A day in the life of a PhD student: Part 1, China version

I think the most common question I get from family, friends, and random people I meet at cocktail parties (not that I really go to those) is some version of “what do you do???” and/or “what have you been busy with?” and/or “what does a typical day look like for you?”

Since I just got back from doing field research abroad, I figured I’d answer this question in a two-part series. Since my life looks different when I’m in China versus when I’m in Colorado, I’ll do a post about PhD student life in the US next week. For now, I’ll share with you what I’ve been up to during the past 6 months I’ve been living in China.

My life in China is both incredibly exciting and incredibly boring in different ways at various times. As I mentioned in the previous post, the projects I focused on this summer were my publications, comprehensive exams, field research, language learning, and jiujitsu. So here was a typical day for me this past summer and fall (results varied):

I wake up to the sound of my alarm at 7 am with the full intention of doing some posture-correcting exercises, but decide to go back to sleep for the next 30 minutes instead. When I do finally convince myself to get out of bed, I turn on the radio and listen to the weather, international, and provincial news in Uy while I make oatmeal for breakfast. I brush my teeth, run my fingers through my hair, and get dressed, running out the door at the last possible minute. I apply lipstick as I glance in the reflection of the fire extinguisher case while I wait for the elevator. I practically run to school while listening to a friend’s voice recording of a short story in Uy on my iPhone. 10 minutes later, I’m at the front gate of the XJ Art’s Institute.

I run up the four flights of stairs to my classroom, where my Uy teacher and 5 classmates are waiting. It’s 8:05 am and I’m five minutes late, as per usual. Out of breath, I apologize to my teacher and classmates, and greet them with the typical, “Are you at peace? Have you eaten breakfast? How is your situation? Are you living well?” in Uy We spend the next 2 hours together dissecting magazine articles or reading our own essays we’ve written out loud, as the teacher prompts us with questions about the articles and how it relates to our lives. We talk about a variety of subjects, from love and loneliness, to the importance of money, to the rapid changes of modern society, to technology, to the wealth and education inequality gap. We get out of class at 10 am and I head to the library, where I work on my publications for one hour.

The two main articles I’ve been working on are both about the research I conducted while on the Fulbright from 2011-2012 in Old Nanjing. Many of you are familiar with that if you followed my blog then. One of the articles is about rural migrant workers and the other is about urban modernity and development in Old Nanjing. I submitted both of them to journals over the summer, and both were sent back with substantial revisions, so I’ve been spending a lot of time writing and revising those articles.

At 11, I switch tasks, spending another hour reading a book chapter or article about one of three subjects: urban development, political geography or China. I summarize what I read in an ever-growing document in preparation for the PhD comprehensive exam in February.

At noon, I call a couple local friends and ask if they’d like to eat lunch together. One of them is free and agrees to meet me at the front school gate. We meet and go to a local noodle shop, and have homemade noodles with tomato meat sauce (not unlike spaghetti) and kabob. We chat about life and boys and the future and our dreams and disappointments. As we walk back to school, I ask if they’d like to participate in the survey I’m conducting, so we sit on a bench on the sidewalk and I ask them the 10 questions I’ve been asking everybody- why did you move to the city? Do you plan to return to your hometown eventually? What do you like about the city? What do you like about the countryside?

We return to school around 1:30 and I go back for another 2 hours of Uyghur language instruction until 3:30. If I don’t have class, I work on my publications or study for comps at the library or a coffee shop. When we get out of class, I go back to the library and study Uyghur. I do homework, review the new grammar, and review flashcards, or read some of the short story I’m working through, or prepare for my next meeting with my language tutor.

At 5 pm, I go home and change into my workout clothes for kickboxing or jiujitsu. I settle my red duffel onto my shoulders and grab my bike and head downstairs. I ride through the rush hour traffic across town to the gym. It’s slightly downhill, so I speed through the city streets, weaving in and out of traffic and dodging buses, and arrive at the gym in 20 minutes. I change into my clothes and spend the next 1.5 hours either punching and kicking things or teaching jiujitsu techniques and sparring.

At the end of class, I’m exhausted but happy. I stay afterwards to stretch and talk with friends, practicing my Chinese. At around 8 pm, I change and get my bag and my bike. I head outside and stop at my local rice pilaf restaurant to talk with the owner and the employees, three very kind gentlemen, two young, one old. We talk about their lives in the countryside, and they tell me they greatly prefer working in the city to the countryside but will return to their hometowns when it’s time to get married in a few years (they’re 20 and 21 years old). They too participate in my survey. 

I leave the restaurant around 9:30 and I ride my bike through the upward sloping quiet streets glowing with city lights and the wind whistling in my ears and whipping against my face. I reflect about life, and my research, and the future and the past, the mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned. My mind is buzzing with thoughts about life, the universe and everything, but riding my bike calms me. I get home around 10, throw in the laundry, jump in the shower, brush my teeth and climb into bed, exhausted but happy. I watch a TV sitcom about a Uy family until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore and fall asleep, waiting to see what the next day will bring.  

This was a “typical” day. Sometimes I didn’t do any work in the library and spent the whole day with friends practicing language. Sometimes I spent the whole day exploring the city and doing field work and conducting the survey. Sometimes I spent the whole day in a coffee shop working on my publications. Sometimes I spent hours in my room reading for comps. Sometimes I took the day off and went biking through the city. Sometimes I went hiking in the mountains just outside the city. Sometimes I stayed at home and worked on my blogs. Sometimes I spent the day cooking and cleaning the house while listening to the radio. Sometimes I spent the whole day just walking around shopping and exploring the market and the neighborhoods around mine. Sometimes I hosted parties at my house that lasted until 5 am. Sometimes I traveled to other parts of the autonomous region. Once I went to Thailand to train jiujitsu for a week.

That’s what I’ve been up to in China for the past 6 months. That’s a typical day in the life of a PhD student doing field research abroad. At least for me anyway.