My time in Brussels is now ticking away fast, in less than 10 days I will be out of here! Fortunately, I have now begun the difficult process of conducting interviews.

As I probably won’t get another chance to post while I am here, and before the hectic return to England and eventually a new term up in Newcastle, I should talk a bit about the city in which I am staying. I do think Brussels is growing on me. My supervisor says you need to spend a year here to know if it’s really for you. I haven’t spent a year here obviously, and am not likely to any time soon so I am, therefore, unable to pass judgment on the place. However, as much as I do like the place, I don’t really think I could live here and I certainly don’t feel like I could live the life of a Brussels ‘Eurocrat’ either. I have taken lots of nice photos of Brussels, looked in awe at the shiny glass buildings of the EU institutions and enjoyed many a Belgian beer, waffles, mussels and chocolate, but I’m still not in love with the place. It’s a strange vibe and although I am happy enough here and would sure come back here, and definitely to Bruges, I know it’s no Lisbon!

But it was a nice feeling on Friday morning when I walked down Rue de la Loi (where the main Commission and Council buildings are) towards the Portuguese Permanent Representation to conduct my first interviews. Obviously excited for that reason and dressed smartly in my suit and tie. But because it was the European Council the day before, and all the dignitaries were in town, I was walking down Rue de la Loi along a red carpet! That felt good!

While at the Portuguese Permanent Representation I enjoyed a proper Portuguese coffee in the waiting room before I got to talk to two officials who deal with co-ordination, and they will be able to put me contact with other useful people for my research. I still have enough time to get a few more interviews done there before I have to leave.

On Saturday I met up with a Portuguese general who is here in Brussels working at NATO. We went for a coffee and discussed his work and his views on Portuguese foreign policy. This was most illuminating – he is not of the ‘mainstream’ by any means. He gave me lots to think about!!! Although afterwards I was left shaking and not sure of my own name, as he was such a whirlwind! But useful, very useful!

Another aspect of my Brussels stay I am particularly happy with is the place where I am living during my time here. The Centre is very nice and has got a nice friendly atmosphere about it. To mark my leaving (as well as the other residents due to leave at the end of this month) I was presented with a ‘Superior Resident Certificate’ at my first and last residents’ meeting. Apparently these are presented, without exception, to everyone to reward them for not having lost their keys more than five times, amongst other things. Although it was a bit of fun, it was still a touching moment that a brief stay such as mine will be remembered. And I believe, the usual form is that should you return you specifically ask for your old room back! So maybe I shall be sitting in this very room again at some point in the future upon my return to Brussels, albeit on a brief research trip and, as I have eluded to, not as a fully-fledged Brussels resident.

But I’ve enjoyed my short time here and sure I will miss the place. I need to maximise my time here now and also make sure I get to Ghent for a day trip to look around there. Now I need to get these postcards written and sent, otherwise I’ll be writing them on the London Underground!

Well here I am, in Brussels! This time things seem to have fallen into place quite well and I should be here until the end of September. If all goes well I should then be able to return to Newcastle for the start of term having gathered lots of field research data!

I arrived in Brussels last Wednesday, the 1st and got settled into the centre where I will be staying. It’s a residence for people who are staying in Brussels to do internships (‘stages’), so there is a very international crowd of young people here and lots of different nationalities to meet over dinner. The facilities of the place are decent, and at least I have access to wireless Internet – so neglecting my blog will not happen for that reason!

I had a couple of days at the end of last week to have a look around Brussels and get a feel for the place and where I am staying. The location is pretty good as central Brussels, the station, Grand Place, the Royal Palace and the Belgian Parliament are all in easy walking distance. As are the EU institutions, so I had a good look around those and worked out were the Commission, the Council, the Parliament and the Portuguese Permanent Representation are located. I also have an institutional affiliation with the Egmont Institute, the Chatham House of the country in which I am staying, and that too is in walking distance and will give me office space and a library which I can make the most of. So I’m pretty well sorted!

But after my initial settling-in period I had to leave Brussels and head to Bruges for the 40th Annual UACES Conference. I have to say, I was very impressed by Bruges! It really is a stunning, picturesque, place with lots of old buildings. The conference was hosted by the College of Europe but the lunches were in the old halls near the market place and bell tower and the conference dinner on Tuesday night was in a very nice building.

Bruges is an hour on the train from Brussels so I got to experience the Belgian rail network and also see a bit of the country through the window, including passing through Ghent. As it turned out my supervisor was on the same train, she got on at Ghent, and we met in the crowd of people heading for the exit at Bruges station. She recommended Ghent to me, so I shall definitely take her advice and pay it a visit soon. Then we got settled into the College halls of residence and then met up for dinner. It was a very nice day, still nice enough to have dinner outside – a Trappist beer and a plate of Flemish beef stew! Nice. Then we met up with some of the other UACES people in a bar and had a few beers there. Amazingly, since arriving on Wednesday, Sunday was the first time a Belgian beer touched my lips this visit, so it was nice to have a couple that night.

The conference began on Monday morning, after meeting a few people over the breakfast table (including a lady from Cumbria – it’s a small world really!), with research sessions in the morning before lunch and a formal welcoming address in the afternoon when we were graced with one of the Commission vice-presidents as speaker. Events in the evening started with a wine reception and an opportunity to network. I’m not the best at networking, but drinking free wine I seem to have less problems with and once you’ve got a couple or three or four glasses down you talking to strangers is a lot easier. As it turned out me and two other PhD students were last to leave the reception and we rounded up an Italian academic who was outside smoking and we moved onto a bar for food, more drink, good conversation and, as it turned out, a few games of pool and meeting random people: one from Halifax, the other a Belgian guy who did magic tricks for us!

Day 2 of the conference started rather slowly. The effects of several glasses of wine and a few 9% Belgian beers meant that I wasn’t exactly up bright and early. I did, however, manage to struggle down for some breakfast. But this meant I was going to miss the first research panel of the day so I took my time and had a nice shower and made it in for 11am and the second session. The rest of the day was quite enjoyable and although some of the others were fine (note to self: don’t try and out drink Eastern Europeans again!), some were in later than I was and stuck to the orange juice at the evening reception that night. The conference dinner was very nice, and I sat next to my supervisor on one side and on the other side a guy from the University of Kent who was presenting on the same panel as me the following morning. Was a nice dinner and it was a bit like the BAFTAs with the awards presentation as well. Was a good night and although I did have a couple of glasses of red, I wasn’t too bad and in good shape the next morning.

The final day of the conference started early for me as I was presenting on the 9am panel. So up bright and early and with enough time to go through my paper one last time. The panel was quite diverse. I suspect it was the first time a paper on the foreign policy actorness of the Faroe Islands was followed by one on the Europeanisation of Portuguese foreign policy. But random papers are good and there are still connections between those and the other paper that the discussant was able to highlight. The questions and discussant feedback gave me plenty to think about and my supervisor who was in the audience made notes for me but didn’t ask any awkward questions. She said that my presentation was fine and I did stick nicely to the time limit. With that out of the way it was nice to relax and enjoy the final session before heading back to Brussels – just in time for dinner.

Now I’m back in Brussels and I have caught up with the emails in my inbox. I have heard back from a Portuguese general who is on the NATO staff here in Brussels so I shall interview him next week hopefully. I’m still waiting to hear back from some people but I’m sure I shall do. Looking forward to getting some serious fieldwork done as well as seeing more of the delights of Brussels while I’m here. I shall of course report to my blog with updates again soon!