Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool

Yeah, that title was a Billy Madison reference, and you loved it!

Anyway, sudden new development in the Ruiter Seeley household: Angela is going back to school for her master's in the Fall. That's four weeks from now.

I'd been pondering doing an education degree with an English as a second language (ESL) certification, but that would really just certify me for teaching in elementary or secondary schools here in the US. That was not practical seeing as we plan to go back to Spain and also not practical since I don't want to teach elementary and secondary school.

Lately I've been thinking I'd love to just study Linguistics, but I thought I only wanted to study it for fun, not work with it forever. Then I realized that the Linguistics master's degree at UIC is a master's in teaching ESL to adult learners. This degree combines linguistics/language theory with a certification in teaching language that is highly regarded worldwide. They even provide job placement assistance in college, university and business settings around the world.

But the application deadline was past. I could have applied to be a non-degree student (a "trial" student), which is a very easy application process that just requires you to then apply to be a "real" student the next semester, but that deadline had just passed as well.

So I wrote a lovely email to the director of the program, who had me call him at home, talked with me and decided to write me a letter to the Graduate Admissions Office extending the deadline for my application.

Classes are in the afternoons, but Al, my boss, said I can adjust my work schedule.

Oli and I spoke about it and it seems like a good thing that I want to do; it will mean postponing Spain by one year and will require us to be creative parents, but our remaining here for a little longer will also give Oli the opportunity to do a degree if he likes, once his permanent residence is approved. He's thinking to do training with a social service organization here in Chicago before moving ahead with a degree, though.

Anyway, I'm excited and did I mention this education is all free since I work for ye olde University of Illinois?

P.S. - Eat it, Colin. I'm going back before you! :)