8 days

That's how much time off I get per year. Not all at once, not even two days in a row. Nope. There are eight national holidays, that I get off. Let's see if I can come up with a complete list:
-New Year's day
-MLK day
-Washington's birthday
-Memorial day
-July 4th
-Labor Day
-Thanksgiving
-Christmas day

And in the lucky year 2009, July 4th is on a Saturday, so make that 7 days. Plus I didn't stay at home on Washington's birthday, which makes that 6 days. That's a whooping 25% vacation cut! (In 2010, July 4th will be on a Sunday, which means another 12.5% reduction in days off for the year 2010.)

Wait, I know what you're thinking: "Isn't everyone supposed to get, you know, a few days of vacation? Or maybe just a stay-cation in these rough economic times? Perhaps a long weekend? What about some family time around Christmas? Perhaps visiting some family over Thanksgiving (taking off Black Friday)?"

Excellent questions. I'm glad you brought those things up. After being told that any request for vacation would be met with the reminder that anyone can be "fired" (they don't call it that in grad school, they call it Master's degree), I got the following answers: No. No. No. No. and. No. Does that answer your questions?

I sure hope it does, because that's all the answer(s) I got. It's gonna be a loooong summer, I can tell already.