Everything is coming together

Wednesday and Thursday I spent much of my time getting reacquainted with my research contacts. I had lunch with my two main research participants. After explaining what my research questions, goals and planned methods are, they told me how they are now running their program. We have essentially been developing our projects (or business in their case) along the same timeline. Now, we've both reached a place where our projects are more focused and well-founded and, hopefully, successful! Gratefully, the way in which they have changed their process works very nicely with my goals and research plan. We've decided that I will work for them about 15-20 hours a week and have a legitimate role in their organization. Where I had planned to practice mostly the observation side of participant-observation, now I'll get much more involved as a participant.

On Thursday evening, I went to a concert with my faculty sponsor from Charles University Medical School. Marie has always been extremely helpful to me and is an extremely nice woman. She introduced me to a number of Charles University faculty and I have some tentative plans to work with them. The concert featured a quartet from the Royal Academy of Music, London; the first violinist is Czech. It was held in the graduation of hall of Charles University and it was really lovely. I'm hoping to attend a Christmas concert there next week.

I realized at some point this week that I really live in Prague. I'm not just visiting for a few months; I am living here. Granted, it's only for a year; it's a finite amount of time. But, I feel settled.

On a separate note, after I finished my research meetings on Wednesday, I spent some time in Staroměstské náměstí (Old Town Square) enjoying the Christmas booths. At that time, I only sampled the trdlo but I had some time before the concert on Thursday, so I had a palačinka with chocolate and a cup of hot wine. I burned my tongue on the wine, but it was worth it!