Glissette doesn't go to PR or DC

But I do! Back in October I went to a conference for work that just happened to be in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I'll share some highlights. First off, the conference itself was really well done. I went to a lot of workshops and learned a lot, and basically became excited about all of the possibilities out there for what I can do for study abroad outreach at my university. It was a bit overwhelming, really. So, to relax in between sessions, I went to the beach.

And I explored Old San Juan.

And I enjoyed the gorgeous view from my hotel.

And I met with one of our students currently studying abroad in Puerto Rico. And our little group rented a car to go visit the Yunque rain forest.

A couple of weeks later, I went to DC for another conference and got bombarded with even more information. I decided to extend my stay and spent Saturday in the city. I took advantage of this by going to the Cheesecake Factory, visiting my old retreat at the Smithsonian American Art and Portrait museum, I bought a dozen pains aux chocolate from Paul (yay for Americanized French bakeries!), found a nice little tea shop nearby, and spent a while reading. I was able to meet up with an old buddy from my time in Spain, Amie, and had supper with her. It was nice being in this city once again that I had called home for a summer.

And somewhere in there, autumn arrived in North Carolina. I didn't actually think it would happen - all of the trees were seemingly going from green to brown overnight without much color in between, and then for about 3 glorious days the maple trees let their true colors come through.