[tei-council] Cancelled trip to Baltimore due to Taifun

[Christian Wittern]

Dear Julia,

As you might have heard in the news, a desastrous taifun has hit Japan
in the past days.  The eye passed right over Kansai Airport at the
time I was supposed to leave for Baltimore, so the plane got diverted
and I was told to wait.  Unfortunately, weather conditions did not
improve and I finally had to return home (which was no small task
either) and wait for further notice.  As it turned out, the flight was
not cancelled, but "only" delayed by more then 24 hours.  This,
however, would prevent me from arriving in Baltimore in time for the
meeting, so I had to give up on the trip.  Fortunately, although even a few
miles from here homes collapsed in landslides, family and friends in Japan
are all unaffected.

I would like to ask you to apologize on my behalf to the members at
the meeting in Baltimore.  I am very sorry that, as the chair of the
technical council of the TEI, I have to miss such an important
opportunity to get feedback from the TEI community and think about
further directions, especially at a time when such important decisions
about the further directions of the development of the TEI Guidelines
have to be made.  I trust that the meeting will be one of the rare
opportunities of exchange between communities and individuals that are
at other times separated by barriers of time, space and habit and hope
that the fruits of this meeting will soon be visible in TEI land.

All the best,

Christian Wittern

-- 

 Christian Wittern 
 Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
 47 Higashiogura-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8265, JAPAN