The plan was kind of crazy. We were going to walk from one building to another, a

cross-time square, very, very high in the air, above all the bright lights and cars and people.

Leana is for an ambulance, or high-wire walker. It is to say that walking on the

road to metal trees is suspended in the air. In general, the height is 10 to 15 meters,

but in Times Square, the tree was 75 meters, that is, to some 25 pieces of the ground.

In my many years as a high-wire walker, that was my first time walking on a wire,

75 meters in the air. Just two years earlier, I fell and almost died. I wasn't able to perform

for a long time after that. Because of the injuries to my body, I knew it would be difficult,

but I knew that I had to do it, because I didn't want the accident to define me. So I took that first step out onto the wire.

Welcome, welcome and welcome to Relatos in English, a Duolingo podcast. I am Diana

Gameros. In every episode you can practice English to your own rhythm, listening to

real and fascinating stories, counted by the people who lived them. The protagonists

speak in a simple and easy English way to understand who you are learning from. In each

chapter, I will accompany you to make sure that you understand everything. Today, two stories

of people doing the unexpected thing in some of the most emblematic places in the United States.

Diana comes from a family of circus artists. Her father Carol Wallendard began to act in Germany,

her birth country. But in 1928, she joined the famous United States Circus Ringling Brothers.

In the first half of the 20th century, the ambulance circus were very, very popular in the United States.

I come from many generations of circus performers. My aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and even my younger

brother, all perform. And their specialty, like mine, is the high wire, which is also called

tightrope walking. My mom performed while she was pregnant with me. So I was on the high wire

before I was even born. Diana began to rise up to the floor, or tightrope walking, almost

...