is scarily.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Real, y'all. Okay, but God loves you.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Okay, God loves you, and he wants the absolute best
for you. And I'm coming from the most genuine place
in Ruth's heart.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Okay, well, Rue, listen, listen. Uh here, here's here's the thing.
And I'm gonna just I'm sorry because I've let you
run off alone.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
Man, I've been I've been rambling.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
There's a lot.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure, and I'm gonna what do
I think? Well, it's hard because I'm deeply agnostic at
this point. I don't know what is up and what
is down or whatnot? But do I think, I mean,
I actually know what I think is probably that if

(44:21):
you really want to know what I think, I think
you had uh some kind of psychological issue caused by
doing too many drugs. That's that's That's probably what I believe.
But I I just hope you're okay. I hope you're
like doing fine, and I hope that you're not doing
too many Just as long as you're safe, you know,

(44:45):
as long as you're not doing too many drugs, you're
not fucking killing yourself over things. You know, that's good.
But I I I appreciate you you calling and sharing
your story.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Rue.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Is there anything else do you want to say to
the people of the computer before we go?

Speaker 5 (45:05):
Yeah, I'm gonna repeat myself.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (45:10):
God loves you, Okay, God loves everybody in the world,
and he wants the best for you if he wants
to see you succeed whatever it is that you're going through. Sobriety,
that's what it is for me, Okay. But I know
I receive calmness, I receive tranquility in my soul knowing

(45:38):
that there is a God out there who wants the
best for me and that's it.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Uh, well, thank you for calling, Ru. I'll see you
around the universe.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
Yeah, Man, love you get I listened to you all
the time. Thanks, and I hope I get to speak
to you again.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Goodbye, have a good night, Rue.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
I maybe rushed them off the foot, but I don't
think I did it. We talked, We got a good
That was a good twenty eight minutes of talk. Well,
I think I don't know. I'm a little irritable right now.
I don't know why. I think I just am feeling
I'm coffeed up. But I mean that, you know, I

(46:22):
I don't. I don't know, man, I mean I know
a little bit right. I like thinking about God. I
like thinking about mainly I think about God as an
allegory more so than of like a genuine spiritual demon.
I mean, I think a lot of that stuff is
hallucinations and whatnot. But again, I don't know. I appreciate

(46:46):
Rue for sharing, and I wish him good luck. Hello,
gig Hey, what's up?

Speaker 5 (46:54):
Man?

Speaker 1 (46:54):
What's your name?

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Hello?

Speaker 4 (46:56):
My name is Bruno.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Bruno. Yeah, Yes, what's up? What's up?

Speaker 4 (47:03):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Is it going?

Speaker 4 (47:04):
I'm I'm actually working at the moment I'm at the
hotel and I'm calling from the from the phone of
the hotel.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
It's just kind of crazy.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
We're not gonna because I spend way too much money
if I do it from my phone.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yet, we're not going to get you in trouble, are we?

Speaker 4 (47:20):
No, not at all, not at all, Not at all.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Not at all.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah. I mean the way from what I understand about
European customer service is that it's like, uh, if you
could go to check in at a hotel in Europe
and then if the guy at the front desk is like,
I cannot stuck right now, I'm talking to the gickle,
then uh, they just have to eat. They have to
eat ship. Yeah, they have to eat ship.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
They care y.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Yes, Yes, that was a very I'm not good at
I'm not good at accent, so that was kind of
like a Russian I feel Russian.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
Really. That's funny because a lot of people I'm Portuguese,
by the way, I'm from Portugal, a lot of people
say that people that don't understand Portuguese, it sounds like
drunk Russian, which is a common comment that I have
from guests here, including Yeah, I would say the name

(48:13):
of the hotel because that is probably going to get
him get in trouble. But I'm going to try to
disclose that.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
That's the best I can.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
What kind of hotel is this? Is this a popular
hotel or is it? Is it dead enough that you
can take this phone call.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
Yeah, it's bad enough that I can take this phone
call because it's a long stay hotel. It's like a
department hotel. A lot of people come in here to
do just like temporary work, like a lot of people
that work in the servers and data servers come here,
often to just the state instead of renting a house
because in Amsterdam it's pretty rough to get a rental apartment.

