I am sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow, waiting for my flight to Mumbai via Dubai. Dubai airport is apparently consumerist heaven, so I expect to be shocked by excess and crass consumerism. But, hopefully they will have more toilets per passenger than Baharain's airport, which was my stopover on the previous trip to India.
Last trip was a chance to celebrate all the progress I had made since returning to my research in England. Also, I was returning home after a year, which added to the sweetness. This time, my homecoming is less sentimental as I am returning after just five months. I am also in the final year of my PhD so I have to get on with it. I am less prepared for my research than I had hoped I would be. I haven't got any meetings set up, for instance, so its going to be like the previous trip when I land on the ground and get a feel of the place and then decide what to do. I remember being frustrated for most of Round 1, as I will refer to my previous trip hereon. It was only in the last few weeks of Round 1 that I felt I had achieved something. This time I need to write as well as prepared for my interviews, so I will have to operate with a much higher level of intensity.
On the personal front, there is also some uncertainty. I have decided to move to a new place shortly after I return to England. I don't know whom I will be moving with and I have decided not to speculate. Almost all my colleagues seem to live similar transient lives with no permanent abode. I want to move out of this circuit of people with temporary jobs or short-term assignments who ar here today and gone in a few weeks. I have seen enough of that in my AirBnB and its amazing that I have lasted there as long as I did.
This has turned into a lament about my less-than-perfect life instead of a reflection on the state of being between two places, which is what an airport lounge represents to me. But, it is what it is.
Last trip was a chance to celebrate all the progress I had made since returning to my research in England. Also, I was returning home after a year, which added to the sweetness. This time, my homecoming is less sentimental as I am returning after just five months. I am also in the final year of my PhD so I have to get on with it. I am less prepared for my research than I had hoped I would be. I haven't got any meetings set up, for instance, so its going to be like the previous trip when I land on the ground and get a feel of the place and then decide what to do. I remember being frustrated for most of Round 1, as I will refer to my previous trip hereon. It was only in the last few weeks of Round 1 that I felt I had achieved something. This time I need to write as well as prepared for my interviews, so I will have to operate with a much higher level of intensity.
On the personal front, there is also some uncertainty. I have decided to move to a new place shortly after I return to England. I don't know whom I will be moving with and I have decided not to speculate. Almost all my colleagues seem to live similar transient lives with no permanent abode. I want to move out of this circuit of people with temporary jobs or short-term assignments who ar here today and gone in a few weeks. I have seen enough of that in my AirBnB and its amazing that I have lasted there as long as I did.
This has turned into a lament about my less-than-perfect life instead of a reflection on the state of being between two places, which is what an airport lounge represents to me. But, it is what it is.
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