So, still here in southern England. Updates on what I've been doing:
1. Trying to figure out how I will go home. If your flight gets cancelled you get pushed to the "next available day" on the less-than-fantastic Aer Lingus site. Which I've now experienced twice. I am currently hoping that I will be travelling back to Boston via Shannon on Monday, April 26 (the Shannon-Boston leg is supposedly business-class(!)). But anything could happen.
2. Learning about jet engines, volcanic eruptions, wind patterns, and EU politics. Self-explanatory.
3. Pondering internet-as-human-right. Okay, there have been debates for years over whether internet access should be a human right, and it's going to get more serious with developments like HADOPI and the Digital Economy Act. (Intriguingly, the French court has declared internet access a human right, but that doesn't seem to be stopping modified versions of HADOPI from coming down the pipes.) (Oh, and my favorite Digital Economy Act story is this one.) And I've decided that it definitely must be.
See, the problem is that this is Nick's internet connection:
His telecommunication services are provided by Virgin Media. They're in his housemate's name. On March 8th or 9th, construction on the street outside of Nick's house accidentally cut telecommunication wires to his house. Within a day or two, Nick's phone service had been restored by BT. However, it is now April 21st and Virgin has failed to send out a technician to repair the cable, which is part of a legacy network (which makes Nick think that they don't have anyone capable of fixing it). This means that, for more than a month and a half, Nick hasn't had internet access at his house except when he can occasionally pick up a weak signal from an unsecured nearby network (which is probably now violating the Digital Economy Act...).
This means more than just being unable to watch TV shows (you can't get the good U.S. ones legally from the internet here, anyways -- I am so far behind on Lost right now that it's making me antsy). It means that Nick and I are unable to talk to each other when I'm in the US without it being prohibitively expensive. It means that Nick was unable to make travel plans for our trip to France or logistical plans for our pre-wedding party in the Peak District. It means that he has to spend more time at work researching how he can communicate his problems to Virgin and what rights he has. And it means that now that I'm stuck living here for an extra week, I have to walk 4 - 5 miles a day to Nick's friends' house to do as much work for my job as I can remotely, where I suspect I am wearing out my welcome (even their Roomba has escaped into the kitchen, away from me), to use their internet and laptop. (The house is 1.1 miles away from Nick's, but I have to walk there and back twice since the grocery store with lunch is next to Nick's house.)
Internet is so crucial for so much of what we do on a day-to-day basis. When flights were cancelled throughout the UK, passengers were told that they couldn't be helped at the airport, and that they had to return home and rebook their flight using the internet. It was assumed that they would be able to do so. Internet access needs to become a human right; it has become much more than a time-wasting luxury.
4. Trying to get internet access. I go to his friends' house during the day, and at night I sometimes attempt to connect to a weak-but-unsecured nearby network from Nick's house. I also come up with elaborate plans and schemes for acquiring laptops and internet access.
5. Doing a bit of work. I really am becoming knowledgeable on African colonial history, which is an interesting side-effect of my research for my job.
6. Drinking gin and tonics. Everyone here loves gin and tonics.
7. Missing Rumney, MetroRock, and Vertical Pilates.
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