Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Anti-Vacation

Because experience is relative.
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Human experience is relative in nature. If you're having a good time, it's always measured against the standard type of time you've had in the past. This is why some people are happy living in a mud hut as a subsistence farmer, and some people are miserable even though they own an island. If you gave the hut- dweller an island, they'd likely be happy, and if you put the former island-owner in a hut, they'd likely be miserable, because their experience is relative.

This is where it becomes obvious that we're doing vacations all wrong. Perhaps you're an accountant living in Guildford, whiling away your existence one 40hr work week at a time, driving your 7 yo car back and forth to a 3 bedroom semi detached house. Compared to the Earth's average inhabitant, your life is going pretty damned spectacularly. You should be deliriously happy, but no, instead, you decide a nice vacation will cheer you up.

So you're off. 2 weeks all inclusive in Barbados. 2 weeks of sun, beaches, pools, food & drinks service and room cleaning etc. with no bigger demand than working your way through a second paperback. Lovely. That's a nice experience. You can tell, because you've compared it to your tedious financial work at a desk in Guildford. After 2 weeks, your brain starts to think life can always be like this, but no. Now you're off back to the office and the tedious financial work. You had a good time for 2 weeks, but for the other 50 weeks in the year, your stuck comparing office work with lounging around on a beach being brought your 3rd Daiquiri. now you know you're having a shitty time.

So, the solution. The opposite, an Anti-Vacation. Barbados? Oh no. This year you'll be doing a couple of weeks in the Jinchuan Nickel mine in China! A mere 200 miles from the Mongolian border this beauty has 430 million tonnes of proven low-grade Nickel sulfide reserves! Remember your overalls and safety gear because you don't want another verbal dressing down when you report to shift-supervisor Li, not given how badly you're likely to perform in your new role. You'll be doing a good number of hours, 12 per day on average, however as the new person, you'll be filling in on whichever shift has a vacancy, so don't expect your circadian rhythms to be anything other than frazzled.

Lunch is served in-mine and might be surprisingly good, although don't expect a cold beer at the end of the shift... As a special guest employee, you'll be off to the theater! To take in the corporate presentations from the last 10 years alongside perennial favorites from the government propaganda dept.

Your flight back will be eventful, new "sub-economy" seating has been designed with Anti-Vacations in mind. For safety reasons ear plugs are banned and babies only fly free if they're crying!!

So, how's Guildford looking now? Same again next year? Or are we planning to take in a package tour? 1 week in a Pakistani tannery before we take a connecting flight to Mumbai sewage work?

bs0u0155, Apr 08 2022

Mike Rowe's similar idea, coepi in 2005 https://www.discove...om/shows/dirty-jobs
MR'd fit right in, and may already be here in HB [Sgt Teacup, Apr 09 2022]

work vacations https://www.volunte...BTXhixoCxs8QAvD_BwE
[xandram, Apr 09 2022]

more programs https://globalvolun...ndqnERoCugYQAvD_BwE
[xandram, Apr 09 2022]

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       Just so that I have this straight...   

       ... You want people from countries which have tried to figure out how to enable each other to be able to pull themselves up from squalor, if they have the grit, to immerse themselves in environments where this ability no longer exists...   

       ...whereas I want people from environments where no ability exists for people to pull themselves up from squalor to obtain the grit to figure out how to enable each other.   

       Personally I think that the citizens of any given land should be shareholders in that regions' hospitality industry.   

       When it becomes more advantageous to be hospitable than adversarial and the people themselves are recipients of that tourism money, then shit will change.   

       Not before.   

       [+] This reminds me of university sociology majors who volunteer to teach farming to farmers in Africa. Actual farmers must think about planting them, row upon row.
4and20, Apr 09 2022
  

       //It'll feel great when you stop// So that's what I'm doing wrong! I'll try.
pocmloc, Apr 09 2022
  

       If I’m reading this right I’m pretty sure this exists already. See link about volunteering in underprivileged countries to help the locals. This is the vacation. It’s called *voluntourism*.
xandram, Apr 09 2022
  

       Xandram, I agree. I was once going to do it, but chickened out or lost the money or some such calamity. Not sure it's "widely known to exist", but it's close.
blissmiss, Apr 09 2022
  

       I was just reading about a post-apocalyptic movie which was filmed in an old West Virginia coal mine.
4and20, Apr 09 2022
  


 

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