But what baffled me the most was Spaniards’ sheer excellence at taking their vacation. Most of them abandoned any productive activity for the entire month of August, venturing off to the seaside or the mountains, and doing. And after this annual month of indolence, they returned victorious, radiating a deep peace. Inevitably, after about the first week, I wound up begging my wife to cut our monthlong vacation short—so that, for the love of God, I could do something. Decades later, now living back in the U.S., I begrudgingly take brief annual vacations, but I assiduously avoid August trips to the Iberian vacation nothing-box.