Speaker 1: On location.
Speaker 2: I'm driven by Victor Christlin Dots G.
Speaker 1: Brown. It's Billified, the Bill Moran Podcast. Well, hello and welcome.
Thanks for getting your pod on. Thank you for telling
a friend. That's how we spread the word about the Birrateship.
I am joined today by two very special people to me.
She came first. My name is Zara, Zara Hersey. She
is a synchronized swimmer. She what, no, an artistic swimmer. Okay,
it's not called synchronized swimming anymore. Wow, I didn't know that.
When did they change it? Why don't you pull up
a little bit closer twenty seventeen? Tell me Zara, and
then we will get to Elias as well, because they
are siblings. How did you discover sincing and I swimming?
Excuse me, I ate a Parmersan cheese cracker and it
got stuck somewhere. I'm gonna start blowing cheese bubbles. But
I was telling somebody that you did it, and they said,
I've never heard of that, or that's something you don't
hear of a lot with young people, right, yeah, So
how did you discover this? Lean right in there?
Speaker 2: So it's actually a really funny story. So I was
taking swim lessons when I was like, I think I
was nine, and the swim in structure was really mean,
and I what.
Speaker 1: Do you mean by really mean?
Speaker 2: She was like yelling at us while we swim, and
I was so fed up with her. I was like,
I'm not doing this. So I said, I'm gonna go
to the bathroom and I found my dad on the
other side of the pool and I just I just
walked out and my dad was talking to a random
mom and the artistic swimmers were practicing in the deep
end of the pool. I was having my swimming lessons
at and she was like, you should join. They put
they put gelatin in their hair at competitions and they
get to tap the big stick. And those were the
two reasons that I was compelled to join for some reason.
Speaker 1: What is the tap the big stick?
Speaker 2: So when we do our hybrids and stuff, it's like
the underwater tricks. Yeah, we have to hear the rhythm
of the music. Oh sure, if you're not actually playing
the music. We just tapped a bpm wow without the
music itself.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. I did not know that. And sure
that sound underwater you can hear it as clear as dey. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then we also have underwater speakers where we
can listen to music underwater. And then I remember one
time we had a karaoke party.
Speaker 1: It was really fun underwater. Now Zara is you're thirteen
years old and you are in the eighth grade. Yes,
eighth grade. And she is also been to Junior Olympics
with the artistic swimming.
Speaker 2: I've been there. I think this year will be my
fourth year if I make it, hopefully.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really impressive. Yeah, I know a lot of
time and effort going to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we spend this year. I think I have around
twelve hours a week of practice, so it is a lot,
but it's really fun and I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you think you how far would you
like to take it?
Speaker 2: I really don't know. Oh, I think I would do
it more recreationally in college. I've seen the way the
girls on the Olympics training. I don't know if I
can do that because there's a lot of work. Yeah,
it's very impressive, and I do. I love the sport.
I think it's very fun, but I don't want to
take it like too far.
Speaker 1: I understand what would you like to do? As you
get older, and yeah, I think.
Speaker 2: I would really love There's the biggest competition in the
year is Nationals. I would really love to This year,
I'm eligible to make it to Nationals and I would
really love to try and make it because it would
just be really, really cool. It's the biggest competition. It's
where the college scouts go. It's really cool.
Speaker 1: That is uh and that's going to be in Buffalo
this year.
Speaker 3: Correct, yes, yes, so but where would you so if that,
if you got scouted by a college, would you consider
swimming in college?
Speaker 2: I mean it's a good deal. Yeah, I think I
think I probably would because if if they take me,
that would be really cool and you get to compete
in different competitions I just don't have access to and
you have a lot more resources. So it would be
really cool if I did get selected. But I don't
think if I didn't, I don't think if I If
I didn't, I don't think I would join. But that
would be awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would be awesome. And now, sitting next to you,
how would you describe the person to your right.
Speaker 2: I think that they are a very smart, very clever person.
You know a lot about animals and geography and flags
a lot about flags. Very very sweet and kind to
loves animals so much.
Speaker 1: I have never heard a big sister talk about their
little brother like that. Usually they would say, oh, you
mean the little twerp next to me or the pain
in the butt next to me. But she just gave
a wonderful, loving kind and I see you guys, You
guys get along very well. Not only is Elias super
knowledgeable and taught me about picture plants, which I want
to get one of the picture plants. And when we
were over at where were we yesterday? The botanical gardens.
Speaker 4: Panic gardens, So like, here's part of the conversation we'll
get to.
