stranded in a foreign land

It is early Sunday morning and I am on hold (for 20 minutes now via skype) trying to reschedule a flight back to the UK. I have spent the last week in the US at a geography conference. It has been a good conference for a number of reasons, which I will elaborate in the moment, but let me first tell you why I am on Skype hold at 1:30 in the morning. You will probably have heard about that volcano? Well it has demonstrated once again the absolute importance of the material world-- life is not all social construction and discourse--the texture and composition of the ash, the force of the pressure in the volcano, the inability of human form to teleport themselves or to fly on their own like the birds, the proclivities of upper air currents, and the limitations of aviation design have conspired to ground me effectively in Washington DC. It is a powerful lesson in the importance of the material world and the limitations of human being in the world, but not human compassion, ingenuity, and scope for caring. Indeed, as I hear about a people being told by their airlines (and some are worse than others) that they will be stuck in the US for several days even once flights resume, I also hear stories of generosity of strangers offering their floors and spare rooms in the US to those who cannot return to Europe. While I have discovered that my "ethical bank (the cooperative if you are interested) has decided not to cover this event in the travel insurance that I have with them (while those "bad" banks like Barkleys are covering people albeit minimally) I benefit from the efforts and generosity of my mom who has spent hours trying to rebook my flight for me. While my airline, knowing full well it would cancel my flight within an hour of my mother's finally getting through (KLM is my carrier) I am offering space on my mum's floor to other British folk I meet who I also know will be stuck as I am. People are great that way--humanity is contradictory.

I have tried for several days now to do something about my flight so that I can get home. For most of the time I have been unable to get any access to any human or any hope of access to a human at my airline (I have hope now because I at least am on hold and not immediately cut off, though it has now been 43 minutes. I recon I can stay on the line for 400 before I must disconnect because I have run out of call credit. I do know of someone who was on hold for three and a half hours). In an amongst these efforts I have conferenced. I have learned that there is quite a bit of regard for Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) by many in American Geography who have managed to garner esteem. I have learned about people in Hong Kong that I now realise I should have known about. I have discovered and been able to consider how urbanisation in the Pearl river region is linked to declines in agricultural land use and how soya is no longer a major crop in China despite having a history there for several hundred years. Maybe because cattle are not as important there as elsewhere and so the US is now the largest producer of soya. At least with this flight delay I will have time to think about these ideas and write them down. Something not really available to me at home.

But now I sit here after an hour and a quarter listening to the soundrack of Evita while the person (some real human answered about 15 minutes ago but then put me on a different hold again) is checking to see if I will be able to go back to the UK sometime this month. There is something ironic about being asked not to cry because she never really left. I also contemplate the fact that I cannot go to any embassy to become repatriated because I am not patriated in the UK in the first instance.

I now know I will be travelling home on Friday and will arrive in Leeds on Saturday afternoon. Better than I thought... Better than some.

Got the tickets.

Cost of the tickets to go on the 5th of August: £1180. Feelings of excitement: priceless. Thanks Emerites (which paticularly makes Simon happy as they sponsor Arsonal).