Life Update

I've had a million and one questions lately about what the next few years of my life entail. From family, friends, random strangers, faculty members, bosses, and that little voice inside my head. So here's the run-down ya'll...

When I got back from France I was informed that, "magically", I could graduate two quarters early if I wanted. (Had they told me this before I obviously would have stayed in France for a full year. According to my own calculations I would graduate just on time, but whatev). Looking at my options for post-graduation I decided to stay in school for the additional two quarters because, quite frankly, starting something in the middle of November wasn't particularly feasible or attractive.

That's why I decided to intern for a quarter. It takes up one of my two "free" quarters and looks great on a resume. It also gets me the heck out of Ada (Sorry, but after a semester abroad and a few trips to NYC I'm so sick of small-town America I could scream. And the high school cheerleader-esque drama that seems to easily manifest itself on this small campus of like-minded people is driving me almost to the point of hurting myself) and an internship will give me a chance to see what I really want to do for the rest of my life. I applied through The Washington Center, which is a group that has an agreement with Ohio Northern University, and was accepted. Now I work through them to find an internship. I'm hoping for something in the non-governmental sector that will allow me to use my French language skills and focus on international human/refugee rights. (I can actually hear my parents moaning "$30 grand a year in tuition and she wants to work for an NGO?!?")

After a quarter in DC it's back to ONU to finish off the classes I need and then graduate with the rest of my class in May. After that I plan on moving back to France for a while to be a language assisstant. It's a program through the government that pairs native English/Spanish/Russian/German/Italian/etc speakers with teachers in schools Pre-k through Post-Grad. The program is for 20-30 year olds with at least a year of college. The pay isn't spectacular, but they help pay rent and I get to live in Europe!! :)

After a bit of that, one year or five years, who knows?, I would like to do the same type of program in South Korea. They're pretty desperate for English teachers over there right now so they offer an incredible benefits package and when else would I get to go to South Korea? And that program is the 'gateway' program to other similar teaching positions throughout Southern and Southeastern Asia, so who knows, I may be globe trotting for a while.

Of course, there's always the tendancy for new things to come up and I'm pretty open to anything available. Peace Corps, an NGO job for a while, paid internship with the UN. I'm only young once (though I'm considering myself young until I hit wheelchair age, at which point I hope to die quickly and painlessly in the night) so I figure I may as well try a little of everything. Settling down just isn't really my style. At least not while there's a corner of the world (excluding northern Asia and South America which I strangely am in no way attracted to) I haven't seen!

I'll update on here periodically to keep checking and leave any questions!