Speaker 2: So we were at the potanical gardens, my sister and
my grandma. They were in the bathrooms and we were
just kind of walking around, and then we decided that
we were gonna go check on them, but to go
to the but they went to a different bathroom from
what we thought they went to, So we ended up
thinking they were in this bathroom that you had to
walk through the picture plants to get to, and we
ended up just I ended up just telling them about
picture plants, and we and then we looked for them elsewhere.
Speaker 1: I really yeah, I liked them. I thought that was
really really cool. Now Elias is not only super knowledgeable
about things, he is also as is by the way,
I mean, she's extremely bright. Azar has been coding computers
and doing things for many, many years.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, just a little bit. I did some coding
classes when I was younger. But it's still fun. I
do it every once in a while now, very.
Speaker 1: Busy with Yeah, I know. And but Elias is like
the dance He's the dance guy. He's the dancer.
Speaker 2: I'm a dancer. Yes, you do tap, I do tap, jazz, ballet,
hip hop and contemporary. I think that's all wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you love it all.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love it all.
Speaker 1: And you can so fun. I could see you because
you were sort of choreographing a dance.
Speaker 2: Oh I was that was that choreographed? So okay? So okay,
you guys need context. So basically basically okay, okay, k
k k k k So basically me, my sister saw
this person do a funny video and they were like
this funny like dance on the internet, and it was
like it was this dance from the SpongeBob musical. She
was making her husband do it, and she said that
she now understood why kings had gestures. And I wanted
to understand why kings had gestures, so I made Elias
to me, it's so funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw the dance Zara. I didn't think it
was even funny. I thought he was really good.
Speaker 2: I thought it was fun it was. It's a funny dance.
It's a goofy dance. I like it though, it's goofy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now that you guys have traveled all around the world, Yes,
you've been to France.
Speaker 2: We've been to France, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Croatia. Yeah,
at that, and Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands. Okay,
Now I don't know that's owned by Britain.
Speaker 1: Eleven different countries.
Speaker 2: That's owned by Britain.
Speaker 1: So I guess England, what does their flag look like?
Speaker 2: Not England? Excuse me, not England. There are two different things.
Speaker 1: England is one of the Are they owned by England.
Speaker 2: United Kingdom UK because the Britunited Kingdom excuse me?
Speaker 1: Yes? So what the Cayman Islands? What's their flag look like?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna have to use my very big brain
because all the British, all the British, British flags, almost
all the British, like, I'm pretty sure it's like light blue. No,
that's Fiji.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you that I have. I couldn't even
venture a guest.
Speaker 2: It's always going it's going to have the the brit Is,
the Union jack in the corner up there. I I
don't know, I'm so so it's such a specific country.
I could tell you any other country.
Speaker 1: On that line. I know. Now I want to go
back to the ones that you went to. I'll ask Zara,
first favorite place that you went to.
Speaker 2: That's hard to pick. That's really hard. I don't know.
I really really loved we went to Denmark. We went
to Copenhagen. I wish we spent more time in the
city because it was so beautiful and there was this
really big clock tower that would chime every fifteen minutes
and it kept everyone on time. But it wasn't loud
or annoying or like frustrating or like higy. It was
just really nice and it kept every one in the time.
I wish we had one where I live.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like that just sort of keep you on time.
A lot of canals, a lot of Did you ride
any boats on the canals?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we took We took a boat tour and then
I think we took a go No, it was just it.
Speaker 1: Was them like I did. I did them in Cambridge, England.
Speaker 2: If they had gondolas, I don't think I saw any.
But we did a boat tour and we did this
really cool pastry tour where we got to try all
of these amazing pastries. We walked all around the city
with our tour guide and we tried this like poppy
Sea pastry. I can't remember what it's called, but like
so many of these things I'd never tried before and
they were all so good. And it was also a
really cool way to see the city in general.
Speaker 1: Right, And it's fun when you're walking around, like we
can read about it, we can look at pictures of it,
we can see little videos when you're there and you're yeah,
there's nothing like that. First. Yeah. Okay, So I will
ask you, Elias, at all the countries that you have
been to, which one was your favorite to visit?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna have to use I'm gonna have to
think very logistically on this, so Copenhagen was the best
city I ever went to. Varius is just glorified DC.
It is just glorified DC.
Speaker 1: I will say, why do you say that?
Speaker 2: So basically they were made by the same architect.
Speaker 1: And then also so the city design.
