Greetings from Durham, North Carolina

I am now home in Carrboro, trying hard to get over jetlag (I got up at 3:30am the first 3 nights, and barely slept a wink my fourth night despite staying up all day). Meanwhile, Marc has been in Cairo attending meetings and getting his runs in on treadmills, and heads to Gothenburg, Sweden today.

It appears to be relatively cool this week here and I was happy to be able to run in 65 degree mornings here, especially after my struggles in hot & humid Singapore.

I've been attending a Health Economics conference at Duke these few days. Most of the sessions have been rather good and I'm getting to meet other PhD students and junior researchers from other institutions with similar interests as myself. Approaching senior researchers is intimidating, so I haven't really gotten to speak to many. As I sit and listen to the new approaches and research questions tackled by others I have two immediate reactions. First, that I wonder if I will ever be as creative as these folks, and second, that there is so much more out there that can be done --- I just need to figure out what the appropriate questions are and how to answer them.

~ Shuwen