Admittedly, just as everybody else would if asked to decide which is
better, vacation or staycation, I’d say “vacation”. At first. Because generally
speaking, I really do prefer vacations to staycations. Just because I’m
interested in getting to know new customs, new people, new cultures. There are
instances, however, when all I crave for is a staycation – just staying at home
and doing everything my heart desires. Right now, I’ve reached a point when a
vacation seems like so much stress that I’ve made up my mind to take a
staycation this summer – at least in July. Some might argue that staycations are boring, but, in fact, they are not. As long as you alternate between vacations and staycations. Staycations can be the most relaxing thing in the world because you can do what you always wanted but never had the time to do during the (academic) year.
Firstly, and very importantly, you can read 10
books at once; the worst thing that’s going to happen is that you might confuse
a few things with the plot or the characters, but other than that, you’ll be
just fine. In my case, this means living my “sticklerdom” about books to the
fullest. I have these many journals and little notebooks that are deplorably
empty mostly, simply for want of time to fill them. During a staycation, I can take
down all the words I don’t know and look up their meanings, write down
beautiful quotes, and (again) read them out to everybody else who stands still for
long enough. During the year, I simply don’t have enough time for that; the
only thing I manage to do is write loads of words on little post-its that I
lose eventually, throwing me into gulfs of despair. Staycations are the times when you can just read
those really long books that you don’t have time to read during the year because
your classes dictate other priorities – also in terms of literature.
Staycations are the time of Middlemarch,
The Count of Monte Cristo, Our Mutual Friend, Wives and Daughters, or all 7 Potters.
And if this isn’t enough, you can use your time to learn poems by heart. Or
Shakespeare’s sonnets. I’m not that much into Shakespeare’s plays, actually, since
his misogynistic “Frailty, thy name is woman” Hamlet kind of annoyed me, but his sonnets are wonderful.
Especially his “Let me not to the
Marriage of True Minds” one. Right, Hugh Grant
alias Daniel Cleaver would despise me
for this, and I admit it’s corny, but I really enjoy doing this.
Also, you (finally!) have time to discard all your old stuff. It’s not
as if this was always frustrating. It can be, but it’s not so generally. Isn’t
it truly wonderful to sit in a pile of old stuff, reading your old diaries and feeling
intense shame on account of their contents and especially the “Sentiments
Express’d”? To walk down memory lane when looking through your old photographs?
Who cares if you end up reading something or playing with something you’ve found
and leave all your stuff lying about? Who cares if you end up keeping all your
things and stuff them back into your attic because they’re too touchingly wonderful
to throw away? Discarding, or rather, not
discarding old stuff is a wonderful thing that’s made for being indulged in
during staycations.
Then, obviously, you can meet up with your friends at all times of
the day. You can go hiking, lie in the sun, or cool down at one of the lakes.
You can go out three to four times in a row, or just meet at a café or somewhere,
and talk about anything and everything. Your own balcony lends itself very well
for that purpose, too. There’s no greater bliss than sitting on the balcony on
a mild summer night, having a beer or two, and just talking. I sometimes feel
as if I didn’t talk enough during the year. This is the time to make up for
that.
These are also the occasions when knitting and crocheting becomes a very
valuable pastime. Unlike with books, you can talk and knit/crochet/sew/whatever
simultaneously. (Still, this is where being able to multitask comes in handy.) I
occasionally do scarfs and socks, and I had a phase when I was completely into
crocheting toys. But mostly I watch other people do the knitting, especially
since my mum started buying so many English knitting books because often the German version had not been published yet; so I usually
end up translating these. (Stuff for my vocabulary journals, that is.) Often,
my fifteen-year old cat crawls into my lap and then it gets even cosier. This is
the life.
Finally, staycations are the time to bake cakes. Perhaps it’s also to do
with the fact that so many people in my family have a birthday in summer;
perhaps it’s just the knowledge that no-one’s going to rush me and that I may
cavalierly take four hours to bake a really good cake. My favourites are
definitely Jamie Oliver’s recipes. Some of them are quite complicated, even though he always pretends
they’re not, but they’re also the best. Not only do I like him because he’s
British – even though his accent makes me want to listen to him all day – but also
because he’s not such a twerp as many other cooks are. He doesn’t tell you to
use 1 15/16 of a table spoon but generously measures the ingredients he uses in
his recipes in hands. He uses stylish kitchen devices like mortar and pestle.
And his enthusiasm about eating and cooking is quite contagious. And let’s face
it, it’s just music to everybody’s ears to hear themselves being praised over
and over again for a really good, complicated cake.
So this year, I’m so
looking forward to my July staycation. I’ll do all the things that ever entered
my mind during the year, but which I didn’t have an opportunity to do. I’ll
indulge in all the activities I mentioned above (that one cannot really pursue
on a vacation) until I get sick of each of them (except my friends and my
books) and when I’ve had enough I’ll be off, heading for a vacation.
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