The fieldwork continues and it has been an eventful week indeed!
I started the week with a cold, and am ending the week with it (although thankfully not as bad as it was!). I’m on the mend but it clearly held me back a bit at the start and had to clear my tubes during interviews but these things can’t be helped.
Monday: I had an interview first thing in the morning in the Foreign Ministry European Affairs Department. I talked to two officials who handle Portugal’s bilateral relations with its EU partners. A really useful interview and because the brief has only recently moved to their department I could talk about the transition and the rationale behind it. I think it gave me a fair bit to go on with regard to the ‘Europeanisation’ of the policy-making process. They were both lovely and very helpful. Later in the day I got drenched in the rain (which is not nice when you have a cold) so I went back to bed for a bit before going for my dinner. Knowing I had an interview the next morning I got an early night. Despite being up against it I had a good and productive day.
Tuesday: Still nursing the cold but the change in the weather to dry, sunny, genuinely spring-like conditions (which remained for the remainder of the week) made me feel much better. Another interview, this time in the Foreign Ministry but the section which handles Portugal’s relations with international organisations. I talked to a very nice chap about Portugal’s candidacy for the UN Security Council in 2011-12. A good chat and he gave me lots to think about.
Wednesday: After a bit of lie in and rabbit for lunch in the canteen (which was good!), I worked in the Institute on various tasks including writing up my notes ‘in best’ from my interviews that week as well as working on the conference paper I am giving next month. And that day I received the conference programme and it was good to see my name and paper title in black and white. Naturally, and not for the last time in my academic career I’m sure, I have been put into a panel with someone talking about Spain! I also received official notification that my proposal for another conference in Bath at the end of April has also been accepted, so I will need to prepare that paper. I also prepared for my interview the following day…
Thursday: I took it relatively easy during the first part of the day knowing my interview wasn’t until 5.30. But I knew I had to make myself smart as I was going to talk to a serving member of the Portuguese government – the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Co-operation. I sent a speculative letter to his office in late January and I heard back from them this week to arrange the interview. The secretary said I would get him for 25-30 minutes, but was in there for at least 40! He was really helpful and enthusiastic about my research. It’s so great to have a particularly distinguished person on my list of interviewees and he gave me lots of interesting things to think about and excellent insights.
Friday: So today, and this afternoon was productive once I collected my photocopies from the National Archive and had a nice cake, coffee and fresh orange juice. I got a couple of hours work on my conference paper done in the Institute library before calling it a day. I arranged to meet someone for coffee at 5 o’clock, someone who contacted me some months ago. He saw my Internet page and got in contact as he is a PhD student in Lisbon (by coincidence at the same place as me) and is doing a similar topic to me. So it was good to have living proof of someone who has read my project webpage. So we were brought together by our mutual interest in Portuguese foreign policy and the power of the world’s number one search engine!
Next week: Hopefully busy but a bit quieter. I would appreciate the time to actually just quietly work. I do have one lunch-meeting in my diary with someone from the British Embassy here in Lisbon to discuss the view of Portugal from outside.