The sun is shining bright in Santiago and other parts of Chile! Many people are spending more time outdoors and enjoying the sunny weather. This a great opportunity to learn eight common sun idioms and phrases. Let’s take a look at my story about doing trail crew work in the bright and sunny Virgin Islands the summer after I graduated from high school….
When I graduated from high school, I decided to apply for trail crew work programs. I grew up camping in the wilderness and absolutely loved being in the mountains. So, at 18 years old my mind was made up; I was going to travel somewhere new and work in the mountains, rain or shine (1).
I was so excited when I got accepted by a government program to do trail crew work for a half of a summer in the Virgin Islands! Even though I was working on a breathtaking island, the manual labor the six other crew members, two crew leaders and I did was actually quite physically demanding. We rose with the sun (2) to take advantage of working in the mountains when it was cool. Most days we were so tired we would go to bed with the sun (3) in order to get enough rest for all of the digging, chopping, cutting, lifting and other manual labor we needed to do the next day. I remember our trail crew leaders had to call out “rise and shine!!” (4) several times until my trail crew mates and I all finally got out of bed for work each morning.
That being said, we were still ridiculously spoiled living on such a breathtaking, stunning island. After work we would cool off in the Caribbean Sea, rest on the warm beach, relax and soak up the sun (5) for a bit before dinner. Although, a few of us got too much sun (6) which caused us to be in a lot of pain while our sunburns were healing.
Unexpectedly, we turned into a crew of five instead of six because one of the crew members decided to go home early. She was really homesick. She also had a boyfriend back home and she thought the sun rose and set on him (7). We tried everything under the sun (8) to convince her to stay, but in the end, she needed to do what she felt was best for her. So, after the first week or two she decided to leave our crew in the Virgin Islands and go back to her hometown.
What an amazing adventure doing trail crew work in the Virgin Islands was for me. This was by far a life-changing experience that I’ve never forgotten. If I had the chance to do it again I would do it in a heartbeat!
1. rain or shine: to do something no matter what (whether it’s raining or the sun is shining)
2. rise with the sun: to get out of bed early in the morning
3. go to bed with the sun: go to bed early (at sunset)
4. rise and shine: another way to say, “wake up” or “get out of bed”
5. soak up the sun: take in the sunshine as much as possible
6. get too much sun: get sunburned/sunburnt
7. think the sun rises and sets on someone: think someone is the most important person in the world
8. everything under the sun: everything that exists or is possible
What other topics do you want to learn about?! Write in the comments below or write me monicajones4276@gmail.com or @monicayourprofe