(48:53):
I'm from Portugal, but I'm actually living in Amsterdam, so
a little bit more context.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Yeah, yeah, cool, I love Amsterdam Man. Amsterdam is one
of my favorite cities in the world.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
Yeah, you were here doing the talk in Vondelpark, and
I was I didn't know, and then I went there
super fast to see if I could catch you still,
but nobody was there, so.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
So Bruno, I was.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
Yes, I'm actually I'm a little star struck. I'm sorry
because I called a bunch of times and every time
the voice memo came up, I thought it was actually you,
so I got fooled like three times.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
This is me, brother, this is me. Well let me
ask you this Bruno is and it's okay. If not,
we can just shoot the ship. But is there anything
in particular that you called in to want to talk about.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
I just wanted to personally thank you for all the
all the company that you've been keeping me in here.
Because I moved from Portugal to the Netherlands by myself.
You have to wait like a year to actually find
the house and be here with my girlfriend. But that
year was very lonely, and I found your podcast and

(50:09):
I heard like the two most recent ones, and then
I went all the way back to the bottom, and
it was like it was kind of like watching a series,
you know, listening to a series, like every day. I
listened tolad ly too, so much that I kept I
kept up until now. So now every week I'm waiting
for you to drop an episode, and every time I

(50:30):
get the opportunity to call, every time I see the story,
it is too late, You're already not on the stream,
or the line is not open anymore. So yeah, this
was my chance. I took it and you picked up
and I'm very happy about it.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Fuck yeah, that's awesome. That's I'm I'm super happy to
hear that you've listened to a whole motherfucking catalog. Yes, well,
let me ask you. I have questions. It's okay, it's okay.
I have questions about your life, Bruno. So you moved here?
Please do? Please do?

Speaker 4 (51:01):
I waited so long to be in this position. Aly, shit,
let me know.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, So you.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Moved to Amsterdam alone? You said yes? And does your
girl and you mentioned you have a girlfriend? Does your
girlfriend live with you in Amsterdam? Now?

Speaker 4 (51:18):
Yes? Right now?

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Okay? And how long were you living in Amsterdam alone
before she came?

Speaker 4 (51:27):
I came here in the summer of twenty twenty two,
and she came around and I think late May, beginning
of June of twenty twenty three. And what was it
like for it was not a full year, but it.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Was almost yet What was it like for you when
you were just here by yourself?

Speaker 4 (51:49):
It was a little lonely. Dutch people are a little
cold and straightforward, so it was kind of hard to
make friends at the beginning, because that's straightforwardness and direct
directness if that makes any sense.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Oh, I'm back to the Dutch directness. Yeah, that's like
their whole thing.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
Yeah, because I got it. I got it wrong because
I thought they were just being rude randomly to me.
I was like, dude, I can't I can't deal with this.
But time passed and I realized that that's just their
personality trait and it's just how they are. So yeah,
that's it. That was the I think that was the
most difficult thing that I had to adapt. And the

(52:33):
food culture is very bad also, they don't have decent
gastronomy here. I lost a lot of weights. I used
to weigh well I don't know the pounds stuff, but
I used to I used to weigh one hundred and
five kilos and now I'm down to eighty two. And
I didn't do any gym or what not. So just

(52:55):
from the adaptation to the to the food culture in here.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
Yeah, Well what do you think about the feb What
is it? Pebot febo? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Yeah, that's my go to. Yeah, if I have to
eat Dutch food, I go to.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Yeah that's the For those who don't know, that's the
like fast food fried shit that they got over there,
the fried croquettes.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
Yeah, and it's like self service. You pass the cars
on the machine and the little door opens and you
just pick up your food. There's no people involved.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
So how is life for you now?

