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.