First impressions

They got visas, they're in the great Pacific Northwest, and they are nice people who don't mind some goofy gringa eavesdropping on them. Glory be!

So after my very first real live dissertation-related experience in participant observation I have the following conclusions:

1. I need to really, really work on my not-so Endangered Language Z skills. Because I can carry on a funny little conversation but actually listening to native speakers? Not so good at it.

2. I need money to keep flying up to the Pacific Northwest. I figured this out as a) I got turned down for one grant and b) realized I totally missed the boat on another grant, the application for which is due Friday but needs to be mailed in and if I called up my professors for letters of recommendation they would laugh hysterically.

3. Therefore, I need a job that I don't have to do anything for but which pays me a lot of money. I realize this is normally called a "grant," but see above. Other options include "CEO" but I just don't have the connections.

4. Being away from your family doing research sucks. There is nobody to come home to at night and phone calls just don't cut it.

5. I am probably not spending as much time as I should on writing up my field notes. But I am so brain dead after 3-4 hours in the field (the allotted time for "beginning researchers," according to this book), that it is all I can do to remember what happened.

I would write more but my other obligations (mainly, the thing I am being paid for; that is, teaching) is calling me. To be continued.