This is Winter Break

SEVERAL OF OUR friends have made similar comments: what are supposed to do during these two week breaks? For those of us who are from the United States, these long breaks in the middle of the year take a little getting used to. Today we started our two week 'winter break' -- which is a break that is staggered throughout France so as not to clog up the ski slopes all at the same time. We didn't do too much today, although I did manage to get my 'emergency temporary passport' -- which required me to wait at the American Consulate for about 2 minutes this morning. (I've written about this before).

We're lucky in many ways that I have the same breaks as the kids (aha, I just found one advantage of teaching!), but I can't help but wonder what families do who have two working parents. What do they do with the kids during the 8 weeks of school vacation that occur during the academic year (that's 2 in October, 2 for Christmas, 2 for winter break, and 2 for spring break in case you're counting)? I know the French -- and most other Europeans -- take more vacation time than the average American, but very often 3 or 4 weeks are used during the summer months of July and August leaving very few available during the year. I spoke to one friend about it the other day and he said, 'Look, we take 2 weeks in the summer, and one during each of the 4 breaks during the year. That's our six weeks!'

OK, didn't know it was that simple.

Bonne vacances!
CJS

Late Update: A quick list of where some of my students are currently spending their winter break: Paris, Vienna, Switzerland, New York, Bangkok, Madrid, Tokyo, London, Amsterdam (I have a lot of Dutch students!), Moscow, Los Angeles, and Corsica.