Holidays => Happy

I know I am not the only one who is really looking forward to the long weekend. A break!

Also Thanksgiving, of course. I didn’t know how big Thanksgiving is until this Friday last year when I returned to Vanier to see floods of students being picked up by their parents in cars. Prior to this the most frequently asked question on my floor was, “Are you going home for the weekend?” Well… no. Even though I hadn’t expected Thanksgiving to affect me, given that I’ve never celebrated it, it still hit hard.

Fortunately, I was knocked out with a fever on Thanksgiving itself so didn’t have enough energy to be homesick. And then I want dancing in the evening.

This year I am far more prepared for the possibility of homesickness, but I think I should be fine. I have essays and other things due on Tuesday so I’ll probably be doing those on Thanksgiving Day instead of eating turkey and stuffing (which I first tried this Easter, by the way; I always imagined stuffing was something you put in the turkey).

But the whole point of my post, ignoring my digression on Thanksgiving, is to ask:

Where on earth can we go to suggest some form of Reading Week in Term 1 as well as Term 2?

Because a week’s break is exactly what I need right about now to take a step back, breathe, and catch up on everything without feeling overwhelemed. I’m not panicking, but it is hard to keep on top of things, and talking to a friend in New York University the other day has made me royally jealous of their fall break — apparently, they have a new, one-week fall break, courtesy of students complaining about having none before. Why, I want one of those!

While I have not counted the actual number of days, I don’t think that there is a huge difference between September to November and January to March (actual teaching days we are in class for). Psychologically, at least, I feel like we are in school for longer in the first term than the second. Maybe it’s not that way at all once I actually juggle the figures, but that’s what it feels like.

I have resigned myself to the fact that my non-Canadian friends have huge holidays. The US and the UK give three to four weeks for the winter break. They have reading weeks and/or fall and spring breaks. Some old classmates of mine had not only Reading Week in February, but then six weeks off for Easter too (admittedly, that was a little insane, since other UK folks only get four off). Granted, they only have three months’ summer as opposed to our four to make up for their larger holidays in between, and I realize that people can use four months to do a lot of things, like work and study and travel.

Though I suppose that if people had a month off for winter break, they could also work quite a bit then if in need of cash.

But the point is, while I’m not sure that everyone is willing to have one less month of summer in order to have longer and more holidays in between September 1st and April 31st, I don’t think an autumn Reading Week would hurt.

So can we pretty please have one?