Saunas and Santa Claus: Summer holiday

Traveling and living outside of the U.S. has made me aware of the top American stereotype: our lack of vacation time. Inevitably, it is a topic that comes up in conversations with strangers in pubs and with new acquaintances.

"In the US, you have no holiday time, right?"
"Well, not 'none', it depends on your job."
"But even though you have vacation time, you don't use it, right? Is it true that employers will pay you to not take the vacation time?"
"Many people are very driven and don't want to take their vacation. And, yeah, some jobs will give you a bigger paycheck in exchange for your vacation time."
"How awful! I could never live there!"

In Finland, the majority of workers are entitled to 30 working days of holiday from the start. Due to their social welfare system, workers keep this minimum and it continues to grow the longer they work, no matter how many times they may change jobs. Astounding. Even more astounding, as a worker in Finland, I was also entitled to this glut of vacation time. I even felt a little bit guilty! If I felt so guilty about it, who would notice that I didn't take all 30 days? As it turns out, everyone at work. It seems that the gossip wasn't about who was abusing the vacation time, but who wasn't taking full advantage. When I returned from my summer vacation (15 days, mind you!), I was greeted with,

"What are you doing here? We were afraid you wouldn't want to take all of your holiday."
"Thank you, it's nice to be back. By the way, I did take time over the winter holidays, too!"

What did I do with my 15 days? We had friends from college as well as my parents visiting for most of the time and we tried to get to as many of these spots as possible. We also spent a few days in Denmark with my parents. Until next time, below are a few highlights of the trip. Hope you have some holiday time this summer!