Hmmmm, not sure… But I have been spending November answering many questions, some posed by my students, others posed by my research.

I have completed my seminars I am teaching. I have to say I have enjoyed it and, now they have had such expert tuition, I’m sure they will all go on to wonderful things! In all seriousness, I was impressed by their brightness and ability to engage with issues. But we shall see how much they have taken in soon. I have to co-mark the assessments over the next few weeks! I’m happy to have a Monday that hasn’t been dominated by teaching however today.

I have had my teaching peer-reviewed by my supervisor. While I over use the whiteboard she was happy with the relaxed atmosphere in the seminar, which made for good contributions by the students. I certainly think that I have found a style of teaching which I am comfortable with, keep it relaxed. But despite me not being too rigid, the students do seem to respect me and have asked me lots of interesting questions. Some I could answer well, others not so well. So I clearly don’t know everything, and I should freely admit that rather than dig holes for myself when I get caught out next time!

As for research questions, I have been busy working on my methodology over the past couple of weeks. Resolving some of those issues, like why am I doing my research?! What use is it?! Why am I going to Portugal?!? I have to say I think I’ve got some pretty decent answers to those and I think my methodological approach is starting to seem much clearer to me now.

Some things I just don’t know, but I’m learning. The finer points of opening a Portuguese bank account for example, not a nice headache to have! In fact, it seems like such a long time ago that I did my year abroad and first arrived in Lisbon, but soon I will be able to relive those hectic first couple of weeks of a steep learning curve and resolving bureaucratic issues in another language and being far from home and on my own! While I am prepared for a stress, that was so enjoyable and a defining moment of my life. While I don’t have all the answers, at least I can draw upon experiences of a few years ago!

Christmas is getting closer now, and that means many things… It means time at home again to eat, drink and be merry. It means the Politics Postgrad Society Christmas lunch (which I have organised!!!) is not far away. It means having to sort out all the issues regarding my fieldwork before I leave Newcastle and before I fly to Lisbon. And it means lots of assessments deadlines for me plagiarism check and my own students’ work to mark.

So I better get back to resolving these methodological issues. But at least I will have some help with that… On Thursday I am presenting my work to the other PhD students in Politics. I am hoping that they will ask me some useful questions. If I don’t have the answers, at least it won’t be too late to think about them before I go off to Lisbon!

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, and while I have been busy I don’t think major PhD things have got done. This means that November has arrived and brings with it an impetus to really got on top of things.

But October was busy, as teaching tends to take over everything and makes it difficult to carve out proper PhD time. After today’s seminars are over there will only be two more weeks of seminar teaching! And these will be on aspects of European foreign policy, which should be easy enough for me to teach. And should be enjoyable. While I haven’t got over the knots in my stomach on Monday mornings (and Sunday nights to be honest), I do feel it’s going well and that I am enjoying it. But it’s my first attempt I can only get better with experience. Maybe the University runs an intensive training course on how to write on a whiteboard?!? That’s probably my weakest area in terms of teaching skills!!!

The last day of October, marked by many as Halloween, was one of the most useful days of my PhD to date. I went down to Oxford for the weekend to a one-day workshop on Portugal, Southern Europe and the EU. This gave me the opportunity to hear some interesting speakers, many of whom I had read and/or cited. Some others I had corresponded with in Lisbon and some people who were new to me, but producing research relevant to my own project. All in all, useful in terms of networking but also the intellectual content left me with plenty to think about for my own PhD. But, as it was Halloween, I must admit to have been frightened a little bit! Scared that my PhD fieldwork is getting closer and closer and while I am confident that I have a good understanding of the main issues, it’s always a weird feeling to meet people engaged in similar work. But all in all an enjoyable day and St John’s College Oxford was a spendid location for it. Afterwards we all went out for dinner at a local Lebanese restaurant which was nice.

I should also report back on the useful experience of meeting someone else who has influenced my work. Prof. Simon Bulmer visited Newcastle from the University of Sheffield and gave a talk on the Europeanisation of Whitehall in October. This work has influenced my methodology as I assess the Europeanisation of Portuguese government processes. I made sure I asked him a reasonably intelligent sounding question and Jocelyn made sure I got introduced to him over a glass of wine afterwards and we reflected on my research project.

Aside from the teaching drawing to a close and the project marking getting ever nearer, I will be busy plagiarism checking as the politics assignments start rolling in. But I will be busy on my own PhD, not least making sure that I am prepared for the fieldwork after Christmas. I have prepared some letters of recommendation in Portuguese and also translated my PhD abstract into PhD. In November I will also be busy preparing for the seminar I will be giving to the other PhD students. But my main plan is to get my methodology section drafted! This will definitely keep me busy!!!

So November is here, and the approaching cold, short and snowy days will be here sooner than I would like. But if I get on top of everything then what could be nicer than having a cup of gluhwein at Newcastle’s continental Christmas market at the end of this month.