I am in an academic mood. Not only did I finally register for Macroeconomics- the next checkmark on the list of pre-requisites for admission Social Studies Education programs, but I also signed up to take the Praxis I exam for teaching students. What a blow to the "vacation" week *that* will be- the only open test appointments are at 7:00 A-M on the west side of Indianapolis (read: not the side my parents live on). I am not convinced I can wake my brain up that early- but in lieu of alternatives (must have passing scores in order to apply to grad-school in teaching/can only take it in the US/will only be in the US once in the next year) I will Do My Best. I've been pouring over the information online at a couple of programs and have decided I also need to take the GRE, so I'm dusting my Kaplan guidebook off and gearing up for a new study season. Ah.. its probably about that time.

For the curious out there-so far I am spending a lot of time daydreaming about attending school at Indiana University (Bloomington) and University of Colorado (Boulder) but I haven't ruled out Minneapolis, Ball State.. or heck, really anywhere except the schools that don't have programs for post-baccalaureate teacher liscensing. I.E. the jerks at schools like Madison (tragically) who would require me to essentially start at the begining and earn another entire undergrad degree because the $80,000 and four years of sweat and tears for the first one just Wasn't Enough.

I don't think so. And I SO wanted an excuse to live in Madison again!! I haven't decided yet whether to do a Masters program in addition to liscensing... but I suppose I'll end up going for the whole shebang. I am not interested in starting over though. This time the goal will be a degree with which I can actually DO something (I think the current one only qualifies me to THINK things). Recommendations always welcome (rationale for the current choices available upon request-for now you can be safe in boiling down the above two choices to mountains versus residency...he he).

Happy Birthday to Tom!

In other exciting thoughts- after three-ish months of paying to have broadband internet service (being online 24/7) it finally occured to me that I can play the radio on my computer. And "occured" wouldn't have happened had Yukari not asked me if I could (or could not) do it using my current service (Yahoo BB). Well, I can- and it totally rocks! I can get live radio from anywhere in the world! Excuse my ignorance- I'm sure many of you have been enjoying this service forever- but now I can listen to NPR or any other station I want to hear- not just the dorky Tokyo radio station for foreigners which insists on playing Hawaiian music all Saturday (aaaaauugh!). But now I'm listening to Classical from Seattle, NPR from Washington, Rock from London- in a dizzying cycle--it is soooo cool! And for those of you who've also figured out this simple joy- you check out Tokyo InterFM- and appreciate just how happy I am!