Back From The Dead...
Greetings all!
You probably did not hope to see me here again since I have been away for such an extended period of time. But here I am... Among other New Year's resolutions (yes, there is a long list) I decided to make an effort to come back to writing in my LJ. I really missed this form of self-reflection and rambling. Of course, it takes time and effort to maintain LJ, and this was the primary reason for my disappearance over the past 4+ months. But I've decided that it's worth the time spent.
Let me shortly brief you on what's been going on in my life since the last time I wrote here. The last few months were defined almost exclussively by my PhD program. I have to admit that it has probably been the most challenging semester of my entire academic career (HS, undergrad and grad school combined). Thus, I had to temporarily give up most of my other activities including running, aikido practices, work and most of the social ocasions in favor of spending more time on school work. As a matter of fact, the stress of schoolwork was so high that I even developed a severe skin eczema. There were probably a half a dozen times when I was about to quit the program alltogether. But in the end I didn't. Albeit slowly and painfully I somehow managed to get through it (with a lot of help and encouragement from
cookiewhopper and
jazzkittykat). In the last couple of weeks of the semester I wrote a total of 70 pages of papers (*craziness*). The final effort (an additional 25 pages of writing) involved writing a major research paper (on trade liberalization in Central Asia and the Caucasus) that I finished over my Christmas break. The fact that I had to work on it over the break clearly sucked because it infringed upon my time with my family. But the paper got finished, and I had a good time in Sammamish (see pictures here).
Now I am back in D.C., and getting ready for another semester at Georgetown. The classes seem to be a bit more interesting than they were last semester. They are probably going to be equally difficult, but at least they are a bit more inspiring, which will hopefully help me to get through them with a little less stress and sacrifices.
I still have not returned to aikido or running though. Somewhere between the stress of gradschool and my summer marathon training I managed to acquire plantar fasciitis - a nasty nuiance that is keeping me from strenuous physical exercise. Now I have to stretch my feet, take Advil, wear a night splint, and avoid wearing high heels in order to get rid of it. All of this, no doubt, makes me incredibly impatient to get back to exercise. Hopefully, that will happen soon, especially since
cookiewhopper and I have signed up to run the Cherry Blossoms Run.
Well, this is it for now. Hope that all of you are doing well. Happy New Year!
You probably did not hope to see me here again since I have been away for such an extended period of time. But here I am... Among other New Year's resolutions (yes, there is a long list) I decided to make an effort to come back to writing in my LJ. I really missed this form of self-reflection and rambling. Of course, it takes time and effort to maintain LJ, and this was the primary reason for my disappearance over the past 4+ months. But I've decided that it's worth the time spent.
Let me shortly brief you on what's been going on in my life since the last time I wrote here. The last few months were defined almost exclussively by my PhD program. I have to admit that it has probably been the most challenging semester of my entire academic career (HS, undergrad and grad school combined). Thus, I had to temporarily give up most of my other activities including running, aikido practices, work and most of the social ocasions in favor of spending more time on school work. As a matter of fact, the stress of schoolwork was so high that I even developed a severe skin eczema. There were probably a half a dozen times when I was about to quit the program alltogether. But in the end I didn't. Albeit slowly and painfully I somehow managed to get through it (with a lot of help and encouragement from
cookiewhopper and
jazzkittykat). In the last couple of weeks of the semester I wrote a total of 70 pages of papers (*craziness*). The final effort (an additional 25 pages of writing) involved writing a major research paper (on trade liberalization in Central Asia and the Caucasus) that I finished over my Christmas break. The fact that I had to work on it over the break clearly sucked because it infringed upon my time with my family. But the paper got finished, and I had a good time in Sammamish (see pictures here).
Now I am back in D.C., and getting ready for another semester at Georgetown. The classes seem to be a bit more interesting than they were last semester. They are probably going to be equally difficult, but at least they are a bit more inspiring, which will hopefully help me to get through them with a little less stress and sacrifices.
I still have not returned to aikido or running though. Somewhere between the stress of gradschool and my summer marathon training I managed to acquire plantar fasciitis - a nasty nuiance that is keeping me from strenuous physical exercise. Now I have to stretch my feet, take Advil, wear a night splint, and avoid wearing high heels in order to get rid of it. All of this, no doubt, makes me incredibly impatient to get back to exercise. Hopefully, that will happen soon, especially since
cookiewhopper and I have signed up to run the Cherry Blossoms Run.
Well, this is it for now. Hope that all of you are doing well. Happy New Year!