California dreaming

I arrived in Costa Mesa, California, on Tuesday for the fifth national conference of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education where I've been participating as a Faculty Fellow. The conference, which ends today, is attended by upwards of 300 Latin@s involved in higher education in the United States. I don't think I've ever seen these many Latin@s together in one place, even when I was regional director for Puerto Rico of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

For me, in addition to getting used to the jet lag, it's meant balancing my surprisingly busy responsibilities as a faculty fellow here (mostly in mentoring fellow junior faculty and graduate students and attending long plenary sessions), with being available through e-mail to the 42 of my students who have papers due later tonight.

Since Tuesday, when I arrived, and despite the three-hour time difference, I've read and commented on 26 drafts of student papers. That's half of the students enrolled in those two classes, and that doesn't take into consideration the drafts and outlines I looked at before I came to California. What that has meant, though, is that any and every free moment I've had here, and there haven't been many, was spent reading and commenting on student drafts. I finally finished with all the drafts last night at 10 p.m. California time, which is 1 a.m. our time. I hope my students appreciate the effort.

The ultra-busy conference schedule has meant that I've spent all my time so far in California, which I'm visiting for the first time, inside of a hotel, except for a brief sojourn into the daylight a few days ago when the faculty fellows went together to an El Pollo Loco (a Mexican-style fast-food franchise here) to grab a quick lunch that wasn't factored into our schedules. But once the conference comes to a close today, my husband and I are taking off in our rental car to find a nice place to eat and to do some sight-seeing around this area.

A highlight of the conference came today when I met with the chair of English at New Mexico State University, who had read my scholarship and gave me great feedback and encouragement.

Tomorrow, after a two-hour breakfast session for the fellows, I'll be finally free and then my husband and I take off in the car to San Diego (forecast: rain), where we'll be staying overnight at a nice hotel in Coronado (but not the famous Hotel Del Coronado!). I'm really looking forward to finally starting my break and everyone can be sure that I will NEVER again attend a conference of any kind right before or during Spring Break.