the average corporate minion gets about two weeks of vacation a year. i've lucked out with close to 3. and yet, what is three weeks really? it seems like nothing. fifteen days scattered over the course of three hundred sixty-five is a drop in the bucket. where are our values? shouldn't we be making room for our lives?

i spent a lovely five days with family and boy was it refreshing. it is great to truly get away, literally. i flew to another country, to another climate practically, and breathed in the fresh air from fir trees. i saw vast mountain ranges and experienced altitudes i had never felt before. i gorged on delicious food cooked by my aunt, allowed myself to indulge in naps and lazy merriment as befits a woman in my state. i bonded with newfound cousins.

yes, i am gladly looking forward to the huge change coming ahead in my life. i am every bit excited, elated, anxious, scared, cautious, thrilled. i have visions of running around barefoot in the grass somewhere out in the great outdoors. this city life, it wears on you. more and more it feels like an unhealthy pace, at least in the long term.

in the short-term, you bet i want my child to know her grandparents and experience diversity in one of the most international meccas of the world.