Hospitality Seminar

Today was a long long day in which we got to see the ins and outs of being in the public affairs section of the embassy. The embassy organized this Hospitality Seminar to promote and discuss tourism in Portugal. Apparently they had previously organized a similar seminar treating education that didn't turn out so hot so everyone in the office was running around like crazy trying to ensure that the operations were all in order and underway in a semi-timely manner.

The seminar was held at arguably one of the nicest hotels in Lisbon, the Hotel Palacio Pestana. It is this huge old palace (duh) that had tons of gardens wiuth a spa, pool, etc, 5 star treatment, beautiful and restored old buildings, and is simply magnificent. Apparently it is also host to one of Lisbon's top chefs, who opened various hotspots around town before becoming the head guy at the hotel, and who catered the event. (Right is a picture of the Palace, that I didn't take , but gives you an idea- very beautiful architecture and great restoration.) I was able o explore some durinf the lunch and found that in the old Paalce they even have this beautiful Chapel, not to mention everything else you could want at a 5star hotel.


Anyway, back to the reason we were there. So for this Seminar they had a bunch of hoteliers and people interested in promoting Portugal as a tourism destination. To begin the Ambassador gave a little welcome- which I didn't see since I was busy trying to herd people in fromchain smoking and sipping on their bicas [espressos]. followed by various presentations. First there were three American speakers. The first is of the Hyatt people who explained in depth, much too much, the different Hyatt Brands... an architect who focuses on sustainable development projects, and a professor at London Biz School who is service industry crazy. After these fools, we attended a buffet lunch, then headed back in to listen to the most boring panel of Portuguese mumbo jumbo for two hours. I really couldn't tell you all that was going on- various key actors in the Portuguese tourism community jabbered and jabbered while half of the audience snoozed away. I tried listening and translating for awhile but then become so sleepy I had to occupy myself by people watching to stay awake. I had the lovely job of passing out headsets for people who needed translations of the speeches as well as running artuonf with a microphone during the Q&A sessions after each speaker.

Oh the life of an intern.

I don't see myself applying for any jobs in OPA anytime soon (OPA as in the office of Public Affairs), although it definitely was interesting being one of the behind the scenes people who try to make everything work and keep everyone happly. And luckily, things all seemed to go quite smoothly.

So my Portuguese is off and on.. but I guess for the most part it is improving. Although today a few people who for some odd reason thought I knew what the hell was going on and would ask me things I had no idea how to answer and hardly understood, thus making me feel stupid and stumbling and then sending them to someone else before bursting into tears. (Okay I exaggerate a bit but it was scary). So conquering the Portuguese continues.