Interviews are Lined Up

In two of my courses I have interviews that need to be done. Thankfully, they are both scheduled next week: regarding the Eastside Streetcar will be on Tuesday and then regarding Active Transportation in East Portland will be on Thursday. I feel incredibly lucky with both of these; I was practically handed the interview for East Portland, and Sy, my professor in History & Theory, pointed out City of Portland employees that had graduated from the MURP program and would thus be amenable to assisting current students. It does mean I will be busy getting questions ready for the interviews, and then the post-interview analysis, however I will not need an extension on the due date, which I would imagine many of my colleagues will require.

Since I am a forward looking guy, I have identified which classes I will be taking next term. Here's how it looks:

USP 510 Sustainable Transportation
USP 535 Planning Methods II
USP 541 Dynamics of the Planning Practice
USP 549 Regional Planning & Metropolitan Growth Management

This will be a total of 13 credits as opposed to the 12 credits I am currently taking this term. The only class that might get changed is Sustainable Transportation if I am advised that I ought to take other transportation related classes first. I am excited about the first and last course mentioned, not so much about the middle two. I am only taking those because they are required. My hope is that these courses will help prepare me for an internships this summer and next year.

Speaking of internships, Annie's dad and a long range planner for the City of Bend are coming up to Portland for a conference in a few weeks, and I will get a chance to meet the long range planner. Ideally I will make a contact in the field and potentially use that to get a job or an internship, even if it's short term. My Uncle Bob works in the construction field and knows people that would be beneficial for me to get in contact with, however despite his repeated offerings of asking around on my behalf, he has never gotten back to me with anything.

I feel slightly less overwhelmed with school then I did about a week ago. Getting the interviews in place was a big part of my feeling of relief in this regard. There's also something about knowing that soon I will be signing up for next term's classes and will thus being making significant progress in completing the program.