Leisure time: BIG SURPRISE and 1 BIG question

I thought that last class was pretty interesting. Often if you read the book discussion seem pointless because everyone reads the book so what is there to discuss about? But this time we had a good discussion I think. I especially liked the ending. To most people it might seem normal by I am actually still amazed by the way people here spend their leisure time. Now that it is mentioned I see it everywhere.

This weekend I was looking for people to hang out with and everyone was busy, doing something useful. I would actually have to say "useful" because the fact that we can justify it with "it looks good on a CV" does not necessarily mean it is usefull. But still, everyone was busy. It hits me every time: people are WORKING!

The Netherlands is so completely different. There were days last year where I just spend my entire day doing nothing, even spending several days doing nothing. Days where you would spend 6 hours of the day watching movies. Many friends of mine go out 5 times a week until 4am and sleep until 12pm, week in, week out. The only things I can put on my CV are working for 3 weeks during 1 summer at a company that distributes books and a vacation with friends to South Africa where we happened to build an Aids Centre. I would not say that we do not work at all in the Netherlands. I study a lot, but every time I call friends to have lunch they say yes because they can put aside their work for a few moments to do nothing.

This post is not meant to be negative at all. There are so many good things about the system here. I am amazed by the level of discipline people have here. It is hard to find students that study in the weekend in the Netherlands (unless there is an exam the Monday after). In this country you become someone because you worked for it. But still, I couldn't imagine how my life would look if I grew up in the US. I value my "useless" time so much. Just doing stuff with no reason at all. No justification. I would never want to stop doing that. To me, this is the first BIG difference that I encounter between the US en the Netherlands. It only took me 3 months :P.

Another example is vacation. I consider my parents to workaholics. But when I think about it, they have vacation about 7 weeks a year and they still has free days left. I think this is not much at all but apparently it is here.

I can tell you: of all the differences that I expected to find when I would come here for the first time, I never expected leisure time to be one. So I have one BIG question. This is not to be stupid, mean or trying to change anything, I just really want an answer. I really hope someone can explain this to me.

How can people be happy if they are working all the time?

By
Merel van Helden