One of the coolest parts of my internship is getting to sit in on guest lectures that are hosted by the University of Lisbon and that my supervisor helps to organize. On Tuesday we got to learn about militarization of democratic cabinets, and used Brazil as an extremist case study. In broader terms, what factors or variables would cause leaders to add more military personnel into their personal cabinet, and is there any trends to be found, or explanations behind this phenomena. It was super interesting to be engaged in a subject I know little to nothing about, and be in a learning environment that gets my wheels turning.

It has also been somewhat of a culture shock in terms of how much time we get off for lunch–sometimes up to two hours. I have taken advantage of that, sometimes bringing food from home and eating in the park, eating with my supervisor and my other coworkers/research team, and sometimes going out to different neighborhoods in Lisbon to get lunch with friends.

Being in Europe has also taught me how crazy football (soccer) culture is here as the World Cup is going on. My friends and I have random games on in the background all the time, and it has been fun to pick teams to cheer for. We have also been exposed to Portuguese fans and that environment–kinda cool to be able to cheer for the team that everyone loves, and where we are living.

We also went on another field trip this weekend that was extremely nature focussed in Arrabida Portugal. We went to a small farm and got to ride horses, EVOA – Espaço de Visitação e Observação de Aves Aviary to bird watch, and we got to participate in another wine tasting!