Last night, I got out my passport to check in for our flight to Halifax in the morning, and realized to my horror that I had brought the wrong passport, an old one that expired in 2017 rather than my current one. I asked my partner Michael to find the right one and send me a picture of it, and googled whether that would be enough to get me into Canada. The consensus of the internet was that while that might be enough at a land border, depending on the mood of the border agent, the requirements were stricter for flying and it would not work. I checked whether it was still possible to send it overnight in time for my 8:45am flight, and it was not. I looked up flights from Seattle to Minneapolis, and found that there was one that left at 12:45am, and tried to convince Michael to take my passport to the airport, find someone who was going on that flight, and ask them to bring me my passport. He told me that was crazy and illegal and he would get arrested for trafficking in passports. I thought people would be more sympathetic to a woman asking them to bring me my passport, so I called a female friend who is particularly good at charming people, and tried to convince her to do it. She told me the same thing Michael did and refused. I also tried to convince Michael to just take it to the ticket counter of that flight and ask if the airline itself could take it, but he said there was no way they would agree to that. He suggested that instead he could buy a ticket on the flight and check a bag with my passport in it, and then he would “miss” his flight but his bag would already be on it, and I could pick it up at baggage claim. But the flight was over $500 and this seemed too expensive. In retrospect, that would have been cheaper than what happened, and I should have taken him up on it. Instead, we had a very expensive adventure. I couldn’t figure out what else to do, so decided I would go to sleep, take my expired passport and my photograph of my current passport to the airport in the morning, and hope for the best. Once in 2017 or so I lost my passport right before a trip to Victoria, and managed to get into Canada and back with just a photograph of it, so I thought there was a chance it would work. That time I had to go through border patrol twice on the way there and twice on the way back, and each time the officer rolled their eyes and chastised me, but eventually let me through.
Lucy insisted on the way to the airport this morning that we come up with a backup plan for what we would do if they didn’t let me on the plane. She suggested that she should just go by herself so she didn’t miss the college tour tomorrow, and I would get Michael to send my passport overnight and catch up. She’s been flying alone since she was 7 and had just flown by herself from Costa Rica, so I was confident she could handle it, but was worried about the fact that most hotels won’t let someone under 18 check in by themselves, so I didn’t know whether she would have a place to stay. But that night in Halifax we were supposed to stay in a hostel that said they would let you check in on your own if it was after 5, so I figured it would be ok for at least the first night, and hopefully I would catch up after that.
I explained my situation at the ticket counter and they were very sympathetic and kind, but told me that they absolutely could not let me board me the plane without a valid passport. We went with our backup plan and told them to check in Lucy to fly alone. They kept asking if she had someone there to meet her, and were very concerned when we said no, but we insisted that she would be fine, and they checked her in. They told me to call Air Canada immediately to try to change my flight, because if I did it before check-in closed they would be a lot more likely to accommodate me. I gave Lucy my credit card and a phone charger, and sent her on her way.
First I called Michael and told him to immediately start looking into how to send me my passport same day. Then I called Air Canada. The lady said they weren’t supposed to let me change my flight at all, but she was very sympathetic to my situation, so she said she could overrule that and let me change it and only pay the difference in ticket costs, which would still be high because it was tomorrow. She said she could switch me to the same flight to Halifax tomorrow morning for a little bit more, or a flight to Toronto (where we were scheduled to fly tomorrow evening) for a lot more. The flight to Toronto was a safer bet, because Michael could definitely send the passport next day and have it here by 8 am tomorrow morning, which would not be soon enough for an 8:45am flight but would be soon enough for an afternoon flight. But it seemed like there were options for sending it same day if he got a UPS or FedEx business account, so I told her to put me on the flight in the morning. She said Delta had direct flights from Seattle to Minneapolis that day, so I should look into sending the passport via Delta Cargo. She told me that they might have a minimum weight requirement, and she had once gotten around that by packing some cans of tuna with the document she needed to send. Michael worked on getting business accounts with UPS and FedEx and Delta Cargo, and discovered that all of them required some kind of TSA screening before they would let you use your account, which could take up to 24 hours. So we were back to considering whether we should buy a plane ticket. I found an express deal on Priceline for a one-way flight from Seattle to Minneapolis for $200, which turned out to be about what it would cost to ship same day through any of the other options even if TSA approved him (which it didn’t), so I went ahead and bought it. It arrived at midnight, and I was not excited about going to get Michael’s checked bag at midnight when I was already exhausted after getting only 4 hours of sleep and had an 8:45am flight, but it seemed better than any of the alternatives. After checking with TSA and finding out I could *not* go through security at midnight and sleep at my gate, I splurged on a hotel room right at the airport so I wouldn’t have to go very far. Just as Michael was getting ready to pack up my passport in a box to check it, I came up with an even more ridiculous idea, which is that he could actually take his flight, bring me my passport in person, stay with me at the hotel, and I could get him another Priceline express deal flight home. It was more money, but we wouldn’t have to pay the checked baggage fee, and he weirdly likes to work on planes and we missed each other, so he agreed to my ridiculous idea.
