THINK and SPEAK in English: your vacation

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Can you think and speak in English about  your daily life? Let's talk about it. 

If you watch English movies and TV shows,  you've probably heard people ask the question,  

"Hey, how was your vacation?" but have you ever  asked this question to yourself? Well, if not,  

that changes today. In this lesson, you will learn  19 common, daily life expressions that you can use  

to talk about your vacation. I'll be telling  you about my summer vacation and I'll use these  

expressions so I hope you'll be able to use them  too. Well, like always I have created the free PDF  

worksheet for today's lesson with all of these new  words, sample sentences, definitions, and you can  

answer Vanessa's Challenge Question at the bottom  of the worksheet. You can download this free PDF  

with the link in the description. All right, let's  get started by talking about my summer vacation,  

and I hope it will apply to you as well. My family went on a four hour road trip to  

West Virginia to meet up with Dan's  side of the family. Unfortunately,  

Dan's brother got bronchitis, so he couldn't come. A road trip is when you drive a long distance,  

and usually, the journey is also important.  These are common trips in the U.S.,  

maybe because the U.S. is so big. Let's  take a look at another sample sentence. 

Some of my favorite memories from childhood  vacations are taking road trips across the  

country. You also heard me use the phrase  "to meet up with", this is used when you are  

getting together with someone who you already  know. Let's take a look at this sentence.  

We made plans to meet up with our friends  while we were traveling in Spain. All right,  

let's continue with my summer vacation story. We rented a cabin in the woods that also had a hot  

tub or Jacuzzi that my kids loved. The word rent  is commonly used for vacations. You might rent an  

Airbnb, you might rent a car, or maybe you could  say, "We rented an RV so that we could take a road  

trip around the U.S." All right, let's continue. We went hiking and rock climbing,  

we made a bonfire, and we ate amazing  food, including a five course wine tasting  

that Dan's parents put on. That was amazing. On our vacation, we did three common activities  

that we do outdoors on vacation. We went hiking,  we went rock climbing, and we had a bonfire. I'm  

curious if having a bonfire is common in your  country. I know sometimes this is really common,  

but sometimes it's almost unbelievable,  especially if you live in a big city.  

But personally, I love having a bonfire,  especially because I like to eat marshmallows.  

All right, let's continue with my story. Because it was the summertime and we were  

in the woods, we made sure that everyone  wore bug spray and sunblock because  

nothing can ruin a vacation faster than  lots of bug bites and getting a sunburn. 

I don't know if this is true in your country, but  where I live, there are a lot of mosquitoes so we  

have to wear bug spray often. And what happens  if you don't wear bug spray? You get a bug bite.  

We also have to wear sunblock. Sometimes  people call this sunscreen. What happens  

if you don't wear sunscreen? Well, you get a  sunburn. Not good. Let's go on with my story. 

Well, we were having so much fun in West Virginia  that we decided to extend our vacation and drive  

four hours further north to Dan's sister's house  for five more days. And thankfully, our generous  

neighbor said that she could watch our cats, our  chickens, and our house for a little bit longer. 

Let's take a look at this word, to watch. Yes,  we can use to watch for, "I watch TV," but it's  

also often used for taking care of something.  "I watched two kids over the summer." Okay,  

that means you were a babysitter or a nanny over  the summer, you took care of those two kids.  

So we could also say, "Could you watch my  house while I'm gone next week?" That means,  

"Could you take care of my house while I'm  gone next week?" All right, let's continue. 

In Pittsburgh, we hung out a lot together,  we went to the zoo. And you know what? I got  

stuck in the elevator at the zoo for  20 minutes. It was a little bit scary. 

This is a lovely phrasal verb that you can use at  any time in your life. To hang out with someone  

is simply to spend casual time together. "Hey,  you want to hang out?" "Oh, it was great hanging  

out last week." Great phrasal verb to use. What  about this one? To get stuck. This could be used  

physically. "I got stuck in the elevator." "He  got stuck in traffic." But we can also use this  

mentally if you are speaking in English and you  just can't remember the words that you're trying  

to say, you might say, "Ugh, I just got stuck  and I can't remember the next word." You're not  

physically stuck, but your brain will not go to  the correct word. So I hope this lesson will help  

you to find more words in your vocabulary so you  can speak exactly the way that you would like.  

