What to do during school holidays?

I'm off on a career break in September to do a two-year course. This means for the first time in a very, very long time I have a long college summer holiday to look forward to in 2007.

When I was going through college first time 'round that was invaluable time to earn whatever I needed to see myself through the following academic year. This time 'round I'm lucky enough not to have to use the holiday for that purpose. Which raises the question: what will I do with myself for three months+ next summer?

I could be all sensible and take a summer job related to my course. But I'm doing the course for my own interest rather than with the intention of working in the area (very indulgent I know - hey, other people get their jollies from fancy cars and designer clothes, I taking a couple of years out instead!) so work experience isn't essential.

I'd rather not while it away just swanning about the place. That'll get pretty boring pretty quickly. And soon enough I'll be back at my desk kicking myself for not making the most of the opportunity while I had it.

So, any suggestions for ways to spend three months next summer? I'm stumped! The last time I had to while away such a long time I was 14 years old!

Depending on your inclinations, you could up sticks to another country and just get a casual summer job in a bar or some such, renting an apartment short term - I did that every year when I was in college, and not only did I make great money, I also had a great time, improved my language skills, and came to know other cities and cultures far better than you would on a holiday. If you don't want to work in that kind of job, how about doing TEFL, or maybe just do some kind of residential course in a foreign place?

Otherwise you could backpack (or whatever the slightly more comfortable version would be!), but I personally would rather get to know and experience one/two locations really well rather than spend a whirlwind 2-3 days in each of 20 different locations.

Cool ideas Sherman. Only thing is I'm not sure I'd want to travel for the whole summer. I've done that in the past and its the business (summer working in Boston, 6 months backpacking in Oz, California and South East Asia, road trip around the Western Cape... all amazing) While I'm definitely open to the idea of travelling for part of the summer two things would make me want to limit my excursions:
1. I'd miss himself and the dogs if I was gone for any length of time!
2. If I travelled without working it would stretch my funds more than I'd like (as I won't be earning for the two years we're sharing one income and I don't want to make unnecessary demands of it)
So I suppose that limits me to ideas closer to home...

having free time after so long in regular employment sounds like a dream to me. If you are sticking close to home I would consider...

Get a list of the 100 top movies of all time and watch those that you have not already seen (ditto with the top 100 novels)

Go on a wine/cookery course (or both)

Learn to speak Italian

Visit all the major tourist sites in Ireland

Become super fit by exercising properly several times a week

Chase up old school/college friends and visit them.

Do some charity work

Fantastic suggestions JohnBoy! Yes, the prospect of such a lump of free time is almost as exciting as getting to do the course in the first place. Grazie!

(Anyone got any good suggestions for summertime wine/cookery courses in Dublin?)

What about doing some voluntary work? You could try the conservation volunteers ... you could work on an archeological dig ... it could be good fun.

What about being a lock keeper on the shannon for the summer ... opening and closing the non-automated locks and lifting the bridges ... the power may go to your head.

If money was no object you could pop off to spain and learn how to fly ... come back with a pilots licence.

Try to write a book?

Hi,

I've done some wine courses with the Wine Development Board.
I dont know if they have summer courses, but you can check them out here :

Lots of companies do short cookery courses abroad - e.g. 1 week in an Italian villa learning to cook and visiting olive farms/cheese makers etc.

You could use the time to do stuff you never normally have time for, like as JohnBoy suggested, get really fit by getting a gym routine going.
Another thing you could do is totally de-clutter the house - get rid of all old clothes/books/papers/ornaments/gadgets which you never use.
Or sort out all your photos into albums.

Thanks for the ideas Henny Penny and ragazza.

The photo album is a good project that badly needs doing in my house - 20 years of photos crammed into a box! Should also get around to printing out some of my favourite digital pics too. If I was organized enough/had enough energy that would be a perfect winter evening project. I suspect winter evenings will now be devoted to practice and study for my course, so summer would be a great time to do this.

I don't think the Wine Board do summer courses, thought the sound of a themed holiday sounds fab ... I already have my eye on a yoga holiday in Italy though the costs really stack up quite quickly (maybe that will be my fun fling with my SSIA before stashing away the rest of it sensibly?) Am interested in wine... can you recommend a good book that would serve as a good teach-yourself-all-about-wine guide?

In the meantime I intend to devote some more time to my yoga practice than the 10 mins I give it most mornings! (Not much time for end-of-practice meditation in there!) I should sign up for a summer yoga course too, for added motivation.

Ditto on the cooking front - I'm an adequate everyday cook and baker but would love to put a bit of polish on my skills and even perfect some of the basics with my free time. Anyone any recommendations on good 'how to' cook books? I have a little library of cook books at home, some of which are really reliable stars and others are really hit-and-miss, don't provide enough info to work with or use obsure and difficult-to-obtain ingredients (stand up, Nigella Lawson!) so a recommendation would be great (saves a lot of dud dinners!)

Already do voluntary work but during term-time (teaching). I should look into hooking up with some summer-based voluntary work for next summer. I'll check out www.volunteeringireland.ie and see if I can spot something suitable.

Love the idea of being lock-keeper ... ooooh the power! But its a bit of cycle from Kimmage to the Shannon! Mind you, Kimmage isn't so far from the Grand Canal ... Would be a good match with writing a book... Hmmm. Actually would love to get more seriously into writing too (have done some creative writing classes but never did anything with it after the classes).

Seems like you've given me loads of ideas. Thanks! Now all I need is the discipliine to put them into practice!