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Lately? It's been weird because I feel like I'm kind
of stuck in this routine because I work at the hotel,
as I mentioned, and I live in the same streets
as the hotel, so sometimes it's I feel like I
don't leave my streets because the supermarket is also here,
and a bunch of stuff at home also, So I

(54:03):
don't know, it's weird. I've been feeling stuck in this
routine and I've been trying to find something to kind
of break out of it. I contacted a personal trainer
to try to make me a workout program so I
can start working out or something. I started playing far
Cry five, which I never did, and I'm doing it now,
So I don't know. I'm just trying to change my
routine around a little bit because I feel like I

(54:24):
never leave the street. But overall life is going great. Yeah.
Me and my girlfriend and are saving up for a house.
We don't know where yet. Maybe we're going to buy
in Portugal. I don't know, because here the prices are
insane also to purchase houses. Yeah, man, just day by
day going.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
So why did you move to Amsterdam? Why didn't you
just find a job in Portugal? Is there something better
about Amsterdam?

Speaker 4 (54:54):
Yes, mainly the wages. The wages are way bigger. The
minimum wages in Portugal is at I'm not mistaken, is
eight hundred and fifty something like that, and the minimum
well at one point eight k. So it's a thousand
a thousand euros different. So it's it's a big difference.

(55:16):
I'm twenty eight. I moved here when I was twenty wait,
twenty five? Yeah, sorry, that was embarrassing. Uh move here
at twenty five? I mean yeah, just saving up money.
I'm gonna try to get a house either here or
in Portugal, and yeah maybe a kid in the meantime,

(55:38):
who knows.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
That could be cool, That could be cool. What do
you speak any Dutch? Do you learn any Dutch?

Speaker 4 (55:46):
I've been trying, but it's super complicated, super super complicated.
I know I'll speak Portuguese, Spanish and English. Like Portuguese
is my native language, so I speak it perfectly, but
the other two I speak it almost natively. But Dutch.
I've been trying to practice, but it's hard. It's very hard.

(56:07):
I know the how's it called, the conversations at the moment,
like saying thank you and you're welcome and goodbye and
those that type of stuff. I know, But these people
try to get in conversations with me. I'm like, sorry, sorry, No,
it's very complicated, especially for people that have like Latino

(56:31):
languages has their base. It's very very different. And yeah,
I already know three languages, so it's kind of hard
and classes are very expensive.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Yeah, what's the deal with your girlfriend? Where is she
also Portuguese? And what's she doing?

Speaker 4 (56:54):
She is Italian. We met in Lisbon. I was living
in Luson for a year before the pandemic, before no,
while the pandemic was happening, and pretty much she was
doing at asthmo's program in there, which is like an
abroad student program here in Europe. Yeah, we met in there.

(57:18):
Then she had to go back to Italy. I had
to go back to my hometown and we were split
it for like two years. I was constantly going to Italy,
she was constantly coming to Portugal, and with the COVID
stuff that happened at time, it was super hard. I
had to test pretty much every week to be sure
that fly, you know. But yeah, she actually got me

(57:40):
this job at this hotel because I had a pretty
shitty job in a warehouse in here, and she wanted
to leave for a five star hotel because this is
a three star hotel. So she left and she gave
me her job. Yeah, and now I'm chilling.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Oh, she left her job and then gave it to you.

Speaker 4 (58:01):
Pretty much.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Yeah, can you just do that?

