I more or less faced the same dilemma ! Either study - History, Politics, Literature and Philosophy at the University I wanted to and end up spending quite a lot of $$$ with little or no return ! Or I go for 'Accountancy' - Something I very much disliked, but it paid well and it as a whole package offered something that the other option couldn't offer - a Job !
How about 'writing' ? One of the People I learned the most from, Friedrich Nietzsche, was a Philologist and a Philosopher who wrote some exceptionally hard-core stuff on 'Philosophy' ! Plus as an Arab you've already got a plethora of examples to look to - try emulating Khalil Gibran, his book 'The Broken Wings' is an all-time favourite of mine that I can never let down no matter how many times I've read it !
Newspapers, yaar ! Comeone...grab a copy of 'Dickens', 'Shelly' and other juggernauts of the English Language. I'd give anything right now to be in a profession where I can do all of these things, to play with words and contribute my own thoughts to whatever these guys came up with and still get a decent pay cheque at the end of the day ! You lucky...lucky man ! A doctoral degree sounds like 'fun', my mom is currently doing her PhD in Environmental Ecology and in the 3 years I've seen her do it...its fun..a lot of fun but it also gets pretty hectic too ! So good luck with it !
Ahhh...good I always used to love those teachers who'd pass me with good marks ! Good Job Professor !
P.S Ever thought of taking up teaching as a permanent profession ? Perhaps even working in the Linguistics department at the American University in Cairo ?
I don't want to mention that i am female. people use inappropriate language (in posts) when they come to know that there is female on forum.That's why i changed my name. hope it's clear now.
Joined an audit firm for a 4 month internship ! They sent me on a 'Stock Count' to one of their clients - a textile manufacturer ! So I've been kind of busy lately with that...I'm off to the office at around 7:00 a.m (morning) and then back to my home around 11:00 p.m (night) ! Today I checked 4 different units (spinning, weaving, dyeing and fabrics); in one of them (fabrics) I physically verified around 62,000 pair of jeans ! In the dyeing section I did the same with close to around 200,000 m of cloth but thankfully in weaving and spinning most of my work involved 'documentation' or other accounting work ! Damn...my back hurts !
Okay, I think I've showed off enough ! But seriously my back does hurt !