If you want to learn new, informal English words and expressions in the context of a story then this is for you! My name is Ross. I am a native English speaker and I teach English as a second language. I had the idea of sharing stories from my personal life with you to teach you some new words and expressions in a natural context. Whenever you see a word in bold, that means that you can find the meaning of that word written below the story to help you learn. Here's a story of my trip to the town of Jaca this weekend. Enjoy!

When my girlfriend first suggested that we go to the small town of Jaca for the weekend, I have to admit that I wasn't so keen on the idea. For the first time in months, the travel restrictions had been lifted a bit so we could now travel outside of our own city of Huesca. There are few things that I love more than spending the weekend relaxing in the house, brushing up on my Spanish or getting to grips with Latin. My girlfriend is the total opposite to me. Being in the house all the time drives her crazy. She needed to escape for a couple of days. It didn't sound like the most exciting plan for two reasons; the weather was pretty depressing and also with COVID restrictions, all bars and facilities have to be closed by 6 p.m. That meant spending the weekend walking around a small town, in the rain, and being confined to our hotel room from the early evening onward. Still, a change of scenery wasn't the worst idea so we booked a hotel online and packed our bags.

When we arrived in Jaca, it was raining as expected and the wind was quite chilly. The hotel wasn't far from the bus station though so we had soon checked in. We left our bags in the room and headed out for a look around the town. I hadn't been to Jaca in ages. It's quite a beautiful little place and they have a professional ice hockey team so I had been a few time to try my hand at ice skating. My girlfriend has been many more time than I have so she knows the place like the back of her hand.

One thing in life is guaranteed; if you remember to bring an umbrella with you, the weather will be beautiful and sunny. However, if you forget your umbrella, the heavens will open and it will rain cats and dogs. I hadn't brought my umbrella of course and, sure enough, the rain poured. Luckily there were plenty of cosy bars for us to hide in as the rain fell. One of the best things about living in Spain is the food, and the grub in Jaca was no exception. The culinary highlight for me was a fried breaded prawn with a cheese sauce dip. Mouth-watering! I had been looking forward to playing some pool during the trip but, when we arrived to the pool hall, the table was out of order. That was a bit of a downer.

Despite the weather, we both really enjoyed the day. By 6 p.m. everything was closed so we made our way back to the hotel. By now the wind had developed into a small storm. At one point I was almost carried away with my umbrella like Mary Poppins! When we returned to the hotel, it seemed to be completely empty. There was nobody at reception and we saw no other guests. We spent the night in the hotel room chilling out, playing card games, listening to music and watching films.

The next morning we called reception to see what time we had to leave the room at and to ask them if we could leave our bags in the hotel until it was time to leave for our bus that evening. The man that answered was the owner of the hotel. The weird thing is that he was not in the hotel at that moment. In fact, he was not even in Jaca! We found out that not only was the owner not in the hotel, but there was nobody else in the hotel at all. We had been the only people in the building for the entire weekend. There weren't even any staff, as we had been the only guests. The owner said we could leave our bags there until we had to leave as there would be nobody entering the hotel that day either. That was very strange.

We walked around the town and had a relaxing day before finally heading home again.

Vocabulary

Keen on = Interested in, or wanting to do something very much.

To brush up on = To improve your knowledge of something already learned but partly forgotten.

To get to grips with = Begin to understand something, begin to deal with a problem or situation.

To drive (somebody) crazy = To make someone upset or annoyed.

Confine = To limit an activity, person, or problem in some way.

Chilly = Cold.

To check in = Arrive and register at a hotel or airport.

To head out = (Informal) To leave or depart.

In ages = In a really long time.

To try your hand at = To attempt something for the first time. Also; To give something a go.

To know somewhere like the back of your hand = To know a place very well.

The heavens open = To suddenly start raining a lot.

To rain cats and dogs = To rain very heavily.

Sure enough = As expected.

Cosy = Comfortable and pleasant. Especially of a small, warm place inside.

Grub = (Informal) Food.

Mouth-watering = Used to describe food that has a very good appearance or smell that makes you want to eat it.

Out of order = Not operating because it broken.

Downer = An event or experience that makes you unhappy.

To make your way = To travel or move to a place.

To chill out = To completely relax.

Staff = The person or people who work for an organisation/company.

I hope you have enjoyed the story and learned some new words. If you would like to read some more stories from me, let me know in the comments or follow my account. You can also leave a comment and practise writing sentences with the new vocabulary that you have learned today.

Ross Henry

Diary of an English Teacher - Learn English Through Story