Ana Ahub Jobna.

Today was a pretty slow day around school. We're low on students this month. I am guessing many families that could normally afford to send their kids to a pricey city just to study English can't these days. A couple students slept in this morning, so I had a lot of one-on-one time with a really interesting girl from China. She is the oldest of four, and started working in one of her parent's companies when she was just 15. At 21, she now owns one of the companies (often micromanaging over the phone between classes) and has 130 people working under her. She hopes to improve her English enough that she can get into Harvard Business School. She's pretty much the Wonder Woman of the Asian continent, as far as I'm concerned. However, she noted in a serious and slightly frustrated tone that in China, the oldest must take on the family business (profession, practice, etc.) even if he or she doesn't have a natural inclination or desire towards that field.

I often wonder if I'm doing a silly thing by going back to school, especially since I plan to study Southeast Asia, which on the whole isn't exactly an international financial hub. I wonder what I will do with the degree, as I'm no longer convinced that I am meant for the PhD Factory, and I wonder if by studying Southeast Asia, I am avoiding some other avenues that interest me. But I guess the important thing is that I made a choice, and now I am responsible for making that choice the "correct" one.

I'm also thinking about applying for the journalism program at Madison and doubling it up. When I lived in Asia, I was always very envious of the correspondents and freelancers that I met when I was on my holidays from teaching. I also seem to be a masochist by way of arduous graduate school applications (insert maniacal laughter!)!

Basically, anything I like will guarantee my perpetual state of poor-ness, recession or not. I thought about staying in Boston and applying for programs in International Relations, but the amount of catching up in mathematics and economics that I would have had to do was a daunting thought. And that isn't what I'm interested in anyway. I'm interested in language and culture and writing. Conversations with my students often remind me to be thankful for the preposterous amount of freedom I have to not just state my interests, but pursue them.


Random note: Half of my reading class was mysteriously absent this afternoon. The only two students who came were both from Arabic-speaking countries (the UAE and Saudi Arabia). We discussed the book for awhile (The Giver by Lois Lowry), and then I requested an impromptu Arabic lesson. You know...couldn't get too far ahead....what with half the class gone and all. I learned various forms of greetings and introductions, as well as some key phrases to know when traveling in the Middles East, including "Ana jua'na. Ana ahub jobna!" (I am hungry. I like cheese!). All in all, a productive class.