March is here

Hard to believe. My fellowship is already coming to a close and it feels like I just arrived.

Last Thursday Hugh Handeyside, my best friend from high school, came up to Edinburgh for a couple of days. That made Europe the third continent we've hung out on together (he came to see me for a legendary week when I was in South Africa and he was working in Egypt, as well). Hugh's working as a big time corporate lawyer in Seattle these days and had some meetings in London this week. He recently married the wonderful Jenny Nelson (check out his wedding website here - I was honored to be his best man), and he and Jenny are expecting their first child in August. We're not as rowdy as we once were, but we spent a couple of great nights checking out the various pubs in Edinburgh, sipping whisky, catching up, and speculating on international politics and economics. It was great, and I miss living close enough to him to do that on a regular basis.

Last week was another excellent week of course sessions - we had a heavy focus on the interaction of corporations with climate change - a couple of sessions on corporate finance, a session on corporate social responsibility, and a couple of fascinating sessions with a McKinsey consultant who specializes in advising investment banks and global oil companies on financing oil and gas production projects. Still learning a bunch - which is all I can ask.

The next 3 weeks I'll be in London during the work week, and back in Edinburgh over the weekends.