so we decided to hit up all the coffee shops...

This past weekend I paid a visit to my alma mater, and much fun was had. :-) I managed to be productive and read my three sociology articles on the bus ride down, and when I got there Miriam and I went to dinner at Courier Cafe. Yummy. Then we just chilled at her apartment, which is waaayyy cooler than our apartment last year. hehe

Saturday: picked up breakfast from Paradiso, then rode the bus out to the mall so she could get a birthday present for Ben. We were successful as far as that goes, but me finding jeans was another story...every Old Navy I've been to has been out of my size. Boo. Anyway. When we got back to campus we went to the Krannert Art Museum to see the Stradivarius instruments that are on loan over there--two violins, a viola and a cello. They. Were. Gorgeous. So beautiful. I want one. lol Got lunch at Blues, and then did some work at Espresso for a while before going to some short dance performances in random places around Urbana, such as the parking garage and Carl Park. Most enjoyable. Ordered calzones for dinner and watched "Rushmore", which was pretty funny. Then we made pumpkin spice cake. mmmmm Nothing's better than pumpkin cake at 2 in the morning. hehe

Sunday: my bus left at 12:25, so Miriam and I chilled at Moonstruck for a while. Dave came by for a while, yay! It was really good to see him. :-) Got on the bus, didn't do homework :-P, and that was the weekend. Good times all around.

Today was...gaaahhh...met with my advisor about my academic/career future...and now I don't know what to do. At all. I'm pretty sure I will finish my masters by August. After that, my options are to either 1) apply to a Ph.D. or E.d.D. program, 2) get a teaching certificate or 3) find a job and go back to school later. The problem with going right into another program is that I have no experience to bring to the program, which would be helpful in the dissertation area. The problem with getting a job first is that getting a job in the field will be pretty hard with just a masters and no teaching degree. I'm not opposed to getting one, but I really want to get into curriculum development and do the "behind the scenes" work. So...much confusion resulted. :-/ I'm just not sure what to do now...gonna look some of this stuff up, meet with my advisor again...and sign up for spring semester in the meantime. At least if I finish the masters program I'll have something. I obviously don't expect to just jump into the world of curriculum development...but if I end up working first, I'd rather find a job in the education field if possible.

On the other hand...the prospect of all this does have its excitement factor. I'm feeling more and more ready to break out of the "student" mode and be independent. I'm an adult, and I'd like to feel more like one.

Alrighty. Time to start my next history book, hopefully avoiding the possibility of reading the whole thing at the last minute.

Ta-ta.