Symposium on Second Language Writing (Tucson, AZ)

Looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do here, so I'm planning a few posts about what's happened since the summer. 

First up, a conference from November: the Symposium on Second Language Writing (SSLW). This is a long-running conference that I went to once during grad school (when it was just up the road at Arizona State). I've been looking for an opportunity to go back. 

When I saw that the 2024 conference would be in Tucson at the University of Arizona, I knew this was the year to make it happen! So I pitched a presentation topic to a few colleagues, got a proposal submitted, and, once we were accepted, made travel plans. 

We were there from Wednesday to Sunday in mid-November (coincidentally, the Mark was gone on the same dates for his annual percussion conference in Indianapolis). 

Although I was interested in the conference itself, the real highlight for me was being back in Tucson and on campus. I haven't been there since we graduated in 2010! It was fun to see what I remembered and what's changed. And there were so many things I realized that I didn't fully appreciate when we lived there, like the mountains surrounding the city. Lots of the people I knew from grad school aren't in Tucson anymore, but I did see one of my professors; another was out of town, so we missed each other! 

Here are some highlights in photos.

cactus garden at the airport
(with some Christmas lights)

one of many cactus gardens on campus

selfie in front of Old Main

cactus garden by Old Main

selfie on the campus mall
(Mark and I used to take walks here in the evenings)

the Pride of Arizona marching band
warming up outside our hotel window
(we never figured out why...but it was fun!)

selfie on a bench where I often ate my lunch

me in front of the Modern Languages Building
(where my program is housed)

another cactus garden

a wildcat statue

selfie in front of CCIT building, where my office was

the old English GAT office space
(now used for something else)

another cactus garden, plus some bougainvillea

underpass near Mark's building
(the parking garage we used is on the other side)

School of Music
(I walked all around inside, too!)

No Anchovies
(Mark's favorite pizza place)

really tasty salad

an excellent slice of pizza!

we enjoyed eating outside
often on this trip :-)

the inside of No Anchovies...I didn't remember this
seating area at all (neither did Mark when I showed him)

I thought this cactus looked like Mickey

selfie with Paul Matsuda, one of the 
conference founders, Lucinda, and Ana

photo of Lucinda, Ana, me, and Kimberly with our
presentation slides (our topic was alternative grading)

Ana thoughtfully took pics of each
of us presenting...but none of us got her!

out to lunch with a professor from UA (who was 
here when I was, and I think we'd met then!)

Ana also took this nice one of me on campus

me with a "Go Cats" sign

another cactus garden...I just loved these!

wildcat family statue

selfie with cactus garden :-)

a really big cactus garden :-)

cactus garden with rock river and statue

series of saguaro paintings in the airport: each
in the style of a different famous painter