Speaker 2: It's still there's also tons. There's a lot of cigarettes,
cigarette butts everywherettes yes, and and then and then there
was like there was just it was everywhere, just tons
of cigarettes, tons of trash, like there was spray paint,
which DC doesn't even have that much spray paint. So
I would recommend Paris over DC. But if you're planning
on going to Paris, but you want something albeit more better,
just a bit better and cheaper, not cheaper, not cheaper cheap,
it's not cheaper. No, just replace that Eiffel Tower, pull
in the Washington Monument and then you got Washington, DC,
and then clean it up, replace the smokers with vapors.
Speaker 1: And they would go okay. So Paris is not a
place you liked. But Copenhagen was the best city.
Speaker 2: Was the best city, got it the best. Probably the
best two countries I went to is tied for Ecuador
and Ecuador and Iceland because first of all Iceland absolutely beautiful.
Rickyovic was beautiful. I had a lot of trouble going
to sleep. I would stay up very late every night.
But it's because the sun. The sun doesn't set for
a really, it doesn't sound till like eleven at night.
Speaker 1: What time of year were you guys there?
Speaker 2: Summer in August. All of our vacations we usually do
in August.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you really liked Iceland. And he didn't get
to sleep very well, but that was kind of cool.
Speaker 2: It was awesome. This was my trip. We went to
the Blue Lagoon. I didn't love the Blue Lagoon. It
made me smell. It smelled well. I didn't mind the
smell like it smelled like just sore sulfur, a lot
of sulfur. I didn't like it because it was super
salty and it crodd my skin and I hated it.
Speaker 1: But they had.
Speaker 2: Very You can't put your hair in it. With your
hair in it, it's just not good for your hair.
But but, but, but but they had very nice saunas.
The saunas were amazing. I loved those saunas.
Speaker 1: And so and it was this beautiful.
Speaker 2: Color just like have you ever seen opal a?
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen.
Speaker 2: That is what the water kind of looked like. It
was like this milky blue. It was really pretty and
it gets that color from it reflects the sky. But
if you take the water inside, it's actually just like
milk colored almost, is what they said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, were you able to try that?
Speaker 2: Oh, they didn't let us. I did try. I tried
to cup the water in my hand and they were like, nope,
you got to put it back. You can't bring dripping
water in here. But I think.
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean, hard to tell if you
didn't see it, but it sounds sounds legitimate. Now I know, Elias,
you are an animal, I'm gonna say expert. And now,
out of all the countries you have gone to, where
have you seen the in your in your opinion, the
coolest animal the Ecuador? What did you see an Ecuador?
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm sorry, Actually the mic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one mic where we're really kind of doing this
off my lap, But I like this.
Speaker 2: So in Ecuador, there were we in Ecuador, we went
to these islands, some of some of the most remote
and untouched islands in the world. Not the most there's
definitely some Pacific islands that topped that list. But we're
not gonna talk about that. We're talking about the Galapagos.
The Galapagos are so cool. So basically how they they
had they had been without any people for millions of years,
thousands of years, so they were able to like they're
the finches on there. They actually gave Charles Darwin the
idea of evolution because each finch had a different beak
for different things that they're gonna eat. And there's these
birds they're called the booby birds. There's the blue footed
and the red footed booby and.
Speaker 1: The nasty Are you just trying to say something dirty? No,
the third is really called booby.
Speaker 2: Yes, really, it's called the blue footed booby. And there's
also these really really old tortoises. They walk around.
Speaker 1: They're like, okay, how fast do they go? Because I
always heard the two miles.
Speaker 2: From I mean not not very fast, but they'll be
like they'll stand in place and then you'll hear them
inhale and then they'll walk like more really fast. They'll
take like five really fast steps.
Speaker 1: Now, were they around when the dinosaurs were around? These turtles?
You think no, or or their relatives.
Speaker 2: The relatives probably they've been there for hundreds some of
them even maybe two hundred years their life, fans around
one hundred and fifty years. They There are these finches
and birds that gave Darwin the ideas for his theory
of evolution, and they're endemic to the Galapagos Islands, which
means they can't be found anywhere else in the world.
They're really cool.
Speaker 1: I really anywhere else? Or yeah, well, I mean all
that is so amazing experience.
Speaker 2: Giant turtles that were like as they were as the
turtles were like five big, they were like when I mean,
I don't mean tortoises that lived on land, I mean
sea turtles. Those sea turtles were giant. They were huge,
like six feet big. And then there were marine iguanas,
tons of them everywhere. Marine iguanas are the only iguanas
that can swim. There are some iguanas that are supposedly
swimming in Florida, but they're the only iguana actually adapted
to swimming. And they're really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, uh okay. You not only do you dance love animals,
obviously very kind to your sister because she said such
nice things about you. You'll also play ukulele.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I play ukulele.
