Photos: amore questo e Verona

I Had the great opportunity this past March to travel to Italy with my mother who was on business, We visited the little town of Verona, home to Romeo and Juliet! I usually upload more photos but decided to stick with my favorite 6 this time.

Contemplating PHD

My mind is set on my dissertation, with my relief that I have chosen a topic ambiguous yet confident enough that I can tackle the question of weather I have a future in pursuing a PHD still lingers, the idea of staying longer in the UK is quite tempting yet if the prospects of establishing my career route is open then I say why not go work!

I am not quite sure how easily will it be for me to find a job within the book publishing industry in the UAE, despite its promising future I believe a little empirical knowledge and not just my academic background would help make me a more confident employee.

Yet I am quite excited about my dissertation topic! My topic looks into the prospect of adopting digital publishing in the Middle east as a norm for publishing as oppose to the basic brick and mortar stores. I believe the lack of distribution system should be used to our advantage in digital publishing and promote it as a norm within the middle eastern region, this way not only will authors in the middle east be popular in the middle east but have the ability to gain global recognition!

Now the challenge is how I will manage to increase all this into 15,000 words, yep and the thought that a PHD will be 80,000 words makes me want to choke (although I have three years to write it ! as oppose to 3 months not to mention summer months!!)

Well if I am serious about writing a PHD then I must start working on my proposals before I begin the actual construction of my Dissertation!

The Other side of Thailand

Listening to the strong winds as it passes its way from my room whilst the rain is constantly knocking my windows, what a crazy weather here at St. Andrews.

I try and mute the sound with my latest ministry of sound album while working on my epic journey to Thailand that had to be put on hold because of my crazy hours of studying.

Enjoy, the other side of Thailand

Denial

2:18 Am, Its about time that I shut those lights and go to bed, but it is not always easy.

I Feel the stress and pressure from this essay that I have to submit and all I want is for it to just finish and go away!

I have decided that despite the hard effort and work that I put in the last two weeks building

our business plan was not enough, rather, I am keen on finishing working on a reflective paper

that is due in two weeks time because i will be leaving next week and I have no intention of carrying this with me to London when I will meet my dad!

After hours of trying to read as much academic journals as i can my classmates and I were chilling on a Saturday night when one of my friends brought to our attention that t the lives we are living in St. Andrews is soon coming to its epic end!

With only one more module left almost everyone will be leaving St. Andrews and living in London or Edinburgh to work at summer placements and very few of us are perhaps staying in St. Andrews.

At that very moment I was in denial of that very fact, I did not want to circum to the idea that this dream I had since 8th grade to live abroad is coming to an end! more importantly I did not want to see all the friendships I made this year become part of my past.

I cannot imagine not waking up one day from this questionable bed I have in my dorm room, not knock on my Flat mate door to hang out in town and even take my stroll down our infamous "green mile" to get to our beloved Gateway building.

What makes life here in St. Andrews so special is that its simple, very simple and that is despite the stress that I currently am in. As much as I love Dubai and have come to forgive its flaws, I find life there very complicated in so many different aspects that would need a blog on its own!

another part of my denial is the fact that I hate saying goodbye! I have made many great friends in St. Andrews who had such a great impact in my life and made this experience here better than I could have imagined. how could I tell these people have a great life and perhaps only see them once in every two/three years after spending almost every day of my life in St. Andrews with them?

I have never regretted my decision of coming to the small quirky town of St Andrews, I have learnt to love it everyday and will make sure to savor every moment I am here.

2:45 Am now i seriously have to get to bed!

Thailand: It's Different

Thailand was a new experience for me from the different landscapes of scotland and Dubai and here I present you with Thailand part one, more pictures to come :) and I hope you enjoy my photojournalistic amateur skills

Reflection: gut feelings

Being Back to my routine life in St Andrews is quite surreal, with the first week over I wasn't sure how to make of it. I find myself back to the basics with my lack of enthusiasm to do work with such short days and laziness is always a great prospect!

yet i had a great deal of time of thinking to do, and the prospects of pursuing Photography is becoming much more stronger in my mind, I find that there is a drive in me that knows that perhaps my chance is here and right now and I must take a hold of it.

It may be the laziness and my creative imagination talking but have you ever had such a strong gut feeling about something? They speak of it fondly in various media outlets, it must not be part of someone's figment of imagination. I just know it is the right track for me!

call me crazy, call my whatever you like but I think theres something about this spontaneous feeling that I have a future in this crazy world of photography!

Reflections: Thoughts during my Final boarding call

When I first wrote this entry during my last half an hour in Dubai, I was smart enough to assume that it was irrelevant to save it since it was in the process of being published, but how wrong was I when my page got erased and I watched each heart felt word disappear.

Yet I will try my very best to recreate my thoughts but perhaps that will not be the very case, but I will begin with how I concluded and that is this entry is dedicated to the people that have always been the source of joy in my life, my family.

38 days in Dubai and 8 Days in Bangkok summed up this long winter break to which I spent (other than the days working on my papers) with my family went by so fast that I cant comprehend even while sitting and writing this entry here on the plane.

During my last days in St. Andrews I detested the idea of coming back home for such a long period! I wanted to explore the world more yet once I reached home my roots began to cling to the familiar soil it was once rooted in. even my belly would agree that food tastes better in Dubai (maybe that has to do with the fact I cant cook, but that’s another case).

When I initially set to write this entry I was trying to put down my adventures in Bangkok however my mind was clouded with the thoughts of my family that I am leaving behind and I could not put down the right words , all I wanted was a big hug from my family. I wouldn’t mind listening to another hour of my sisters constant batterings about her latest challenges on the Play station.

Yet I know that this is something I have to do for myself, I set out to the world outside so I could find myself and detach from my families dependence, as much as they will support me, I need to learn to stand on my own.

So far this entry makes St andrews feel like this evil, dark and ugly place but on the contrary I love that town! I miss my friends and the routines of university but all I want to really say is what perhaps every most cliché movie, song and books really try to tell you and that is family you build is everything.