📙 Part 2: Describe an unusual holiday/vacation you had

This episode's vocabulary

Unenviable (adj.) - an unenviable duty, choice, or situation is unpleasant or difficult.

Counterproposal (noun) - a proposal offered as an alternative to a previous proposal.

To jump at something (phrasal verb) - to accept something eagerly.

To roll around (phrasal verb) - (of a time or event) to happen.

Adventure (noun) - an unusual, exciting, and possibly dangerous activity, such as a trip or experience, or the excitement produced by such an activity.

Fortnight (noun) - a period of two weeks.

Excursion (noun) - a short journey usually made for pleasure, often by a group of people.

Knackered (adj.) - very tired.

Time off (noun) - a period of time when you do not work because of illness or holidays, or because your employer has given you permission to do something else.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, for once I find myself in the unenviable position of having too many unusual vacations to talk about. Although, I suppose the one that stands out the most would be actually my most recent one to Italy. To give you a little context, I mentioned casually to one of my friends who is a school principal that it would be cool to try and do a small professional development event and have some fun with the kids at her school in the summer. After I made that suggestion, though, she paused and said, hmm, counterproposal, why not come here in January for two weeks while I'm away, and you can observe the teachers and teach whole classes. And that was a pretty cool idea. So I jumped at the chance to go. So, when January of this year rolled around, I went off to Italy. Specifically, I went to this township called Aversa, which is near Naples, and I taught at one of the best private schools in the region for just over two weeks. And as with most of my adventures, I went by myself. But I stayed with my friends on arrival. Thank heavens, because, well, they were so generous with their time and their space, finding accommodation in that kind of town that's actually decent quality would have been a nightmare. The fortnight was divided into two parts, one week of mostly teaching where I did 40 hours worth of that, in addition to writing and going to the gym. And then we went on various excursions like one to this massive shopping complex, that was pretty cool. I was pretty knackered by the end of that, to be honest. So then, when week two started, I was pretty happy that it was just a lot of observations of all the teachers and meeting the directors of the school to talk about future work. I suppose it was one of the weirder holidays because most people don't really associate time off with working. But I really liked my working holiday. And evidently, the kids I worked with too. They enjoyed it too because some of them even asked to keep studying with me online. And I think that's a pretty good sign of success. If I hadn't done this, well, I'm not sure what I'd have done. Probably have had a really normal and boring January and who wants to do that, ey?

M: And do you often have unusual holidays?

R: Oh, yeah. I'm becoming known for them.