Speaker 1: And French horn, yeah, and French horn yeah yeah, and
then Zara plays.
Speaker 2: I played the viola. I don't play any instruments right now,
but I played the viola for four years I think.
And my best friend plays the viola still. We started together,
and now she's she's in her own quartet. She's doing
so good. She's really good.
Speaker 1: How how often is sincro for you? How many nights
a week?
Speaker 2: I have? Let me let me count. So I have
it on Mondays, I have it on I have it
on Wednesdays. I have it on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. That's a lot. And then I assume
there's other activities and classes and things that you're in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I do. I take French and I take
I take yearbook. I love yearbook, your book. I get
to I get to design the yearbook. I'm the editor
of design for the yearbook. I love graphic design. I
love playing with Photoshop and sometimes I'll use Canva or
other tools. It's just really fun. And I actually our
yearbook got nominated for an award last year and the
page I designed, and this was some of my first
like big designs I've done, was given the highest score
at cans.
Speaker 1: So that was really cool. At where in the yearbook? Oh,
the highest? But well, but who who gives it? Who
gives the score? Teachers?
Speaker 2: No, it's a it's a program that goes around and
it rates the school's yearbooks.
Speaker 1: Wow, what that's that's really awesome. I have seen you
do things on Campbell. You did one for me, and
you are excellent artistic and I don't know where you
get it from your mom. Possibly the Halloween costumes. We
got to talk about these Halloween costumes Zara. The last
time I saw I think this year, you were in
support of your brother, but you were an underwater sea
diver and it was the coolest thing. You were like
in a tank. It looked like real water. Right are
the these are your ideas? And she tries to fulfill
your idea.
Speaker 2: So we come up with the ideas, right alize, and
we just we Sometimes we'll sketch it out, we'll work
it out with her and she'll be like, all right,
we can do this, and we'll get a bunch of
random materials and just start building the costume. And she'll
always be like, I can't do it, I can't do it.
And then she makes it happen somehow, and it's like
so amazing.
Speaker 1: It's really cool to hear you say. That. Just shows
me how much you appreciate what your mom does, because
anytime I get pictures of it, I share with all
my friends and brag because it's way above my pay grade.
I could never do. I could never do anything like that.
What was your favorite costume? Ever? So?
Speaker 2: When I was in fourth grade, I did. We did
a stuck in a claw machine costume. Oh yeah, that.
Speaker 1: One was That was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one was really cool. So I got in
the Washington Post. A photographer took pictures of me, and
I remember my fourth grade teacher, she brought in the
newspaper for the whole class to see. I was so proud.
I love that one so much. Sorry my bad. I
got to decorate the outside of the I got to
decorate the outside of the clom machine and I put
on the stickers. I was so proud of myself and
my brother that year. He was a giant Teddy Bear
that was supposed to be inside my claw machine. So
we were like a set.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was your favorite? My favorite was pretty cool.
Being shot out of the can.
Speaker 2: Was awesome, and that was really cool. We still have
the cannon in the garage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she took an actual barrel, cut it off right
like a rain barrel people would have and very impressive.
But what was your favorite?
Speaker 2: My favorite was probably alien abduction.
Speaker 1: Oh that was fantastic. I had that on video on
my YouTube shorts. I put it up and it was
one of the most highly viewed videos I've ever posted. Yeah,
it's like umbrellas with lights. It looks like he's being
sucked up into a.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like dome bike. It looks like Wait, I saw
those aliens. They're up in my room. You might have
saw them. They're the aliens on my desk.
Speaker 1: Yes, I did see them.
Speaker 2: Those those those are the aliens that were in the costume.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Elias has been kind enough to let me sleep
in his bed, very kind, And he's been crashing on
his sister's floor.
Speaker 2: He has a little camping mattress. Don't worry, I'm not
making him sleep. I asked her to let I asked
her to let me say. No, I'm not doing that.
I asked her to let me sleep with the See
see what I have to live with.
Speaker 1: Now, you guys seem to get along so so well, yeah, yeah,
and support each other pretty well, shure each other on
and what do you do when you kids?
Speaker 2: Of course he stops getting along with me the second week,
get complimented on it. Well, we get along until we don't.
We get along. Okay, no, no, no, no, we get along.
It's it's like a thing where we can get along,
but we will have tons of We can't have like
five fights over, but it'll be like Zora, you put
the ice cream barrel in the seat. No, they're all
like silly fights. They're kind of stupid, but we'll give them.
