Foreign Exchange

Just in the last few days, I've come to consider this as a serious option for myself. I know I've got excellent grades and all that, but quite frankly, I don't see myself going anywhere as long as I remain here in the US. I love my parents, I can't imagine living anywhere but the Island, but... My dad didn't do the foreign exchange thing, and he works for his parents at a job he doesn't really care for so much. My mom didn't, but she got the travel experience from being an AF brat; her parents weren't very supportive when she said she was going to college, and now she's doing the same thing to me. She wants me to finish school and get a good job and all that, but it's always "You know you don't really have a choice." And she'll immediately proceed to rant for several minutes on how I can go to A&M, or maybe (maybe!) UT, but nowhere else, and how I pretty much have to go into engineering.
Which is fine, I guess...but I don't -want- to go into engineering, no more than I want to go into the health field. I want something that's constantly changing, something that's fairly reliable but never quite the same, something that -doesn't have a chance to stagnate.- As a teenager, I've let my life become dull and repetitive. All of my friends are into the same things, do the same things. I want to break that completely. I want to leave the US - maybe permanently - and start from scratch in another country. Japan would be cool, but it's become too popular lately. A visit, sure; a life, probably not. I want something that is completely different from anything I've ever known. Which automatically throws out Spain, Mexico, and South America. (That's fine - those are too close, anyway. I want to go far, far away, and come home every three years or so.) So, no Alaska/Hawaii, no Canada, no Mexico, no Sudamerica, no España, no Japan, probably no China. Europe, possibly; that's a fun place, and there's more than enough history over there to keep me entertained. As a matter of fact, a -lot- of my interests stem from over there. Somewhere in Africa would be kinda cool, but...I dunno, that's never really appealed to me. I'd prefer to avoid Australia, if solely for the reason that I think it's going to be the next Japan. It's slowly becoming more and more popular.
So let's see...if I go to Europe, my choices are Ireland (no; parents), the UK (what would be the point? They speak English), France, Germany, Italy, or any of the smaller countries over there...hmmm. Or maybe somewhere on the Asian continent. But no, that would bring me right back to the Japan/China thing, which is what I'm trying to avoid - I want someplace where no one I know is likely to turn up very often, somewhere where I can start completely and entirely over.
Europe, then. And not France; Linda and her group go there a -lot.- Nor Italy, since Mummum and Ich have recently taken an interest in that place. (Though it would have good history stuff.) And probably not Russia. That would be cool, but after having Mary here... *shrug* That would bely the point, wouldn't it? I'm trying to -break away,- go in my own direction for once; not follow someone halfway around the world and set up shop in their hometown.
Just because I'm me, I'd prefer somewhere more southern, preferrably on the water - so, none of the landlocked countries. Ooooh, what about Greece? Hmmm... Reading the US Embassy site thing, for Athens, it seems that Greece is a pretty nice place. Decent roads, stable government...looks like the only problems are that their airlines aren't really all that great and their hospitals could use some work. Well, I don't plan on flying around all that much, and I rarely get sick, so...
Education looks to be fairly reasonable: The American College of Thessaloniki, an American-run college (and therefore probably more expensive), is about $10,000 per year. Not too shabby. The cost at Texas A&M, by comparison, is about $20,000.
Y'know, I think that may be what I end up doing. The weather looks good, too, and it's supposed to be a nice place - it is, if the pics on the weather site are anything to go by.
The other thing I'm worrying about a lot more recently is, obviously, my career choice. (I think I've already mentioned this.) I've concentrated heavily on both math and science classes, so I should be able to get pretty much anywhere, but...my heart's just not in it. It's history I love, and languages, and people, and it's art (of most any medium) that I enjoy. Which leaves me with what as a career?
CXBridges gives me these choices (favoring interests, rather than skills; the latter can be learned):
- Webmaster (coolness!)
- Toy Designer (... o.O;;)
- Naval Architect (hmmmm...)
- Stock Footage Specialist (sit around and watch TV all day, then file it away - I'm missing the problem ^_^ Probably not the best paying job, though.)
- Auditor (watching for scams in a company's finances. Bleh.)
- 3d Renderer-Designer (cool, but it's gonna be waaaaaay too popular)
- Land Surveyor ($40,000 per year, and a stable outlook...hmm...)
- Video Game Tester (bleh)
- Customs Broker
- Roller Coaster Designer
...and the list goes on. And on. And on.
This is interesting: Book Editor. Exactly what it sounds like, of course; pays about $40,000 per year. Not so bad...
Muahaa! Pure gold, here: Linguist. SIt around and learn/study languages all day. Awesome, man! And as a "computational linguist," I can combine linguistics with computers and get the best of both worlds! ^_^

So, here's what I've decided so far. I'll finish high school here in the US, with as many college credits as I can. Then, if I still feel like it, I'll take advantage of the two free years at GC; during that time I'll teach myself as much Greek as possible, and make a few trips over to get the lay of the land, find an apartment, whatever. When my two years at GC are up, I will either finish my college education somewhere in Texas or go ahead and move, whichever is cheaper. As far as careers, I'm thinking that computational linguist thing sounds darned near perfect. I'll look into it some more before I go to bed, but...it seems like a nine-to-five job that combines at least most of my interests. And if it doesn't pay enough, then I'll either have to just get over it or work as a freelance editor on the side; that's one of the few things I'm skilled at, and it's not really a burden to me, so that would work out well.

Kinda far-fetched, but it's a heck of a lot better than sitting around and rotting on the island, which is my other choice! Well, off to make a list of things to look into, find a few sites about "computational linguistics," and go to bed! Ja ne!