I just returned to my “home” city of Warsaw – home, a constructed concept, one which I defined myself on my own terms, and realized it to be here, Warsaw. I came back feeling as if I had never left. Despite the fact that I don’t actually own any physical space here, I still feel this is mine in some way.
Telling myself I could work just as well here as I could in my office in Lancaster might have been an overstatement. During the first few weeks, I became a bit of an urban nomad, wandering from caffee to bar, catching any WiFi available. I am now living with a friend of mine in the south side of a city. The apartment is in a new gated community (eeeek!) in Warsaw, and I finally have a bed and a desk to work on. Still no internet.
But contrary to popular PhD student belief, I find that the more activities you do, the more you get done – with your thesis work and otherwise. So many PhD students around me in Lancaster and elsewhere just sit on their project and don’t leave their little caves for days. What are they doing this entire time? I have no idea.
So now I’m involved in my dear ethical consumption NGO , I teach a course called Mobility, Interaction, and Social Change at the Department of Sociology at the Univeristy of Warsaw, I go out a heck of a lot, I do yoga almost every day at my favourite studio, and I just try to work around four hours a day. That’s all you need, I swear.
So if you’re a PhD student, don’t whine, just get out and do more. Interact with your environment. It really is inspirational.
As long as you have a place to work, of course. Urban nomadism isn’t as exciting as it sounds.
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