📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you were stuck in a traffic jam

This episode's vocabulary

Jam-full (adj.) - if somewhere is jam-packed, it is so full of people or things that there is no room for any more.

To hop (verb) - pass quickly from one place to another.

To get off (phrasal verb) - to leave a place, usually in order to start a journey.

Tidal (adj.) - relating to or affected by the tide (= the rise and fall of the sea)/

To head out (phrasal verb) - to begin a journey.

Horrendous (adj.) - extremely unpleasant or bad.

To regulate (verb) - to control something, especially by making it work in a particular way.

To call it a day (idiom) - to stop what you are doing because you do not want to do any more or think you have done enough.

To leap (verb) - to make a large jump or sudden movement, usually from one place to another.

Pavement (noun) - a path with a hard surface on one or both sides of a road, that people walk on.

Standstill (noun) - a condition in which all movement or activity has stopped.

To relieve (verb) - to make an unpleasant feeling, such as pain or worry, less strong.

Confines (plural noun) - the outer limits of something.

Ravenous (adj.) - extremely hungry.

To wind up (phrasal verb) - to find yourself in an unexpected and usually unpleasant situation, especially as a result of what you do.

Questions and Answers

R: Oh God, one time I got stuck in traffic in a taxi in the rush hour in Moscow, and that was a complete nightmare. This was about four years ago now, and I just finished up teaching for the day and wanted to hang out with people in the city center. So rather than get the metro, which I knew would be jam-full of people, I had a great idea of hopping in a taxi, and that was a big mistake, even though we got off to a good start as the taxi driver made his way into the center, we came up against this tidal wave of cars. I think it was late spring, so lots of people were heading out of the city for the weekend, and it was just an absolute mess. We must have been stuck there for at least two hours without food or water, which was horrendous, because it was my dinner time, and I really struggled to regulate my emotions when I'm starving. So I tried to distract myself by being on the phone, and that worked up to a point, but there's a limit before you feel like your stomach is collapsing in on itself. I think, in the end, I just called it a day, ended the ride and leapt out into the traffic lanes to make my way over to the pavement and walk to the office. It sounds a bit dangerous, but since the traffic had been drawn to a standstill, there was zero chance of any accidents happening. While I was relieved to escape the confines of that taxi, I still had to deal with the ravenous hunger for a full half hour before I made it to where I was supposed to be. Honestly, after that, I made a real effort to always carry a protein bar or something like that, just in case I wound up in a situation like that again.

M: And do you often get stuck in traffic?

R: No. I actively try and avoid it when I can.

M: Yay! Thank you, Rory, for your story!