Moving along nicely

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted, but I've been pretty busy with our research project for this summer. Over the last 5 weeks or so I've been building a data set comprised of major litigation, violations, etc against 50 investment banks or so since 1990. A lot of banks indeed, which has made for a lot of data! I must say, however, that the speed at which I was gathering the data picked up quite a bit as I moved along simply because my strategy/technique was more efficient. I actually just finished up building the data set yesterday, and will now move forward with the next steps in the project, and/or make modifications to my work thus far as my PhD candidate to whom I am an assistant reviews it.

Since making my last post I spend a few days in Barcelona over 4th of July weekend. The city was great, and I definitely enjoyed it more than Amsterdam. The weather was spectacular the 3 days I was there, and my friends and I spent a good amount of time on the fabulous beach Barcelona has to offer. It was nice to see my buddy as he wound down his 12-day Euro trip. We thought about trying to make it to Pamplona for the running of the bulls, but I read somebody was killed by a bull, so probably a good idea we didn't go.

Last Monday, Evgeny, the PhD student I mentioned above, was kind enough to invite me to a BBQ he had at Tiefenbrunnen, which is a beach (no sand obviously) by the lake here in Zurich. The place was pretty sweet, as it had spots to barbeque, ping pong tables, slides and diving boards going right into the lake. The weather was perfect that day, which was nice because it's been a little rain as of late here in Zurich. To the left is a nice shot looking onto the lake.

Tomorrow I'll go to Bern, as many other ThinkSwiss people are, for the programs all day event. Should be a good time, and I'm excited to travel to the country's capital. Friday my mom and her sister will come to Zurich to visit for about 5 days. I think we'll be doing a few activities around Switzerland next weekend, so I'll be sure to post an entry next week with some cool pictures from their visit. Should be a blast!