The car and computer science

Yesterday I was really tired and yet by 9 I was mentally psyched and couldn't stop thinking furiously until after 1:30 AM. I would have thought that I had drunk coffee, but I only had two matcha drinks, the latter before noon, so I doubt that that was the cause. It could have been a sugar rush caused by the surprisingly decent apple fritter I got from Family Mart—that seems the most logical explanation. But it also could have been caused by talking to my parents in combination with the mental high (is that a thing?) I got from finishing the Japanese exam.

In the end I completely wasted Saturday. I started a new game in Mass Effect as a soldier and have found the game much easier and am already past where I was in my last game. I also played an excessive amount of the idle game, finishing several challenges, but they took longer than they should have. I read a very little bit of Japanese and did no other studying.

Yesterday, of course, was the test. The train was much less crowded than last year going to the test—I still think that there must have been a later train that I couldn’t find. Coming back was worse than I remember though, being so packed that I didn’t feel comfortable eating my dinner standing up. The test was mostly fun, but I did get frustrated with a text about frogs and parasites. I almost finished all the questions on the reading section, and since there’s no penalty I guessed at the last few. The listening section was really hard though. At the test I met a guy that I knew from Matsumoto. He works as a translator for Epson, so I asked him a lot of questions about his job. From what he said, I could probably do a great job in that position. I haven’t written off the possibility, but I can’t imagine finding much fulfillment in translating endless documents that most people will never read.

At night, I talked with my parents about several things, most notably about my car in America and my Liberty plans. I had thought about buying my car back from my brother, but they seemed skeptical of this plan’s value. My thought was that it would save me the trouble of searching for a new car and let my brother do it instead, as he finds it enjoyable. I thought also that it might motivate him to save a bit of money to buy a car that he wants. My parents were skeptical that the second point would be effective at all, and mentioned that my plan might cause some timing issues. That’s not a problem because I wouldn’t need a car right away. But they also said that it wouldn’t be smart to buy the car back for the original price since my brother has gotten a lot of use out of it and had his dog ride it in. I really like the car, but I wouldn’t be keen on having dog smell or residue in my car. So at this point I’m thinking that I’ll go with our original plan and see how the car looks when I arrive in the US, and if I decide that it still looks good and I don’t want to look for another one, I’ll propose buying it back. I could probably live without it for the first six weeks, which should be long enough for my brother to find a new car.

As far as Liberty goes, I had been looking at some of the other content competency requirements. I’m close to qualifying for four areas—middle school English, high school English, ESL, and computer science. Middle school and high school English are similar,  but the latter requires an extra class or two, and I’d much rather student teach in a middle school than a high school. I’m not interested in ESL, partially because of the curriculum, partially because my experience should be a sufficient supplement if I had the chance for a job in that, and finally because I don’t want to student-teach ESL and potentially miss out on a more typical classroom experience. That leaves middle school English and computer science, which is my present dilemma.

Computer science may not even be possible because I’m supposed to have obtained a bachelor’s degree in my area of specialty. But it could be that my certificate from NC State in combination with fulfilling the competencies would be sufficient. With computer science, given that I test out of statistics and computer apps, I would only have to take 0-2 more classes.

But assuming that I’m approved to do the computer science specialty, what do the pros and cons look like?

+ Computer science would be a smoother student teaching experience.

+ Teaching computer science would be a nice transition into working in that field, if I decide to do that after getting the master’s.

+ Fulfilling the content competencies could be easier or more fun.

On the other hand:

+ English is, I suspect, more difficult to teach, so I would learn more from the courses.

+ Similarly, as far as I can tell, there aren’t any courses specifically geared toward teaching computer science, so the course load would be less relevant and interesting.

+ If I were to teach a different subject, I think that an experience in English would provide more transferrable skills.

So in essence: computer science = easier, more fun, skills transferable outside of education; English = more educational courses and more skills transferable inside of education. Laying this out didn’t help me feel more inclined either way, and I feel like I missed a few points, so I’ll have to keep thinking. Before I decide for sure, I should contact an advisor, confirm the possibility, and request a curriculum for the comp sci specialization.