I love that term - and all it implies! The European equivilent of our American Vacation goes so much further, however, to offer respite, provide insight and engage its followers in a non-work mode.
For here in America - in Corporate America at least - the vacation is time taken off from the workplace, as in "vacating". It is not, necessarily, time away from the work itself. Oh no. We have cell phones; we have laptops; and in a big pinch, we ALWAYS have either Kinkos or the hotel fax machine. It's as though we think, in our micromanaged little existence, that everything would fall apart without us. How Egomaniacal!
And it isn't always the workplace that dictates our not-so-down time. "Now leave, and don't worry about us..." our co-workers will say. No, that's OK. I don't trust you enough to walk away without at least one eye on things. A call-in occasionally, especially when the vacation time is lagging a bit or we need to escape from the relatives.
A Holiday on the other hand evokes thoughts of months in the country, or weeks "out of country". Dazzling adventures are set before us, so much so that we've not a moment to think of the workplace and its daily drama. Can you just imagine?
No? I thought not. We Americans weren't conditioned that way. Pity!
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