Oh man, Java. See, lots of people are put off by Java. Perl and Java are kind of diametrically opposite when it comes to programming style, so if you love one, you'll probably hate the other. People say that Perl is more expressive and freer, while Java kind of constrains you more. So I'd definitely recommend having a go at Perl, because I think you'll find it very different. Working on an existing codebase is also very different from taking a class, where they mostly make you write small programs out of thin air.

I do sympathise/empathise with the too many itches thing :) Definitely not enough hours in the day.