Figuring out all that took the whole morning, and then I had to decide what to do with myself for the rest of the day. I considered just going to the hotel and trying to work, but I was too tired and frazzled to focus. We had considered visiting Macalester College in St. Paul but didn’t have time, and kind of regretted not making time, so I decided I would sign up for a tour this afternoon and try to FaceTime Lucy in from the bus she was taking to Halifax. I took the train and bus to Macalester, and on the way I saw a bunch of veterans in front of a random Starbucks in residential St. Paul with signs protesting war. Not any particular war, just war in general. And by a bunch I mean about 12. Then I went to the St. Paul Cheese Shop, recommended by a friend, and had the best sandwich I have ever eaten, further confirming our experience that Minneapolis/St. Paul has incredible food.
Macalester is a cute little campus in a cute little area surrounded by cute shops and trees, and looks like the most picturesque colleges in New England. It was such a contrast to Augsburg. The buildings were old and beautiful and the trees were green. It was a warm sunny day, and everywhere I went there were students lounging around, having picnics on the lawn, playing games, and studying and talking in cute little study spaces in every building. It made me realize that while we had tried to convince ourselves that Augsburg had a thriving campus life for the 50% of students who lived there and all the resources you would get at a school with a bigger name, compared to this, it did not at all. In the building with all the faculty offices, every door was open and students and faculty were talking to each other everywhere. We walked by a poster session where students were presenting their final projects. This school clearly had more resources. All first-year students are required to live on campus, and it showed, because you could see students everywhere. They said every class used a flipped class pedagogy, and when the tour guide described her classes, they all sounded amazing. I think Macalester is a lot more of the college experience Lucy wants: a close-knit community of students living and thinking together on campus and engaging in deep thoughts, rather than just trying to get a degree to get a job. She is very conscious of the privilege she has in being able to want that, but I think it’s the kind of privilege everyone should have, rather than the kind of privilege no one should have.
They talked about equity a lot, and I appreciated that. They don’t have an application fee because of equity, 75% of students receive financial aid, and they meet 100% of demonstrated financial aid. They paid attention to equity in every step of the application process and also in a lot of things about campus life. But it felt a little hollow when the school is so selective, and it doesn’t seem like most students have access to what they offer. They have 40% students of color, compared with 65% at Augsburg, but looking around campus, the difference seems much bigger than those numbers would suggest. I asked our tour guide if there was much economic diversity, if she noticed there were students from a lot of different economic backgrounds. She quoted me the statistics on financial aid, but said she didn’t have much of a sense personally because the students never talked about their economic backgrounds and she didn’t know who had what kind of financial aid. It’s cool that it’s not talked about in the sense that there’s no stigma for students who do receive financial aid, but not cool in that it seems like there’s some privilege in not having to talk about it, and/or some erasure in not being able to talk about it. I looked it up later, and Macalester has 15% first-generation college students and Augsburg has 57%, so that is a pretty big difference.
One thing I wished I had asked about was whether they had a culture of student activism. When we toured Reed I noticed that there were left-wing political signs everywhere. I did not see a single political sign at Macalester. They talked about having a culture of justice and service, and bragged that 95% do some kind of service. But I think they mean service in terms of volunteering, not activism or mutual aid.
Like the rest of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Macalester has tunnels and bridges everywhere so that you never have to go outside when it’s cold. I asked our tour guide if students go outside and play when it snows. She said yes when it first snows and it’s not that cold, but not when it’s -30 degrees outside. I asked how much of the year is it -30, and she said only in January and February. Lucy did not like this answer.
Lucy and I were both glad to have gotten a chance to tour Macalaster, even if she only got to see it via FaceTime. She said she would probably consider it if it wasn’t in Minnesota, but she doesn’t want to live in a place where it is -30 for two months a year.
Touring all these colleges has been fascinating for me, not just for thinking about where Lucy should go to college, but for my work. A lot of my work is giving advice to physics departments about how to support their students and provide the best education possible, and we think a lot about how to make that advice as relevant as possible to a wide variety of institution types. These college visits are giving me a much deeper understanding of how different kinds of institutions view their mission and how students view their experiences there. I think this week will make my work better.
After touring Macalester, I got some dinner to go, headed back to the airport and found my hotel, and went to bed early.
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