BTES II - Albuquerque

Fast-forward now to the day after our anniversary, and once again I boarded a plane to fly away from home and the andyman I wasn't done missing yet!  But, life continued on full-speed ahead, and I was off to Albuquerque to fulfill a prior commitment.  One of my assistantships during my last semester involved planning an academic conference with Diane, the department chair, and her co-host Dana at the University of New Mexico.  (Diane and Dana, pictured here)

The semester was filled with keeping track of 60+ professors and professionals all over the nation, and some international, through email.  It started with inviting them  to write abstracts and then passing those on to other professors/professionals who worked as reviewers to select the top 40, whom I then invited to write the actual paper and prepare a presentation for the August conference.  The trickiest part was to come up with effective coding systems to keep both author and reviewer confidential from one another while making sure reviewers did not end up with their own papers to critique!  Anyhow, my work agreement with Diane included going to the three-day conference with her and playing right-hand woman/gofer.  This event was the second BTES (Building Technology Educators' Society) Conference.  You can learn more about it at the website if you'd like: http://www.btesonline.org/newmexico.html.

The night we arrived, Dana had us over to her home for dinner.  I really wasn't looking forward to more travel eating, and that homemade meal of zucchini and chicken on the grill tasted sooooo amazing!  Then the work began.

There was a lot of running around to set up and clean up the conference, but during the long days of presentations, I mostly sat through them to take pictures and be available for technical difficulties which were plentiful enough to keep me on my toes.  The architecture building on the UNM campus is outfitted with technology that many of the professors did not know how to operate.  And, as always, there were the PC/Mac communication problems.

I found the presentations to be very intriguing!  It was a very different experience to observe teachers teaching teachers, and to be the only actual student in the room.

They were excited to learn about each others' teaching methods and creative ways to run design studios, and always had good discussion after each presentation.

Although I'm sure I came away with different gains than the professors attending, I'm really glad I was able to be a part of it.  It was fun to mingle with so many people with common interests, and it was really good for me to see how architecture is taught across the nation and how the education I'd just completed measured up to even the most prestigious colleges.  Despite the incredible sponsored studios and equipped labs of the richest schools, I determined that education doesn't necessarily follow the saying "you get what you pay for."  You get out what you put into it.

We had the conference cleaned up by about 10:30pm the last night, and Diane and I agreed to meet up later than the typical 7am the next morning to decide how to spend our last day in Albuquerque, free of responsibility until our 5pm flight!

After breakfast that last morning, we came across a funny-looking bird on our walk back to the car.  When Andy saw the picture, he knew right away that it was a road runner - thanks to Boy Scouts!

Diane and I met up with professor Mike from Boston to pass the day.  We decided on a hike out in the desert.  The drive had us doubting there was actually something to see out there!  But, the directions brought us right to the destination - Tent Rocks.

Here, Mike and Diane are checking out the crazy striations on the rock face as we hike along.  It was a 105 degree day, so we took our breaks in the shade for sure!

There were many other amazing sights on our way to the vista point at the top, including the tent rocks themselves.  Crazy how erosion works on different types of rock!

The trail wound through a little stretch of canyon that reminded me of the unforgettable trip to the canyons of southern Utah with Andy three years ago...absolutely stunning!

Once past the shaded maze of the canyon, the rest of the hike to the top left us fully exposed to the glaring sun.  It is truly amazing how bright it shines here!

Finally, the desert panoramic view:

I thought it was rather green for a desert!

The hike was definitely the highlight of the trip.  It was good to get out of the hotel and architecture building and see a little more of a state I had not visited before.  I hope to go again someday.  There is more to see there!