I'm Ba-ack!

Wow. So it's been ages, I know. Sorry about that, but I've been pretty busy, and I don't have such quick access to a computer anymore either.

Anyway, I have been having a great time these past ... 5 and a half months. I finally got applications finished and in the mail for the six grad schools I'm applying to. Let me tell you just a tad about each of them. I'm applying to three schools in the States and three in the UK.

BYU is first. That's where I did my Bachelor's in Linguistics, and it's a good school. I already know the faculty and they have an idea of who I am and what my interests are, so that's a pro. However, I'm really ready to be done with Provo and Utah. It just feels like it's time to move on. So, I'm also thinking about ...

Purdue University in Indiana. There I am applying for the Master's in Rhetoric and Composition, which is in the English Department. I hope that's not a mistake on my part. It's really similar to the kind of stuff I want to do, but I am hesitant about applying for a program not in Linguistics. I guess there's always the doctorate, though, right?

The next school I'm looking at is the University of Virginia, for the Master's in Linguistics. Now, the Linguistics Department at UVa is mostly just a conglomoration of faculty from other departments, and the program is an interdepartmental dealy-bob that includes classes from Anthropology, English, and foreign languages. It might not be the best place for a Linguistics major, but I thought that, being interdepartmental, it would allow me the flexibility I need to study in my specialty area, which most schools don't have. (We'll talk in just a moment about my specialty.) And besides, the university was started by one of my all-time heroes, Thomas Jefferson. What could be better?

So now we move overseas to the three British schools I applied to. These are the ones I'm really excited about. Cross your fingers for me!

First, the University of Lancaster. This is my Number One Top Choice of all the schools I'm applying to. Why, you ask? Three reasons: (1) smaller city, (2) smaller campus, (3) specialism in Stylistics. There you go. I'm really excited about the program. It's quite flexible, and the specialism in Stylistics (the study of literary and linguistic styles) is a major attention-grabber for me. Check out the MALS program (Master of Arts in Linguistic Studies), and don't forget the Stylistics scheme. Cool, huh?

The University of Leeds is another choice, a little further east. The school is another good one, and it's program is flexible, which is always a good thing in my opinion. They first attracted me with a special program in Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics, which would have been cool, but they no longer offer it. The Linguistics program itself is pretty good, though.

And last, but certainly not least, the University of Cambridge. I'm sure you've all heard of it. Great school, and the Linguistics program is quite good. It was the first UK school I found where the Linguistics program actually interested me. Let me tell you, though, it was an absolute pain in the you-know-where to apply to. Ugh! Anyway, it's all done now, and we'll just have to see what happens.

So, that's the first big thing that's been going on lately. This weekend, I'm at my sister's house in Logan, Utah (gorgeous!). We went to Idaho Falls yesterday for the funeral of my maternal grandmother. It was quite an interesting event. It was fun to see all of our cousins again, many of whom I haven't seen for literally years. Grandma was almost 93, and it was definitely time for her to go, so that was a relief in a way. It was a very nice funeral.

Afterward, we went to my brother's house in Idaho Falls and had an "office-warming" party for him. He is starting a new chiropractic business in Shelley, just outside of IF, and we had decided to get together to get him some stuff for his office and show our support. He's really excited about it. We even went over to the office before going back to Utah, and he showed us around, looking like a little kid with a newly-made fort. It was fun, and I'm really excited for his new business. I sure hope it works out well. I know I for one am planning to head up and get adjustments at least every few months.

Well, better get going. I hope nobody's too mad at me for waiting so darn long to write again. Better late than never, right? Later, ya'll!