Life-related musings

[feuervogel]

As in, what the fuck am I doing with my life? And this icon is rather appropriate (and damn if the book it's from isn't appropriate, too).

Monday I'm going to the NC Association of Pharmacists annual meeting, in part to get CE (which carries over into next year), but mainly because I want to talk to the exhibitors and see if any of them are hiring. I can also find out more about the various committees, two of which sound interesting to me.

I joked to myself a few weeks ago that if I didn't get anywhere after the meeting, I'd consider going back to school.

I read a letter to the editor from one of the professors at UNC's department of city and regional planning in support of the transit referendum, so I looked at their website. It sounds really interesting, but what kind of jobs can I do with that? I don't know. (There's also a dual degree program with SPH in the health behaviors department, which is also relevant to my interests.) I love cities, I love public transit, I love smart growth; I'm not interested in relocating anywhere within the US to get a job doing that. (Which is kind of my main problem I guess.)

If I wanted to follow my interests, I'd go study history, but in order to get into the history graduate program, you have to have a background in history, which I don't. I'd want to study 20th century European (specifically German) history, though I don't know if I'd want to focus on WW1 or the Cold War. But to do that, I need (probably) to have studied modern European history. You have to write an analytical essay in your application :P

And there's no way in god's greenest hell I'm doing another bachelor's degree.

So, I'm 36 years old, highly educated, and I have no idea what I want to do with my life.

Comments

[feuervogel]

AAU lists their courses, and they do sound interesting. $14,000, though...plus living expenses and travel and residence permits, vs $4850/semester at UNCx4=~19000, but no additional living expenses.

The TUB course requires a degree I don't have and experience in urban planning. (Figures; Germans are really picky about that sort of thing. They don't recognize the PharmD, not that my license would be valid anyway.)

Or I could see about studying modern European history at HU. I do speak German, after all. (ETA: hahaha, they require 2 foreign languages AND Latin. Hahahahahahaha. And that's for the bachelor's.)

[andelku.livejournal.com]

Well, but you will have all of your current living expenses, so UNC's living expenses doesn't equal zero. Residence permit is cheap. Flight runs around $1000, so that's expensive. I think you come out nearly even actually. Plus you will have no automobile expenses, none, zero.

[andelku.livejournal.com]

Also rent and all is high but food is still quite cheap. They have price controls on bread and beer and farmers markets everywhere.

Did I mention I lived there for four years?

[feuervogel]

I'm already paying to live here, so I'm not counting that as an expense. (Because Ben likes his job*, may or may not be able to find one in Prague, and then there are the cats... and I'm not really keen on spending 2 years away from him & them :/ My 1-yr residency in Oregon was bad enough, though there were complicating circumstances (rain, unfriendly coworkers, etc).)

*And if he left, his company would be screwed, since he's the only programmer. Though if we move to Berlin, he'd have to quit; hopefully by then their company would have more money to hire a replacement. Maybe the bigger company they're contracting with will buy them/their patents, which would make for interesting changes. Berlin is more of a "I want to do this by 2020" type of thing.

Argh. IDK. I want to write, and I want that to pay, but it isn't, and I'm frustrated, and I haven't had work in 2.5 years, and I'm tired of not being able to buy things I want or travel. Though I *really like* not having full time job commitments and being able to meet my writers group in daytime.

[andelku.livejournal.com]

Oh don't mind me. When anyone says, oh, I'd like to move to Europe I start jumping up and down and going well this is the cheapest airfare and this is how you'd get your residence permit. It's a reflex.

[feuervogel]

Heh. Airfare one way isn't too bad; it's the repeated coming home to visit part that gets expensive ;)

Though if Ben's company weren't so precarious (3 people!), we'd have a lot more flexibility. Though he *really likes* not having corporate bureaucratic stuff to deal with.