Perspective

Today in my German class, we had a conversation about vacation. My German teacher was telling us that she felt that 2 weeks away was not long enough for a proper vacation. She further explained that when you have to pack, travel by plane, get situated etc. you really need 3 weeks in order to relax. A common American stereotype over here is the "Europe in a week" vacation. It is far from the perfect vacation for Germans. The German idea of vacation is to relax, feel part of another culture, spend time outdoors, relax some more etc. The good part is that most Germans get at least 6 weeks vacation a year, so in order to drop 3 weeks vacation all at once is not so far fetched. I chuckled at this because most Americans get less than 4 weeks vacation time a year, and so to spend most of that at one time would be almost unheard of (not to mention the fact that most employers would never give someone 3 weeks off at once). I had seen a quote recently that generalized both cultures, it said, "Americans live to work, and Europeans work to live." Once again perspective plays such a big role in the way you see things. I love the idea of a 3 week Holiday, but it is not so common to see!