August = LES VACANCES

The French take their summer vacations very seriously. Unlike Americans, most of them get four full weeks off in the summer. I've come to discover that several aspects of the summer vacation are so culturally ingrained that it's become a national pastime to analyze them.

Here are a few things I've learned:

• You can be defined as either a "juilletiste" or an "aoûtien". Juilletistes go on vacation in July (juillet) and aoûtiens go in August (août). People tend to be faithful to one month or the other.
• The French don't like to miss out on one single day of their vacation. As a result, they all leave on / come back from their vacations on the same day! Which is why certain days in the summer are classified as "green", "orange", "red" or "black" ... according to the amount of traffic on the country's highways. This weekend is supposed to be the worst of the summer, because the juilletistes are going home and the aoûtiens are heading out. They are predicting hundreds of kilometers of traffic jams on the highways. (I'll stay at home, merci.)
• Watching the news, we receive very important information for our vacations. Not only is there the traffic alert, but along with the usual weather report, there's also a special weather report just for the beaches. They give the air temperature, water temperature and wind speed.
• LE CAMPING: The French love to spend their summer vacation at campgrounds. I suppose it's an economical option, since a month in a hotel can get pricey. But before you get an idea that they're roughing it, let me explain what a French campground (un camping) is like ... because it's nothing like the simple American campgrounds that I know and love. First of all, the accomodations: some people are in tents, many others are in campers, and many are in little mobile homes. And in one campground, there can be hundreds of them. As for the entertainment: I get the impression that French campgrounds are like summer camp for whole families. There are activities all day long -- water aerobics in the pool, arts & crafts, singing contests and shows in the evening, discothèques at night. Because a lot of people like to return to the same campground year after year, they get to know their neighbors, and enjoy inviting them over to their area for a drink or a meal. [note: my observations about campgrounds have only come from TV ... I'll stick to American campgrounds where all you have is a space for the tent, a picnic table and maybe a fire circle]

So how have (or haven't) I embraced the notion of vacationing like the French? Well, for starters, I am taking the entire month of August off. "Bonjour, je suis aoûtienne." Even though Philipp and I are only going to spend three weeks in the States, I decided that I didn't need to work during the first week of August. It'll be nice to have some time to relax before our trip.

Today is the 1st of August, so I'm officially on vacation! Here's how I've spent my day:

7:00 - alarm goes off. forgot to set it for a later time. uugh.

7:02 - go back to sleep.

8:58 - wake up again. decide that I'm still exhausted but the sun is up so I should be, too. (yes, I know it was up at 7:00, too!)

9:00 - breakfast with Philipp, who is happy that I finally got up because he was starving.

9:30 - puttered around the house for a while, looked at NBC's Olympic coverage schedule online.

10:30 - went outside to work in the garden for a while. picked some more tomatoes. (we have so many!)

12:30 - lunch. inspired by my time in the garden (and our tomatoes that we grew all by ourselves!) I decided to prepare the following: homemade hummus, tomatoes and cheese cubes on Swedish flatbread. yum.

1:00 - Philipp and I took our coffees into the family room to watch the news and relax. (it had been such a strenuous morning, after all!)

1:30 - left with Philipp to keep him company and watch him kitesurf on the Loire. he was really disappointed to find that there wasn't as much wind as there seemed. not enough at all.

4:45 - on the way home, Philipp dropped me off at a park 3 miles from home. I ran 2 miles in the park, and then home for a total of 5 miles. one minute into my run, I got the hiccups! since I couldn't try my usual remedies (drinking water from the wrong side of the glass, or holding my breath ... not a good idea while running) I decided to just keep going. five minutes later, I still had them, so I had to stop and walk for a few minutes till they went away.

5:30 - got home, chatted with Philipp, drank some water and ate a yogurt.

5:45 - just before I got into the shower, I got the hiccups again. this time they were really loud ... and painful. they lasted all the way through my shower, drying off, getting dressed and lying down on the bed for several minutes. uugh.

And now ... it's 8:00. Philipp has gone back to the Loire because his friends are there and say the wind has picked up again. He was so disappointed about not having good wind to kitesurf this afternoon, I am really hoping conditions are better now and he's having a good time. I decided to stay home this time, and work on my blog. When I finish, I'll probably read for a while. We're going to have leftover linguine with tomato sauce for dinner. Oh, and I've gotten the hiccups one other time, while sitting here at my computer. They didn't last too long, though.

Well, that's about it for my first full day of vacation. A pretty full day, but relaxing. And I still have 30 days of vacation ahead of me ... :)