OK, I've been in St Louis for a few weeks now having moved from Boston on 3rd May.  What a cutlure shock for me.....to begin with at least.  St Louis is a very different city from Boston and indeed, from Glasgow, my home city and the city I love dearly.  I may have been slightly judegmental when I first arrived but I have quickly put that aside and embraced this city.  it has so much to offer visitors like Ruairidh and I.

To me, this is what being entrepreneurial is all about.  Adapting to the unknown and new with a positive 'can do' attitude.  Maybe my life experience thus far has taught me this, maybe my wonderful grounding by my parents has taught me this or maybe even some of my learnings at babson has taught me this.  No matter how I got here, I wholly embrace these changes in my life and love the experiences I have every day.

Here are some examples of my St Louis experiences:

Day 1 at Monsanto, drove to the main headquarters facility which spans a 2 mile site, impressive to say the least, sat in on the US commerical marketing meeting where the 2009 rollout strategy was being discussed  I was introduced as a saltire fellow working with Monsanto for 3 months delivering their 2010 soybean marketing strategy...no mean feat!

Day 2 sat out in the open air in front on the St Louis History Museum in Forest park listening to some jazz/blues music with the locals who had brought along their children, grandparents, chairs, picnics, dancing shoes and generous hospitality.  We met a dancing fairy that night in the park and began to respect the St Louis charm.

Day 3-11 met tons of people in Monsanto, happy to share their knowledge with this outsider.

Day 12-14 toured the city, visited the Botanical gardens, the art galleries, the science museum and the site of the historical world fair, where I could sing..."meet me in st louis, loius...", danced in the zoo (yes the zoo) with lots of kids, adults and a few penguins, bears and hippos and sailed down the mississippi river on a paddle steamer.

So all in all, St Louis is welcoming me and I am accepting of what this city has to offer.

I hope all my fellow saltire fellows are having as great an experience as I am having and wish them fun, laughter, great results on thier project and the most wonderful learning experience possible.

It's a bit early for me to comment on how business is carried out here in the midwest but having had some contact with Hugh Grant (a globalscot at Monsanto who also happens to be their CEO), I can safely say us Scots are regarded as humble, hardworking, calm leaders....lets hope I can live up to that standard.

Keep smiling

Lx