start working toward my future plans, bit by bit

I’ve been accepted to a college, I’ve chosen the courses I need for this fall. Haven’t registered yet because the school doesn’t allow it yet.

I’ve started applying for jobs (ok, only 1 so far, but I’m not available to interview until mid-August. Anyway my CV is ready, and I am ready to get started too!).

I know where I’ll be living already, AND I found a yoga studio 6 blocks from my future apartment :-)

I booked the flight to visit my family for a week when I first get back to Canada.

If I don’t get the job I applied for already (probably won’t) then I found a 1 month intensive French class for August at Alliance Francaise. After that I start the college classes in September.

Job-wise, I’m not desperate for money, so I can afford to take a bit of time if necessary, and find something I like. I only need a short-term job anyway.

Finally, after hours of trying to figure it out, I found a college that has the 2 classes I need AND is convenient to get to by public transit. So I applied today!

For some reason my boyfriend seems determined that I will be driving his car to school every day, but I am equally determined not to. Don’t like driving.

I just discovered that if I want to go to my preferred university (SFU), I will need more than 2 additional classes, I will need – 7!

That completely offsets the tuition savings compared to the other school (UBC).

Why do I still prefer SFU? They have an international practicum :-D (Of course, that alone will add $4000 to the tuition.)

It is such a headache to figure this stuff out from across the Pacific.

The advantage to doing the SFU program with the extra courses is that the majority of those courses are history, and instead of becoming a geography teacher, I would become a Social studies teacher, which I imagine means I could teach Geography as well as general social studies – and that might make me more employable, since there never seems to be a shortage of geography teachers anywhere.

And I’ll admit – I get bored easily, so having a couple of subjects to teach would keep me happier in the long term… but I was thinking more along the lines of doing a french and/or math minor later.

Maybe I can live without the international practicum. I have plenty of overseas experience.

This really throws a wrench into the gears of my little brain.
(It really does seem like a stretch to imagine myself teaching history.) I wish I could just go in and talk to someone in the education department(s), but of course I can’t. And when you send an email, they just say “please refer to our website”. Frustrating.

when I was very young and not particularly employable otherwise. It was hell. The only thing that made me feel better about it was that I was terrible at it :-)

Will never do that again – and the thing is – I know I won’t need a job that badly ever again (unless something goes horribly horribly wrong).

So why does it make me feel _{there’s no other word for it}oppressed to promptly get a job inquiry email from a fricking life insurance company [Edit: 2 life insurance companies]? It’s not like I didn’t predict it. My resume has only been online 1 day…

Instead of feeling oppressed, I should feel pleased that I am free of bull**, predatory jobs like that.

Yet I still feel oppressed… Very curious.

[EDIT: I had made my online resume searchable by employers. I will never do that again – in the past 3 weeks I’ve received about 8 different phishing emails – seemingly offering jobs. What a pain. I’ve changed my resume settings now.]

The college that’s ridiculously close to my future apartment DOESN’T OFFER the courses I need (Cdn History & Lit). It doesn’t even offer the courses I WANT either (intermediate French).

Though I was right, and I learned that college courses are HALF as much as university courses are. Grumble grumble…

Also the Alliance Francaise would take about 45 minutes or more with a transfer by bus.

Soooo… my options are no longer limitless. I guess it’s good because I can narrow things down.

Hopefully there are non-credit evening French classes at both universities that I could take. But now I have to choose a university. I could apply to both, but I think the application fees are kind of expensive.

I updated my resume (on my computer) a week or so ago – tonight I took it even further and put it online on a big job site(with a note that I won’t be available until August). I feel good about that.

I specified that I was looking for a part-time job in an education or travel-related field. Who knows, maybe fate will take over :-P

_{More likely I’ll get targeted by offers for telemarketing jobs >:-/}

I feel a little lost. There are a lot of things I “should” do, and I don’t know what to start with. I could start applying for jobs, and say I’ll be available in August – but I know I’ll need to do a couple university classes as well, so I can’t tell the employers roughly how many hours a week I could work.

The job that I’d like doesn’t really pay enough to bother with full-time. I’d be better off doing it part-time to cover some expenses and make progress on other goals at the same time.

I suppose I could look into university classes… but they won’t have their fall class schedules out yet. Hmmmmmm.

Should I apply for a job as a travel agent? The money’s crap, the cheap travel perks would be nice (but I wouldn’t have time to travel anyway).

The good parts? I could do it part time while I catch up on some courses I need, AND it would be fun AND I think I have a pretty good shot at getting the job, despite never having been a travel agent before…

_{Unless a) all the other people who apply are absolutely perfect in every single way, or b) they need to hire people sooner than August (but several opportunities come up each year, and I can apply early).}

Oh yeah, another benefit would be – I of course HATE looking for a job, and it would only be for a year or so, so I’d like to do something fun rather than some awful corporate temp job (Bleh! Bleh!). And I wouldn’t have to spend any money buying suits ;-)

Anyone got advice? Opinions? Suggestions? Better ideas?

I wonder if I’ll be able to save any money at all!

So many surprise expenses this month and a vacation next month :-( I mean, the vacation will be good and all, but I’m supposed to be SAVING MONEY!

February and March paychecks – looks like there won’t be a lot left to go into savings.
April might be okay.
May – extra expenses.
June – have to pay all of last year’s tax at once!
July – my last month of work and I’ll only get half a paycheck. Plus moving expenses (which will probably come out of anything I do manage to save in June.)

After that – unemployed (no employment insurance either, I had a contract job overseas). This doesn’t look good at all. Time to start scrimping.

Keep getting to work 10 minutes early (for the next month and a half!)
Download and print the reference forms I need
Update my resume
Be better at my job _{by getting all my lessons planned for the month of February}
Save money for next summer’s move
Brainstorm ideas for having multiple streams of income
Learn about investing _{might put that on hold for now}
Invest in sustainable stocks _{once I have money saved}