Sunday, July 09, 2006

Practical or Pleasurable?

Today I:
  • had two organic toaster waffles (vegan) with maple syrup for breakfast
  • also had a bowl of cereal for breakfast immediately thereafter
  • drank a cup of jasmine green tea
  • had a seitan hoagie
  • made vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
  • ate the last of a leftover veggie burger wrap
  • ate several cookies
  • am still thinking

I think I am going return to school to secure my A.A. degree.

What, Christine, you work in architecture and you don't have a degree at all? you say.

That's right, you caught me. It's called being an intern. I have no degree. I've done two years of school and all I have to show for it is debt, a tendency to dream in bad Chinese, and a good paying job with domestic partner benefits.

How did I manage this? Well, my boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot got into his school and we had to take it because the maximum class size for his vocation is twelve, and that's all the graduating years put together. We couldn't exactly take a rain check, because that day might not come. We had to go.

Which kind of caught me with my pants down, so to speak, because I was planning a three-year two-year degree. That may on the surface seem silly, especially since I was going full-time, but a girl has needs. My particular need just happened to be a Chinese course every semester, regardless of whether I needed the Humanities credits or not.

So now the debate is whether to secure all those credits with an A.A. in English or Foreign Language. I looked at the requirements and I would need about ten courses for either degree. I could get an A.A. in Design with even less courses if that kind of thing was offered around here, but it's not, which sets me back a bit. All those architecture courses have to go into Electives.

There are pros and cons to either degree, of course. I should get an A.A. in English because I've essentially decided that I want to be a writer. However, the English degree doesn't require me to take foreign languages, a fact that frustrates me to no end. If I got the A.A. in Foreign Languages I would be required to take two languages, one of which I would have to reach Intermediate level in. (Academically, I'm already Intermediate level in Mandarin, although at the moment I can't remember a damn thing off the top of my head except survival phrases like, "Where's the toilet?" and "I'd like one cup of coffee, black, please.") The second language could rather conveniently be Japanese. "Convenient" because I have a written advantage because of all the Chinese I took. Some of those borrowed Chinese characters have the same or similar meaning in both languages.

Of course, lusting after spending hours upon hours learning Japanese while refreshing my written Chinese is totally irrational and, yeah, pure pleasure-seeking, because I have no idea what I would do with it except read menus and watch Samurai films without the subtitles on. Yet, it may - just maybe - be better than sex.

Perverse, I know.

3 comments:

Carrie K said...

The 2nd phrase isn't as helpful w/giving up caffeine and all. Don't worry too much about practical, get the degree whichever way interests you. In what isn't not nearly as important as having it.

Hez decided to crawl into my lap & tuck her nose in the crook of my arm in the cutest way possible bt I have to type one handed & I'm sitting in way that might permanently damage my ability to stand.

Unknown said...

I can also ask for tea. :P

Jeanette said...

Either way you go, good luck with getting your degree. Where do you plan on going to get the degree?