Well, school´s back in session, and that means your vacation is over, also. This makes me think of

many topics I could write about. But as a teacher in Brazil, I see many mistakes being made when

talking about traveling, so I´ll talk about that one. I will underline the words and phrases that I

have learned are difficult for many students. After some of the underlined phrases, I will give an

explanation in parenthesis ().

Hopefully you had a chance to get away (leave the city; go away from where you live) during this

vacation time, and if you did, you no doubt had opportunities to talk about your travels. Let´s talk

about a typical trip.

You decide to take a trip to London. This means you have to book (reserve) a flight (the plane

(airplane) ride to London), a hotel, and maybe rent a car. You will probably need to at least put

down a deposit (pay a little bit of the total) to hold (to keep) the reservation. Now you are

speaking with friends and want to tell them about your upcoming (near future) trip. They ask you,

“When do you fly out (when is the flight),” or “When do you leave?” So you say, “I am leaving June

1st (first).” They will then want to know how long you will be on vacation, so they ask, “How long

will you be gone,” or “How long is your stay?” So you answer, “I will be coming back on June 14th

(fourteenth).” This tells them you will leave London on June 14th. Sometimes we say, “I will be

arriving in Brazil June 15th (fifteenth).” This tells them when you get back home, not when you

leave London. Now it´s almost time to leave on your trip. You must start packing your suitcases

(put everything you want to take with you in your suitcases). On the day you “fly out,” you leave

your house and head for (go to) the airport. Once inside the terminal (the buildings in an airport

where customers go to board the airplanes), you must go through a series of security steps (items

in a list of things-to-do), starting with the pre-screening process (at the ticket counter, where you

are first asked questions about your trip and your luggage (suitcases), and you get your boarding

pass (the ticket that tells them you have been pre-screened)). The pre-screening process is also

where you give them the bags (suitcases) to be checked-in (tags are put on the bags and they are

loaded under the airplane), and keep the ones that you will carry-on (keep with you when you go

onto the plane) to the plane. Next is the security-screening checkpoint (this is where you place all

your carry-on items onto the conveyor belt (a long strip of material (such as canvas or rubber) that

moves continuously and carries objects) to be x-rayed, and you walk through the detector

yourself). Once all this is done, the final step is to give your boarding pass to the attendant (an

employee who serves or helps customers) as you walk into the Jetway (the walkway or ramp that

customers take from the terminal to the airplane), if they have a Jetway.

Now it´s time to just sit-back (relax), drink some wine, watch a movie, and enjoy your vacation to

London. And if this blog article helped you at all, be sure to invite me on your next trip! You´ll have

to pay, though.