Conference

To all who were praying for my conference presentation... Thank you! It was really successful.

I arrived in DC on Thursday, Jan. 26. The American Association of Colleges and Universities Annual meeting was hosted at the Grand Hyatt--gorgeous location! I attended the 1:30 session on Teaching Democratic Thinking, and the 2:45 session called "Student Success for the 21st Century: A System-Wide Perspective." From there, I had some time to kill before supporting my faculty advisor presenting in "The Role of Teaching Centers in Forging Collaborations for Institutional Transformation." After that was over, we were joined for dinner at Ping Pang in Chinatown by our co-presenters. Dinner was served tapas-style--everybody shares the appetizers that are ordered on behalf of the whole table. It was a practice that reminded me of sharing mate in Argentina ;)

Friday, Jan. 27 began with photos of DC traffic at dawn, an omelet and toast from Room Service at the Donovan House, Boy Meets World on ABC Family, and black flats that pinched my pinky toes. The redness on my toes matched the striking red of my skirt suit =P
Our 8:45 session on "Raising Student Voices: Developing Democratic Engagement through Dialogue About Teaching and Learning" was incredibly well-received! Everybody seemed impressed, inspired, and empowered. It was really exciting!
Then was lunch from a corner deli, a stop at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and a blue line metro ride to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian... all of which was absolutely delightful, except for the five hours that my cell phone died :(

Nonetheless, the hostess at Carmein's was kind enough to charge my cell phone there while Cat, my good friend from La Casa, joined me for dinner. Such good food, and such good company!
Walking around DC, after dinner, we "bumped into" Gabby and Rima at Starbucks, and then walked together back to the Donovan.
That when we had all the REAL FUN with the free-not-free toys and drinks in the hotel room ;) hahahahaaaa jk

I felt well rested, after having dozed heavily for several hours in the cocoon of my feather-bed, when I woke up today, Saturday. I attended another student voice session at 8:30, presenting "Assessing Diversity, Empowering Students." I saw Pres. Lambert at Starbucks, and was thrilled to join him for some light morning fare and pleasant conversation.
That was about it for the conference events for me... the drive home was fun though! I kinda got lost but intentionally didn't want to use a map. I've been working lately on overcoming my directional challenges XD

Until now, AAC&U has served as a buffer for thinking about, or not thinking about, going to Spain. But, literally, now Espania is MANIANA, and I can't believe it. SO SURREAL. So unreal and distant from my mind, in fact, that I didn't even pack until like an hour ago (**note the timestamp on the blog post, HA!)

Next post will be from ESPANIA!! <3