WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to get better in their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

Today I have for you two small stories that are connected by the same theme. And that theme is the flying insect that stings you. I am talking about bees and wasps. Bees are little creatures that can hurt you only once because they leave their sting in your body and then die. But wasps are worse – they can sting you as many times as they want and then fly away. 

Of course, bees have stung me many times but only two experiences are worth sharing so let’s go.

The first one is from the time I was about 11 or 12 and I was on a summer scout camp. Yes, if you don’t know it yet, I was a scout for the majority of my life and went to many many scout camps. So, let’s go back to about 15 years ago and imagine children standing on a big grass field, the sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day. We were all in the process of playing a game called softball.

Maybe one more thing that you don’t know about me is that I used to be super competitive. I always put everything into every game because the adrenaline rushed through my veins and I just wanted to win so badly. And I hated losing. Every time, it was my turn, I just wanted to perform my best and not let my team down. I took the bat, threw the ball, and then hit it. It flew quite nicely and I shot off and ran to the first base as quickly as I could. But because I was sprinting, I was breathing with my mouth open. Well, one bee at that moment decided to fly into my mouth and sting me right into my tongue.

Then the panic started. I stopped running, closed my mouth and started choking and still felt the bee in my mouth. I spat it out and my tongue started swelling and I still could feel the sting in it – swelling means that it was getting bigger. 

Thank god I am not allergic because I don’t think anyone could have taken me to the hospital fast enough. But because I am not allergic, nothing bad happened. My tongue was just really big, I couldn’t speak very well for the next day but then it was okay. But since then I always run with my mouth closed.

The second story is from a few months ago, I think like October. I went on my usual daily walk to the park. I was wearing my sports bra and a hoodie on top of it as it wasn’t a t-shirt weather but still, it wasn’t so hot. As I was walking in the park, I realized that I needed to call my cousin to discuss something with him but he wasn’t picking up. I thought to myself that I would call him later and just continued on my walk. Suddenly, he called me back, I picked up and said “Hi” but as I was saying that, I felt something on my body under my body. I screamed into that phone and started to look for that thing that was on me. I was shaking and suddenly I felt the sting. Oh, no. I have a bee in my hoodie. But as it stung me, I thought it flew out and started talking back into that phone. “I am sorry, I think that a bee flew into my…” and then I started screaming again. It was still there. I threw the phone on the grass and at that point, I felt a second sting and a third sting. It wasn’t a bee, it was a wasp. I was starting to freak out. I couldn’t find it. I had to take my hoodie off and stood in the park only in my sports bra trying to shake it off of me. When I checked that it really was gone, I looked around and saw some people looking at me. But I didn’t care. A wasp had just stung me three times and I had a phone call to get back to. I put the hoodie back on and picked the phone up from the ground. My cousin said: “I can call you later, it sounds like you are busy” and I said, “no,no, it is fine, just my whole body is itching.”

Yeah, I think bees and wasps hate me. 

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don’t forget that you can find the transcription and vocabulary list in the notes. Please give it a five-star rating if you liked it and I will see you next time, bye-bye.