This time of year I almost become obsessed (in my spare time) thinking about vacations. Growing up we took a two week vacation - every year, with no exception. As an adult it isn't as if I don't take vacations. I do, but they are structured differently - a long weekend here, a long weekend there, a five-day trip here, with a miscellaneous day off now and then. Every 5 years or so I manage a big one. A really great trip to someplace exotic for 2 weeks. The problem is that every summer my husband's family takes off a month and heads back home to Lebanon. My husband is Lebanese and it is quite the custom for everyone in his family to go back home and enjoy the beach and the cool mountain resorts for the entire summer. For those cousins who work in Europe, the entire month of August is dedicated to vacation. It makes me wonder what happened to the American vacation.
The photo is a friend's infinity pool in Byblos.
Don't get me wrong. I love living in Georgia, I LOVE my job and the work that I do but how is it that the rest of the world takes a month off to enjoy living while most of us in the U.S. work and even start school in August? Should I be working harder from September to July? Maybe that is the secret. All I know is that in less than a week all of my in-law relations will all be relaxing on rooftop gardens and on the beach enjoying the Mediterranean. Thank goodness for front porches, chaise lounge chairs, fireflies and summer nights. At least when I get home from work I can go outside, relax and take in all the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summertime.
That's the vast disconnect between the US and pretty much everywhere else: vacation.
ReplyDeleteThe very idea that when you start a new job here you default to 2 weeks vacation would violently disgust most Europeans who are accustomed to (at minimum) five to six weeks.
Time off (and time away) do so much to you mental state. Unfortunately Americans (and their employers) are so accustomed to a heads-down, full-bore work schedule that time off is hard to come by.
I typically scoff at maternity/paternity leave, but the more I dwell on it the better an option it becomes.
This from a guy who had to fight for an additional third week off when my wife has five.