It existed to a minor degree prior to WW I, and took off to a fair degree in the 1960s. Today? You rarely hear much about it.
A European sabbatical.
This isn't a two week trip to London or Paris. It's not meant to be a ten-day trip to Rome. It's not really a seven-day trip to Madrid.
This was typically where you'd take anywhere from a month to twelve months.....just hoping on a train and going places in Europe. Somehow.....junior would graduate from college and convince dad to pour a couple of thousand dollars into a life-experience. Somehow....Mandy would convince mom that she needed ten weeks in France to get a flavor of life that she'd missed in school.
These were all people who would return and for decades....talk about that summer off in 1972....or that entire year off in 1964....where they saw Paris, Munich, Normandy, some unnamed beach resort in Greece, ate real Italian pizza every day for a month, sipped cheap Portuguese wine, and rode a scooter around Denmark to see things.
I've spent roughly twenty-four years of my life on the European 'sabbatical'. I admit....I worked most of the period in Europe and it wasn't my intentional goal to start with. But somewhere along the way.....I've come to realize the value in walking around Europe and getting a feel for history, culture, and dynamics.
For example.....until you've walked around London and gotten a feel for the area involved in the 1666 'great fire of London'......you really don't understand the vast nature of the town burning down. Until you've stood in the Gutenberg Museum of Mainz and looked over the printing process.....you don't understand the drift of society and impact over the next hundred years. Until you've actually driven over the Alps (not through the tunnels, but over the top).....you really don't grasp the division of Europe from north to south. Until you've sat in an Irish pub and listened to the woeful tales of some strange Irish guy and his crazy family.....you don't understand the nature of the Irish people.
No one keeps statistical data on how many Americans do this. I'd take a guess that ten thousand do it each year. Some write journals over the experience.....some write a simplified blog of the grand trip....some never return to the US, having realized some alternate reality of American life is slightly better and more desired.
If you asked me about the advantages.....I'd say there are four distinctive achievements from such an experience.
First, you get the raw truth of life in the 'other' world. It's not relayed to you via the news media or some guy who spent seven nights in Paris and thinks he's got the big picture. In some ways, it's not a pleasant picture because you realize the limits or negatives of life in Europe. It costs more....it's not simple to get from A to B.....and languages can be a massive issue.
Second, a typical trip around the US will introduce you to three-hundred varieties of a lunch or dinner....more or less. So you'd think that's it, and discover after six months of traveling around Europe.....another four-thousand ways of making a lunch or dinner and tempting you with different degrees of cooking. You develop a taste for Italian pizza because it's cooked on a stone oven, or you savor the taste of Rhine Valley wine over the Ebro River Valley wine from Spain. You get some passion finally over liquor-filled chocolate from Austria.....that American chocolate can never satisfy again.
Third, structure.....design....format....and architecture take on another dimension once you finish up twelve weeks walking around Amsterdam, Munch and Vienna. You ask why bicycle paths in Leiden, Netherlands can't be copied and worked into the city design of American cities. You question why every single airport in Europe is hooked into a railway spur and connect people quickly to airport usage......and why we can't do it in the US. You look over Danish beach areas and ask why Danes leave their beaches "as-is".....without any fancy resorts or hotels scattered around them.
Fourth, finally.....you come around to this odd thing of American patience versus European patience. There is this calm nature that is anchored into most of European society. Rash decision making isn't an item that you'd readily find in any European country. The idea of a bold new concept suddenly taking root and transforming itself in a matter of weeks or months? It won't happen in Europe. Wal-Mart failed when it tried to introduce itself into Europe. Most American fast food enterprises enjoyed a good early start, but over the past two or three years in Europe.....they've realized overgrowth and less-curious customers. Playing business poker or agenda poker with society.....isn't something that readily occurs in Europe....with odds for success being a bigger deal than most Americans are used to or enjoy.
So, if someone asked me over the idea of giving 'junior' ten-thousand dollars and six months in Europe on some sabbatical after four years of college.....I'd generally say it'd be money well spent and deliver a unique experience to the kid. I wouldn't give an 18-year old kid the experience....mostly because I'd question how they'd view the whole thing or the gains for them for later in life.
Sabbatical traveling.....might be the twist in life that someone needed.....to reset their compass and view the bigger world.
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