Speaker 1: I'll ask you because you're very bright eighth grade, uh
and real well in school the synchronized swimming. What do
you think you'd like to do? When I always didn't
like this question when I was young, because it's hard
to answer, and it almost feels like it's pressure on you, right,
But because I always say it doesn't it doesn't matter.
I know you're gonna do something extraordinary, and I think
your parents are much of the same mind. But what
would you like to do? What is something that interests
you as you as you look at the world and
you think to yourself, Hey, in a couple of years,
I'm going to be going to college right where we
got like five more years and you know, it goes
by quick.
Speaker 2: I really think that I think I will probably go
down the graphic design road. Not I'm not sure where,
but I just I really love I find it so satisfying.
And I've also found that I need a bit of direction,
so I feel like monetizing that would be really cool.
But it's just so fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you're very hard to stick. And like I said,
my sister's amazing with that stuff. My father was amazing
with that stuff too, so and I and I don't
know if anybody on your dad's side has any artistic ability,
but I would not be surprised if they did. Your
dad is very, very clever and brilliant and made Christmas.
I'm just amazing. Now I'll ask the same question to you,
young Elias. And I have a feeling that you would
do many many things, Like you're gonna want to choreograph
a Broadway show.
Speaker 2: No, I don't want a choreograph of Broadway, so I
hate choreo. I would want to be in one, okay,
but I might want to be an actor. I don't
know I would because I think it's so what with
so many routes, because I think it's very cool. But
then I also would love to be a biologist because
I love science. But then I didn't. There's like I
would like to.
Speaker 1: Be a choreologist. No, no, you just started saying no
my heart.
Speaker 2: No. Yeah, yeah, Kurt, Yeah, I want to make maps
and I love maps, and I just like just stare
at maps for a good amount for a weird amount
of time. I just like maps, And you love reptiles. Yes,
I love reptiles, So I'm definite I want reptiles.
Speaker 1: There are many people who do multiple things, and you
don't have to just do one thing. You can do
a couple of things, like I don't know. I'm sure
you've heard of the band Queen Yes, and maybe the
song Bohemian Oh.
Speaker 2: Wait, I'm learning that on the Ukulelean' learning that.
Speaker 1: On the Oh my goodness, and uh. The lead guitarist
in that band he's like an astrophysicist in addition to
being a rock guitarist, So I think he could do
more than one thing.
Speaker 2: He's an astrophysicist, physicist.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh, I didn't know. His name is Brian May
and you can look him up. I hope I'm not wrong,
but I'm pretty sure he was an astrophysicist. Well, I
have to tell you, you know, it is a pleasure
to watch you guys grow up and see all the wonderful,
amazing things that you're doing, and the wonderful trips, and
just how it's so fun to sit in I love
playing games with you guys. You know what was the
game we played that you won?
Speaker 2: I think it was Mount Cleverest Cleverest. I wanted after her.
I wanted. I wasn't playing because I left the room. Yeah,
but I still want.
Speaker 1: They did. They kicked like I was out of coins,
my sister, your Bob was out of coids, Bob Arge
was out of coins. Well some of them are. You know,
you're taking a guess on the true faalse here. But
but Elias was bat in a thousand, I'll tell you that. Well,
I thank you for giving me some time and coming
down and chatting with me, and it's been a real
pleasure to be here for Christmas. I had so much fun,
and you got some great I'll tell you, Like Czara,
I got a record player and some really cool albums,
and she's a big fan of Leave and.
Speaker 2: We're my favorite singer.
Speaker 1: When you were in Iceland, do they play Leave?
Speaker 2: They play it everywhere. They have pictures of her. They
every time we got off the airplane, they would play
one of Levey's newer songs, silver Lining. It was so funny.
They seem very proud of her because she is the
one celebrity from the tiny country that is Iceland. Yeah,
it's pretty I think there.
Speaker 1: Was another singer. I think of Korea. Look up York.
I think she was another one b J O R K.
I don't know if she was Iceland or not, but
York York is how you pronounced it for my niece Zara,
for my nephew Elias and synchronized swimming. I hope to
see a National's in Buffalo. Yep, me too, So so
exciting h for Elias Verus next adventures in the in
in the world of dance, in the world of animals
and creativity and just fun stuff. He's just a very fun,
fun young man. I'm Bill Moran and we'll see you
Tomorrow's California.
Speaker 2: Baby, things are gotten worse. He's a land up opportunity.
For me is just a curse of tell that judging
make us feel,