America, America

Last week I hopped the pond and headed to Chicago for NASPA (an annual conference for higher ed administrators) and to see my good friends from grad school. It is important for me to stay connected to the profession and continue to build relationships with others in the field, and this was the perfect opportunity. And it.was.awesome! We had such a good time catching up, going out, chatting until all hours of the night, scouring downtown for all the best shops, laughing, and eating lots of good food. We went to a few conference sessions as well, and even got to hear Condoleezza Rice (ever since that awesome weekend in Barbados, I just call her Condi). 

When I landed on Friday night, I met up with Matt and Drew… we had not seen each other for far too long:

The next afternoon Kathryn and Tiffani arrived. These are the best NASPA roomies a girl could ask for:

Pizza night with the cohort felt like old times, only better:

We did a ton of walking… the best way to see the city:

I just like being with these people:

After the conference, a few of us headed to St. Louis for a few more days:

Since this was Shannon’s first trip to the city, we couldn’t miss seeing the arch:

Matt took us to a fun karaoke bar and although he and I decided there was no way we were going to sing, we were entertained by the karaoke pros, Tiffani and Shannon:

Tiffani and I are pretty pleased just to be together:

Let me tell you, the 18 hours of travel both ways was a pretty daunting task, but I would do it all over again. These were happy days.

The Europe 2010 trip is in the works. Who’s in?