واجِهة
root: و-ج-ه / noun / plural: واجِهات / definition: façade
On Sunday, the four of us (me, husband, parents) returned from our wondrous 18-day exploration of Uzbekistan: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and Tashkent again.
My packed itinerary didn’t allow us much (or any) rest during the trip. But isn’t there such sweetness in a journey that tires the feet and invigorates the soul?
Somewhere between the three sleeper train rides and the endless gazing-up at mosaiced blue façades, I got too overwhelmed to process any of the experience in writing.
And now, I have to put that processing on hold. Because there’s work to do.
Specifically: PhD work.
I’ve spent nine months away from my PhD this year.
First: my six-month work placement with ArabLit (fun!). Then: three months of sick leave (decidedly less fun).
And, oh boy, is it hard to get back into the swing of things after these nine months. Actually, maybe “swing” is too ambitious and I should just aim for some semblance of “motion” at this stage…
Either way, I have to get moving with the work soon, because I have a non-official deadline towards the end of this year and my final final deadline itself doesn’t feel very far away either.
I’m very much in that sluggish mid-to-late-PhD slump where I have too many words but not enough written, so any advice on how to boost productivity would be much appreciated. (Comments and inbox are wide open.)
Oh but, before I sit down to work, let me put on the fourth machine load of laundry from the trip—
.إلى اللقاء
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