All right, let's continue my story. During our trip, my sister-in-law found  

out the gender of her third baby. It was quite a  surprise, and it was so fun to celebrate with her. 

This is another phrasal verb, to find out  something means that you are learning a new  

piece of information. Let's take a look at the  sample sentence. I found out about the surprise  

party because I heard them talking on the phone.  Oops. All right, let's continue with my story. 

During the week, we rented a private  karaoke room for Dan's sister's birthday,  

and there were about 20 people there. Dan and his  friend sang an improvised Happy Birthday song,  

and it was hilarious and quite a crowd pleaser. This word, a crowd pleaser, means that everyone  

loves it. You might say this. "I went to the  circus and I saw a woman shoot flaming arrows from  

her bow with her feet. It was a crowd pleaser.  It was incredible." All right, let's keep going. 

Then we went to our friend's wedding, which  was actually at her mom's house, and it was  

perfect. This was my kid's first wedding, and  I think it was the best wedding they could have  

gone to. The ceremony was blessedly short.  They had homemade pizza made for each person  

and they had a blast dancing. This is a lovely expression,  

to have a blast, and it just means that you're  having so much fun. You might say, "We went to  

the beach last week and you wouldn't believe it.  We had a blast just staying in our beach house,  

laughing and playing games. We only went to the  beach two days." I hope that you have a blast on  

your vacation. All right, let's keep going. Something amazing happened at that wedding.  

Our friend, the bride, hired a silhouette artist  to cut a silhouette for each of the guests.  

It was an amazing souvenir. I'll show it to you  here. This is really something that I'll treasure  

forever. Can you believe she hand-cut that by just  looking at us in about 10 seconds? Incredible. 

This word, a silhouette, is a fun one. It usually  means the outline of something. So you might say,  

"Before I got glasses, I could only see  the silhouette of the trees. And then when  

I got glasses, I could see the leaves. Amazing." Have you ever been traveling and gotten a souvenir  

for my son? You know what he loves to get as  a souvenir? A rock. Wherever we go, it might  

be a rock from a parking lot, it might be a rock  from a creek. His favorite souvenirs are rocks.  

All right, let's keep going. In both West Virginia  

and Pittsburgh, we had so much fun bonding  and just spending quality time together. 

Both of these words, to bond with someone  and to spend quality time with someone,  

mean that you are deepening your relationship  with someone else. Let's take a look at this  

sentence. The COVID-19 pandemic was a really hard  time, but my family got to spend a lot of quality  

time together, and in the end, we really bonded  during that tough time. All right, let's continue  

and go to the end of my vacation story. Finally, after our eight hour trip home,  

which ended up being something like  11 hours total, we made it home  

and it was time to get back to the real world. This phrase, to get back to the real world,  

is one we often use at the end of vacation,  you've almost been living in a fantasy world.  

Maybe you've been at the beach, maybe you went  to another country, and then when you get home,  

boom, the real world hits. So you might say, "Oh,  I'm not ready to get back to the real world." Or  

on the other hand, you might say, "You know what?  I'm kind of ready to get back to the real world.  

This vacation was great, but it was long enough." So I want to know for you, what was your summer  

vacation? Have you had your summer vacation  yet? Let me know in the comments and don't  

forget to download the free PDF worksheet for  today's lesson with all of these wonderful daily  

life expressions, definitions, sample  sentences, my story about my vacation,  

how you can use them, and of course, you can  answer Vanessa's Challenge Question at the  

bottom of the PDF worksheet. There's a link in  the description and you can download that now. 

Well, thanks so much for learning English with  me and I'll see you again next Friday for a new  

lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free  

PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this  free PDF, you will master today's lesson  

and never forget what you have learned.  You can be a confident English speaker.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.