When I would tell people at home that I would be gone for three weeks, the reaction was,
"wow! How do you get that much time off?"  "That's so great!"  Wow, such a long time!"  I thought it was a long time as well, or at least a decent amount of time .

The reaction in Australia is, "That's it?" 

It could be that I traveled a long way and staying three weeks is not enough to see everything. Yes, part of that is true, But, Australians also get about 4 weeks of vacation per year, as well as all the major holidays.

Why is that we value work over vacation? I read somewhere that if the US operated more like European countries in terms of vacation, we would have the last two months of the year off, every year. Can you imagine? Having November and December completely off? What would we do with this time??

I'm not knocking the US or saying that working hard isn't good, but I wish we didn't have this mentality that we "live to work."  Aussies and others "work to live."  Does working this much make us stronger? Better people? Is our society/economy better for it? I'm not sure.

Anyway....yesterday it was about 110 degrees outside! So, I baked lemon and monster cookies that Vicky can store in her freezer. They rent out their cottage to guests throughout the year, and she wants to put out cookies when they arrive. :) We also went for a swim at the neighbor's pool to combat the heat. It has cooled off a bit this morning (Sunday), about 10 degrees. Haha.

Until next time....
Jamie

PS. GO BADGERS!!!