Well, it has been quite for a while. I try not to ‘enforce’ myself to write blogs as a task. I would rather just write something when I feel like to. I am still practising writing in poetic prose, but it is time for some updates of my research.
Time flies and now I officially become a second year PhD. The new term starts this week. While freshers are busy with all kinds of events during the first week, my own pace stays the same. The first week no longer excites me, and I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I now follow my own schedule instead of the three-term timeline. But the beginning of the term does make a big difference. At least, there are much fewer email replies with annoying out-of-office auto-response. The hermes email account gets busier and busier.
I am going to have my upgrade viva on Oct 16th and it is now just one week ahead. It has been so long since I submitted the report that I when I read my own writings they don’t feel that ‘intimate’ to me. So far so good except that I really don’t know what to do in order to prepare for the viva. Having talked to a few PhD students in their later years, I figured that there is not much I can do. But to add to my confidence, I asked to meet my supervisor next week to discuss issues related to viva. It might just be a very short meeting. When I met him a few days ago in the faculty, he mentioned again about co-writing of a journal paper. Well, I really don’t know what I shall do. At the moment, I am really not sure what I can write as a journal paper.
I did make efforts to fit in the PhD community. An upcoming conference in Wales accepted my abstract and offered my 50 pound travel grants (far from enough), so I have to work on this paper this month (have finished half of the first draft now). I was also offered a place as a supervisor to undergraduates and have attended two training sessions already. These may sound normal to any other research students, but for me, they mean a big deal. I will be giving a panel speech during an academic conference for the first time and I will be supervising undergraduates who are just a few years younger than me! These opportunities are exciting, but I am also struck by a sense of uncertainty. It is not that I am not confident of myself. I know that as a novice researcher, I have to work hard on these things to prove that I can do better. Honestly, I don’t think academia is a right place for me, but since I’m now a PhD student, I do want to enhance my research ability and make some contributions, in any positive sense.
I hope all goes well with my upgrade viva so that I can move on to do the real fieldwork (quite exciting ha!). At the meantime, I do enjoy such rhythm of life: find a library to sit in, read a book, have a coffee, attend a seminar, etc.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I started to audit an undergraduate course yesterday on Kant’s philosophy offered by the department of philosophy. I hope it helps to clarify those obtuse theories of Kant.
How we read PhD vary a lot from person to person, but it would be really nice to hear what other PhDs do on a daily basis. The research project is not built in one day, right? And we have millions of other things to do. I do hope I am not the only one who gets lost from time to time.
As Time Goes By 
very interesting and productive. It reminds me of your days in Oxford. You are always the curious and diligent girl:) xxx