
In 8th grade I took my first trip out of the country. Me and about 40 other middle schoolers took a field trip to France. It was wonderful. Nice. Castles. Lyons. Tours. Versailles. Paris. Even at 14 I was in awe.
I have always loved France, but this week I found myself saying, "I wish I were French."
According to this
CBS article, the French are required by law to have at least 5-weeks of vacation and work a maximum 35-hours a week. And in actuality, many French people get 8 weeks of vacation. I have to admit I am a bit jealous.
We don't have a vacation policy here at the Allen Hunt Show. But my vacation schedule seems to be something like this:
- 1 week in May with CJ & Andrea at the Beach
- 1 week in July or September in Indiana with CJ, Andrea, and my family
- 2 weeks in December/January in Indiana with CJ, Andrea, and my family for Christmas
I freely admit that 4 weeks of vacation is pretty fortunate. This of course does not count the weekender trips I take once a month just to get out of Atlanta.
Allen pointed me to another article that states 2/3 of Americans aren't planning on taking a vacation this summer.
This is a huge mistake. Now I know not everyone
loves to travel like I do, and in this tough economy, traveling might not be an option anyway.
But I am not talking about travel, I am talking about vacation. Even if you stay at home and do nothing, taking time off work to relax and refocus is of huge importance.
I know I am in a way better mood after coming back from vacation - to which the people I work with are grateful. Even getting away once a month for short trips has been monumentally helpful.
Now before Sean Hannity calls and rips me a new one, yes I know French economy is horrendous and their unemployment is double ours. I am not saying that the US should become France. All I am saying is there has to be a balance between the two. The French could learn something from us, and we could learn something from the French.
P.S. This post is dedicated to
Mark Arum for giving my traveling habits so much crap :)
P.P.S. I put up all the pictures from this past vacation to Sunset Key. All the photos can be found at my website, and the "best" photos I also uploaded to Facebook (which you don't need a Facebook account to see the album).
Here are some of the shots from the trip



