Time, now, to be thinking about the old postgraduate options. And - I don't know. My parents have... more or less LOL NO'd the idea of studying abroad, for financial reasons, so really I've been trying to construct some sort of further education plan that involves... staying in the country.

But.

There are archaeology-based courses in UCD, and research masters available in Trinity, but they all seem... well, wishy-washy, for want of a better word. What can you do with a liberal arts degree, and all that. I can sit and inhale liberal arts until it's coming out my arse, but what I want is a course that will give me a practical and useful grounding in what I want to do. That teaches me how to do it.

What do I want? To be in a museum. To be in a lab. To live with bones and bowls and bits of charcoal, not just books.

Meaning courses like: museum studies. conservation. archaeological science.

The only thing of the sort in the country is a museum studies course in Belfast, and looks... deeply mediocre.

Meaning: UK. Leicester and UCL have sexy-looking museum studies courses, Oxford has a slinky archaeological science MSt/MSc, et cetera, et cetera.

Sooo... damn. Year off for the $$$s? After all, a break before diving back in isn't that bad an idea.

Except: parents have LOL NO'd that, as well.

Hm.