Why America is off of my list of places to live

In order to maintain the nickname, Carmen Sandiego, as well as a blog called The Catch Me If You Can, traveling is absolutely necessary. In order to travel I need money, meaning that a job is absolutely necessary. So what happens when the two of them conflict? That is to say, what happens when you work in a country where your government doesn’t guarantee you a minimum number of weeks of paid holiday? That people, is life in America.

Since living overseas (specifically Europe) I have definitely fallen in love with their holiday culture. In many countries, offices, during the month of August, are ghost towns because people take a solid four week break to unwind and relax. For many workers in the US this is impossible, paid or unpaid. A recent article on CNN.com tackles the topic. In the article, “Why is America the ‘no- vacation nation’?” they explore American work and vacation culture, highlighting the fact that Americans not only work more, but working brings them happiness. Another point the article touches on is that countries such as Finland, Brazil and France guarantee their citizens six weeks of paid vacation, whereas the US government mandates nothing, leaving a quarter of the workforce with no paid vacation, whatsoever!

Whenever I have friends from the states come to visit me in Europe, my European friends are always surprised by how short the stays are, usually no more than three days in any European city. The reason for these “hit it and quit it” trips, as I refer to them, is because many people do not have the luxury of taking five or more days off of work in one go. Because of the short time period they have for vacation, they try to take in all of the European capitals or popular cities in one go, meaning that in ten days an American “sees” Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona, and of course they squeeze in Amsterdam. While this is a gross generalization, I will admit that back in 2007 I was one of those American tourists, squeezing in London, Paris and Madrid on a ten day trip. But the longer I stay in Europe the more I see the benefit of enjoying cities and entire countries on separate trips rather than country hopping.

So you see, for this reason alone I cannot foresee myself leading a happy life back in the US and being unable to take long vacations to see the world. So for those of you that would like to see me living in the US again, please start lobbying your government so that you can live the same wonderful life that Europeans do (Let’s not even mention healthcare!).