New Orleans Has No Buffalo Wings 🍗

Last week, I flew from London to attend the North American Anthropology Conference. On the morning of my departure, the first snow fell. The plane chased the dawn line southwest, staying in daylight the entire journey until we finally witnessed sunset upon arrival—welcomed by the tropical warmth, dry breezes, and nearly 20 hours of daylight in the American South. ✈️🌅 My time in New Orleans felt like an endless, long day. Though nightfall came early, I found myself awake for what seemed like forever. Every day was a whirlwind of moving between conference venues, transitioning from air-conditioned rooms to outdoor heatwaves, from English presentations to the bustling sounds of the streets and the announcements of streetcars. Attendees wore uniformly designed name tags around their necks—like badges of identity and open invitations: Please talk to me. Thousands of these tags formed a temporary yet expansive community. Academic conferences, I thought, are what Marc Augé called "non-places"—spaces where people gather for a fleeting purpose, assume new identities through movement, and build transient connections that shift or dissolve as the crowd disperses. 🏷️🗣️ Yet, whenever I travel for a purpose, I find myself lingering in the moments beyond it. Like wandering through the French Quarter during lunch breaks, basking in sunshine by the riverside—a warmth even a British summer rarely offers. Like rushing to a temporary exhibition before it closed, crossing an overbridge with cars and wind roaring past, surrounded by graffiti-covered pillars and the rising moon, all blending into a symphony of sounds. Or like gathering with strangers who became new friends in street-side diners or hotel corridors—where, caught between physical exhaustion and mental exhilaration, we savored every minute of doing nothing, as if goodbyes would never come. 🎨🌉🤝 New Orleans has no Buffalo wings, but it has fried chicken, oysters, and crawfish. It has gumbo and jambalaya steeped in history, vibrant colors, bold scents, and a symphony of sounds—from jazz beats to street noise. It also has long, meaningful conversations that don’t require alcohol to begin. All of this, I’ve taken in and absorbed—transforming what was once a "non-place" into a tangible, unforgettable place. 🌆🍤🎷 The return flight began at sunset. The night journey felt like a dim, winding passage—an exit from the trip. Consciousness and senses blurred in the darkness, slowly returning to their original state. Stepping out of Heathrow to wait for the airport shuttle, the lingering warmth on my skin was instantly locked away by the chill of the 50th parallel north. Back in Oxford, dusk settled quickly, as if night were eager to return. If New Orleans—with its endless daylight—was a dream, it was now time to wake up. Yet another southern gem has been added to my map. 🌍❤️ #AmericanAnthropologyConference #NewOrleans #TravelReflections