Taking the Plunge

Aside from the fact that I left my camera at my friend Amy's apartment last weekend, I was also too busy making major life decisions this week to post anything. I met with the director of the Masters in Language and Communication program, Anna, and decided to apply for Fall 2012. It sounds far away, but all my application materials need to be submitted by January 1st, and I need to have a pretty bangin' application. Anna and I talked about my official statement of purpose, which needs to outline what I want to research and show that I know what I'm talking about. Ah! I haven't taken a linguistics class since 2008! But, before I dive into that, first you should know a little bit about the program.

The MLC is designed to train Discourse Analysts, who can be employed by various organizations or corporations to do consulting work in a specific field, generally health care or government. Because the whole "finding a job" concept is one of the main reasons I didn't consider going into a PhD or MA program in linguistics right after college, this program is pretty much perfect for me-- it's designed to get linguists out of academia and into the real workforce. It's also relatively short; it will take me around two and a half years to complete the program (part-time), including my Masters thesis. And, of course, it's completely free because I'm a full-time employee at Georgetown!

Okay, back to my statement of purpose and  one of the main reasons I'm interested in the program. What I'd like to do is be involved in health care consulting, particularly with facilities or hospitals that deal with eating disorders. I'd like to examine how the way we talk about food, or "frame" it (sorry, had to throw in some linguistic jargon), impacts weight loss and weight gain, as well as our concept of body image. I'm actually not sure how possible it is for me to find a job where I would only work in this facet of health care, but either way, this is what my Master's thesis will focus on (I think!)

Enough about the MLC... Here's what I ate this week:

-stuffed acorn squash with tex-mex white beans and rice (jalepeno, tomato, garlic, cayenne)
-baked salmon topped with mushrooms sauteed in red wine and soy sauce
-roasted brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper
-baked chicken breasts with fresh tomato, kalamata olives, and mushrooms, served with roasted red potatoes
-zucchini pancakes with scallions and lemon zest, served with lemon-caper-dill yogurt sauce.

And, because next week I'll be at home with my dog and I CAN'T WAIT: