As it's the holiday season and I'll be off to Finland for a holiday next week, I thought that this might be our first topic and serve as a 'soft' start as well...
What do we do with our holidays? Well, here in the UK it appears that most people distribute their holidays around the year, taking a week here and a few days there. People with kids usually try to match these holidays with school holidays so that they can do 'family things', which is perfectly natural and surely rather universal.
It appears to me that package holidays and lowcost airlines make the most out of this season as everybody is jetting off to somewhere to relax, tan, party and have fun. People from my office are on their way to Greek islands and the Balearics and the ones with families are heading to Alton Towers and EuroDisney.
This appears to have become a norm in the holiday behaviour at least here in the UK. Flying off to do 'something nice'. It's also made very easy by the dozens of package holiday companies and lowcost airlines mentioned above. I gues I'll be doing something 'similar' as well. I'll take off with my better half to the isolated corner of Europe also known as Finland. Theme parks, sun, fun and partying? Maybe, but for me the best bit is to get to 'the middle of nowhere' - my family's summer cabin by a lake. Fishing, reading, boating, eating, drinking, sleeping, going to sauna... Far from the hassle of the world and the stressed atmosphere of the office.
Maybe this is the trait that most clearly outlines my Finnishness in the end. Many of us still tend to long for the nature (not everybody, of course) and the hum of the forest... Bizarre altogether for my colleagues to say the least, but also something that seems to be deeply embedded in many of us. If you don't mind the nastily whining mosquito or the ever-so-unpredictable summer weather, I bet you'd find Finnish summer cabin experience rather relaxing.
When the people in my office return from their action-packed holidays, they seem to be very tired and even less alive than before going for the holiday. Is this the effect they are after? I think that while it's good to party hard when you're young, one should also remember to give oneself some rest. This also makes me wonder about when did I become such a bore? Maybe it is the forest and the lakes and all the relaxation involved. Not too bored of that though!
Now I'll go and whip myself senseless...
N.
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Merciless whip of reality
2 comments:
I want to express an incoherent thing. How can one explain that during my isolating thesis writing life, I long for spending time in the middle of nowhere? Here I have the radio on all day long, I have access to the internet and emails and can watch the tv in case I feel like that. Yes, I can access all those things while I am suppose to be writing my doctoral thesis. Does that mean that I have leisure time and that I forget about my work then?
For me the real rest comes with the holidays. And even though I would love to go to a nice sunny beach, I am happy enough to go to a Finnish summer cottage which is growing more and more in me.
Yet I am learning to appreciate the uncertainty about the european summer weather, I still also find overwhelming the uniqueness of the things one can do in the summer cottage.
Well, I have never spent more than a week there, so I do not know the limits of my liking. Surely the isolation and activities in the middle of nowhere can become as everything else, routine. Maybe if I would spend two or more weeks there I will begin to long for the city, surrounded by noice. But since that is not the case, at the present moment I am very much looking for the forest.
Before that, I have a deadline to meet.
P.S.
I hate deadlines.
Holiday season is upon us - be warned!
It's the time of the year when normal, sensible, people turn into "holiday makers". The process is very similar to that, which turns some folks into werevolves during full moon. But instead of wanting our blood (unless maybe if it's properly packaged and marketed as a gift item for that special someone, and comes with a miniature shamppoo) they put on their most psychedelic Hawaii shirts, designer sunglasses and shorts that leave far too little to imagination, and head out in the relentless hunt for fun.
Now, there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself and making the most of the little time that most of us are allowed outside our workplaces (this, of course, does not apply to post graduate students, who only go on holidays to have some structure and predictability in their lives). What is worrying though, is the intensity with which the average holiday maker sets upon the task of filling every minute of the holiday with action. People actually go on holidays with itinerarys that list everything that is a "must". God help you if you try to stop someone rushing from the over priced "Virtual Tour of a Traditional Village Experience" (most likely right next to the real thing, which you could see for free) to "A Traditional Feast", desperately trying to keep their tight schedule. How could they stop? That would mean abandoning the PLAN! And we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?
Another interesting quality that holiday makers seem to develop the moment their plane lands on foreign soil is the fascination with almost everything "traditional". Now, most of the places where we live today have ancient ruins or at least museums that tell us what may have been there. But you don't see people rushing to a nearby "site of cultural importance" after work. No, it takes a holiday, hours in steaming hot busses, and a whole bunch of people trying to sell you sarongs to make people interested in some piles of stones. Or do you think that most foreign visitors to traditional music sessions in Irish pubs could name a single folk music artist in their own countries?
After following a strict schedule for a fortnight the tired but happy holiday maker can finally return to work and relax. Now you only have to show all your holiday photos to everyone you know, make them drink some local wines (that cost next to nothing for a reason) you picked up, and tell them all about some wonderful people you met on holiday, but your guests never will.
All in all, it seems that people return from holidays more exhausted than they were before, and still manage to piss everyone else off with their stories. It's a small wonder that Holiday brochures don't have to carry health warnings like the ones taking most of the space on cigarette packets: "Holidays will exhaust you and those around you!" "Holidays cause stress!"
Well, mustn't linger... I'm almost late for my holiday already!
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