Speaker 4 (58:05):
No, But I knew because I came here to visit her,
like as you can tell, I've been speaking to you
for some minutes now, and nobody came here to ask
me anything.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
That's a very good point. That's a very good point.
I am very surprised that nobody I asked you to
do your job in the.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
Past because I also lived close by, as I mentioned before,
So every time she was working and I was home,
I would just come here to chill with her. And
eventually I got to know the manager. So when I
got in a sensitive position when it came to my job,
I told a guy like, hey, Sanna's leaving could I

(58:45):
possibly take over her place? And they gave me, like
they give me a mini interview, get like some background
checks and stuff, and yeah, now I'm here being a
host in a hotel. I never studied like a hospitality
or anything. They just said, oh you.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Cool, you can come, and I'm here, okay, And I've been.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Enjoying the It was very nice. I mean, I meet
a lot of people from the US, which I find
interesting because a lot of my base, uh knowledge, if
you could call it that, Like a lot of stuff
that I consume comes from the US. So I know
a lot of stuff, a lot of like I don't know.
Ask me a question, a general question of American culture,

(59:30):
like pop culture or something.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Ask you a general question. I don't even know that
much about American pop culture, to be honest with you. Uh, well,
what do you what a what do you think about Americans?
Like what's the perception of Americans over there? Because I
have to gander it's not it. I don't know if
it's amazing right now? Is it?

Speaker 4 (59:50):
It depends when Okay, think everything and I'm going to say,
with a pinch of salt, Okay, when Americans come with
a family to vacation. They're by far the most annoying ones. Definitely.
They keep trying to get compensations, like, hey, the air
conditioning was two degrees more than I wanted to. I

(01:00:13):
want fifty percent of the total price. Yeah, like a refund.
You know, that's very common in American guests, but the
majority are very very like when young people, younger people come,
they're very I don't like to say open, I don't
that's not the right word. But easy, too easy to
talk to, like they're always up for a conversation, for

(01:00:36):
a coffee, like they ask recommendations. They do like small talk.
But when a family comes around, it's no, it's a
bit of a nightemare. So it's fifty fifty to be honest,
final answer, fifty fifty. I like Americans when there was
a family not.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Really okay, so there so we got a lot of
care and energy coming in. When you see somebody with
a fan family.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
A little yeah, because it always comes from the mom,
you know, m h And yeah that's my that's my
review on an American guests.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
What's your relationship like with your family?

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
Oh, I have an amazing relationship with my family. Yeah,
I speak to them like at least two times a
day to my When I say my family, I say
my parents and my sister. All the other family members
are a little out of the picture because of some
family problems. But yeah, the relationship with my family is

(01:01:37):
top notch. I don't think a lot of people can
say that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Yeah, it's becoming a little bit more rarer of a thing.
And do they still live in Portugal or are they
somewhere else?

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
Yes, sir, they still live in Portugal. Yeah. My sister
is also thinking of getting out of the country more
as a as an experience sort of thing. You know,
she's twenty three and she's been living with my parents forever,
so she wants kind of to get out there and
experience some real life stuff, if you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Have you ever been to the States?

Speaker 4 (01:02:15):
No, but I would love to. I'm planning a trip
to New York because I met a guest here. His
name is His name is Jason. Shout out Jason if
he's listening. I don't know if he's a fan of
the therapy Gecko, but yeah, yeah, I've been speaking to
him a lot, and I'm I think I'm visiting Washington, Yes, so.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Wow, Oh, so you met a guest he invited you
to like come stay with him and ship.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
Yes, because he was living here in the Netherlands some
years ago and he came to He came for a trip,
just like a nostalgia trip because he's retired already and stuff.
But it was super nice and every time he saw
me around, he just here in the front desk talking
to me. And I really quick clicked to the guy
because he really reminded me of my dad when he

(01:03:07):
was more young, and we were just talking. Every day
he would pass, he will say hi to me, he
will stay here, and I will just spend almost the
whole shift with a guy just talking to him. And
I also told him this, like everything that I'm a
fan of, pretty much the ninety percent of the times
comes from the US, and I'm really amazed by everything

(01:03:30):
by like I don't know, the little things like the
yellow taxis, the fucking school buses, like just aesthetic in general,
you know. And I kept telling him that, and he
was like, you have to come to my house. You
have to come to my house, bring your girlfriend and
your parents if you want to. And I'm like that
I never went to the US, so I guess first
stop is going to be Washington.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Yeah, super cool DC.

