No more vacation for me, thanks...

As many people in the Netherlands take a vacation during the summer, I have been frequently asked where I'll be going on vacation this summer. And my answer? Nowhere - I've had it with taking vacation! Most people seem quite puzzled by my answer. When I explain that I've already had 3.5 weeks of vacation this year (first to Turkey and then to Canada), it's easy to interpret my answer as saying that I've already had all my vacation for this year. But that's not really it - even if I could take more vacation, I have no desire to (I get the impression this is odd to most people).

Perhaps it is simply the fact that since Christmas I have been a total of at least 10 weeks away from Amsterdam (more than half of the time was work-related).

Perhaps it's simply my personality - that I'm somebody who is perfectly
happy to stay home and read.

Perhaps it's because of my childhood - although we went camping when I was growing up - it was only for long weekends. School holidays were simply a change of pace - and usually a shift to other kind of work. So I'm not used to this whole going on long vacations thing.

Or perhaps it's because of my insistence on not working on Sunday (something else inherited from my childhood). And having a 'not have to' day (and no guilt!) once a week is like having a mini-vacation every week :)

And it's likely due to the fact that I generally like my life as it is - I get to study and think and I am part of a community that has rhythms and structures that provide stability and peace for my life. And even if I do not always appreciate all of those things when I am in Amsterdam, when I am gone and/or on vacation, I miss those things the most - and my life feels incomplete, even in the midst of the joy and wonders that vacations can and do bring.