• After India

    Date: 2009.10.06 | Category: Study Reflections, Unit SSK12 | Tags: ,

    Reflection
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 6
    Date: 06 October 2009

    I’ve just got back from India. Almost always just before I leave India I feel ambivalent. I’m always keen to come home to be with friends and family, and also to get back into my normal routine (especially after a long stay), but at the same time I never want to leave India, it is like a second home for me. The time immediately after returning is often punctuated by a longing to return. It’s almost like a part of me is over there and I’m not complete unless I’m back there. These mixed feelings appear to be accentuated by my current studies. The longing is still a powerful emotion, but on this occasion it has had to be tempered by the necessity to study.

    This particular trip to India was only two weeks, when I am used to four and five week stays, but two weeks was enough to constitute a massive burden on my studies. Going to India is not a holiday for me and unfortunately there is little time for yourself. On this particular trip I was required to work 6 days per week, starting at 4 am at the office and most of the days were 14 hours long. At first I was keen to be in the books and reading the online tutorials, but very quickly the demands of work started to run me down and before long I was finding it difficult to do anything after work, let alone use my brain. What’s worse is that although I have developed a strategy for not wasting my time reading junk in the Student Café, I have now switched to writing posts in my own online tutorial which I spend a lot of energy on when that energy might be better directed at doing my Learning Skills exercises.

    Now I am back in Sydney, but I am two weeks behind, I need to finish my learning log and I haven’t even started my essay. I am very fortunate to have been given an extension by Koral. I felt quite embarrassed to ask for the extension, but I had no choice. I had good intentions for carrying on with my studies while I was away, but intentions are for nothing if you can’t follow through. Anyway, I’m here now and I have to make the most of the time I’ve been given. I have neglected the glossary section of my learning log and I’m rediscovering how time consuming it is to do these glossary entries. Also, I’ve got complete writers block when I attempt to start my essay. I know that once I start, it will come in a flood, but right now, I’ve got nothing. I found the exercise aimed at preparing for an essay very helpful, but I still feel completely unprepared. I believe essay writing was a huge weakness of mine in high school and to be truthful, I’m afraid that it is still a huge weakness.