Speaker 4 (01:03:53):
And it's different, right, Washington State and Washington DC.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Washington DC is over on the East coast.
Washington State is on the west coast.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Oh it's DC then yeah, yeah I can't. I can't. Yeah,
I have to keep an eye out to that yet.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
But yeah, I mean you could cover a lot of
good ground. You got Washington, d C. There's New York City,
there's Philadelphia. You can have a nice trip in just
those three cities.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
Yes, yes, that's kind of what I wanted to do,
to kind of do like the East Coast from top
to bottom, not really from top to bottom, but that
as many places as I can. Yeah, I'm thinking when
next summer. Fun fact, I never left Europe. Really, I
don't even have a passports?

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
Yeah really wait but do you need? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
WHI?

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
So what kind of you don't have, like a Portuguese passport?
You have an EU?

Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
How do you? How do you like you don't need
a passport to travel between the European countries, do you?

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
No, we don't. We just need to have our ID
from our country.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
We call it citizen cards because it's like all in one.
It's your ide, it's your social security stuff. In some cases,
there's also the driver's license in there mmmmm and a
UNI document. Pretty much.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Where where would you want to go if you could
go anywhere? Is it the US or is there somewhere
somewhere higher on your list?

Speaker 4 (01:05:19):
There's definitely stuff higher on my list. So I would
love to go to Brazil, though. Brazil is kind of
like my I mean destination, Yeah, to go visit, like
the but like not the hill the gene do not
like Bayia, not the main cities. I want to go

(01:05:40):
to the heart of Brazil, to the jungle.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Interesting, Yeah, you want to go to the jungle.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
That's well again take that with a pinch of salt.
Not really the jungle, but I would like to explore
like the nature in there. You know, it's very different
from what we have in Portugal and in the Netherlands.
And I'm a nature guy. I like to be in
the middle of the tree. So yeah, not.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
A lot of not a lot of good hike. Not
a lot of good hiking in DC and New York City.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
I don't No, it's just for the fact that I
never went. I want to see the stuff that I see,
you know, through my phone, through my screens on in
front of me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
Kind of what's the number one thing that you have
seen on your phone that you would want to see
in person.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
That's a rough question. Uh oh, that's tough. I don't know.
I don't know. Damn, you just put me on the spot.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
That's okay, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
I guess just arriving and take it in.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
I guess. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
I feel like a lot of for I mean, for me,
A lot of China's stuff comes up on my Instagram,
a lot, like a lot of like weird, crazy architecture
comes up where it's like here's a whole fuck yeah,
like stuff where it's like here's a whole like like
a garden and a whole like big giant park that's

(01:07:15):
like on the roof of this crazy building. And usually
that stuff is.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Either in oh what you mean?

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
Yeah, yeah, Usually a lot of stuff when I'm like, well,
where the fuck is this crazy thing? It's in China.

Speaker 4 (01:07:26):
Yeah, it's like layers. Do you think you're on the
ground floor and then you go to the edge of
the building and you're actually in like the thirty fifth
floor or something.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
Mm hmmm hm.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
Do I've seen some beats about that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Yeah. Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Do you get a lot of time off in uh
in Amsterdam at this hotel or are you working a lot?

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
I have the average. I have two days two days
off a week. Sometimes they are not together, which sucks
because it doesn't doesn't really seem like a weekend. That's fine.
As long as I have my two three days during
the week, that's that's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
What are you doing?

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
And again, I've been speaking to you for twenty two minutes, right,
and I just gave a person a package and that's
that's all.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
Yeah, So what are you normally like? Okay, so on
your days off and when you're just kind of fucking
around and nobody's bothering you, what do you normally do?

