three recent/remarkable Providences

On my trip to SF last weekend (to interview candidates to be our new economist)...

1.) in the subway from the airport to the city: met two former students (and co-authors) of my dissertation adviser and mentor-- and apparently, two of the primary reasons for him to move his family to New Zealand to do international ministry

2.) the cabbie on the way back to the airport: turns out he was from Shenyang (a large, but by Chinese standards, a modest "Rust Belt" city), where my in-laws lived for a few years

3.) in the plane on the way back: sat next to (and talked at length with) Julia, a young lady who is an Econ major at Duke (although not in SF for the conference); Bonus: her mother is from Guam (like our first child, Zach)