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
What can you? Can you repeat the question please, it's
to kind of cut off a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Oh, on your days off? What do you do?

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
A bunch of stuff? Like I told you that, I'm
trying to change my ways a little bit. I started
working out, even though I'm waiting for my personal trainers
to send me the correct training plan, but I started
doing some workout stuff. There's some outdoor, like those outdoor
exercise places that are in random park sometimes, you know.

(01:08:56):
I started working out in those because gyms are a
bit expensive in here. I started playing Xbox. I bought
an Xbox for like one hundred eros, like a series
X I believe, Yeah, like the last generation Xbox with
the slim version with mega cheap. So I just bought it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
And yeah, what you've been playing on the Xbox.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
I've been playing Fair Cry five because it was on
discounts and I already played the six and it was amazing.
I really liked it. I never played the five, so
I just downloaded it. It was on the Game Pass
for free, so I just did it and I've been
playing it yet. I also do some I've been I
haven't been doing a lot of that now, but I
do a lot of photography and video editing. My computer

(01:09:45):
is messed up and I need to save up either
to fix it or to buy a new one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Well, I'm glad to hear that your job is very
I mean, it sounds easy. It sounds if I think
if you were able to talk to me twenty four
minutes and nobody's bothered you, your job sounds like it's
pretty chill, So I'm happy to hear that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Yes, I'm also glad that I found this. The other
job that I had was hectic. It was like in
the warehouse, it was cold, it was like I was
twelve hours of a day. Sometimes it was a little
messed up. This one is way way chiller.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
I just need to get my computer fixed so I
can work on some stuff while i'm here, because otherwise
I get very very bored sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
What kind of videos are you editing?

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Just?

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
Nothing is in specific. For example, I have a video
that I liked that somebody did and I downloaded it
and I tried to train my editing skills on that
video and do something that I like with it. You know,
it's nothing. It's just for fun, honestly.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Well, well listen, Bruno, what it's like the You ever
seen the movie Bruno?

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Yes? I did.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
When I was in in like the fifth grade. I
was when that movie came out. I was pointed at
a lot, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
What I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Yeah, movie probably ruined your life. Well, Bruno, it's been nice.
It's been nice talking to you. Man. Is is there
anything else that? Is there anything else that you want
out of this conversation? That I can provide for you
before we go.

Speaker 4 (01:11:33):
No, what what you could provide that I wanted you
already did. I just wanted to give you a huge
shout out for the company you kept me in that
first year. Thank you here in the Netherlands. And uh,
You're an amazing person. I hear you constantly through my
headphones and I've been looking forward for this moment for
a long ass time. So I'm glad I finally got

(01:11:54):
to talk to you. And if you ever come to
answer them again, I will definitely go to your show.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
Yeah, okay, man, that's good to know. If I ever
do come back.

Speaker 4 (01:12:04):
Yes, yes, because last time you were here, I wasn't
able to buy the tickets. I was again, I was
working that shitty job. I had no time, so I
couldn't go. Yeah, but if you come again, front Row,
I'm there, trust.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Beautiful, beautiful. Okay, Well, hopefully I'll see you that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Yes, Yes, I hope, I hope. I hope too.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
So sorry, I'll cut you around the universe, Bruno. Good luck,
good luck with the rest. I hope nobody continues to
come into the hotel so you don't have to do anything.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
Well until now, there's just some people having dinner and
that's it. Yeah, thank Bruno, take care but bye, but
buye people of the computer.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
That was Bruno. What a nice guy. What a nice
guy hanging out in Amsterdam at a hotel. The Europeans, man,
they got, they got a much better work culture than us.
I got the Japanese and the Americans have shit work cultures,
and then you got you got Europeans who just though

(01:13:09):
don't have to do anything, it's pretty cool, goes on the.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
Line taking your phone calls every night, never goes do
what his ride.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
He's teaching you cloud in

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
Them of your life, but he's not really an expert.