This month, I had two very interesting encounters - one with someone I hadn't seen in twelve years, and one with someone I knew via the Internet but never met in real life. Both encounters happened when I least expected it.
When I was 18, I went to Spain as part of a high school exchange. We spent two weeks in Madrid in April, and they came and spent two weeks in the US in September. (Because I was a senior and graduated that June, I arranged it so my student still ended up coming to my house - they let me because my sister was still at the high school.) It was my first trip abroad and my first time on a plane.
Virginia and I kept in touch on and off for the next few years, but after a while it dropped off. When I went to Spain in 2008 I really wanted to get back in touch, but all I had was her phone number and address from 10 years ago. What if she didn't live there any more? And if she did, would I really want to just call up after seven years of radio silence, or even worse, just show up at the door unannounced?
I got back in touch with Virginia and her sister (as well as some of the other people from the exchange) earlier this year via Facebook. After a few exchanges I discovered she was coming to England for an English course in Brighton. We knew we had to get together at some point, because it would be silly for us to be in the same small country and not see each other. But our scheduled kept not working out - with the snow in January, the volcano in April, me being on duty and her having classes, we just kept missing each other. Brighton is not exactly close enough for a quick trip - you have to really plan for it.
One night, I got a text from Virginia saying that she was coming to Oxford with a group of friends the next day. I couldn't believe it - after 12 years, we were going to see each other in less than 12 hours. She came to Oxford the next day and got the whirlwind tour, and we got to pick up where we left off in 1998. She's going to stick around in the UK for a while, so I hope we'll get a chance to see each other again before I go home for good (hopefully, next time her sister and/or her parents will be there!).
Today I had another interesting encounter, along similar lines. Those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning might remember that back when I started in Oxford, I participated in a little project called Spoil-a-Blogger. (I'd link to it, but it's no longer online.) It was like a Secret Santa for bloggers: for three months, each person sent a surprise package once a month to someone and received a surprise package once a month from someone else. I sent packages to
Catraggedy, and
Lori-Lyn sent packages to me. (There was a complicated system of pseudonyms and fake email addresses so you wouldn't know who was sending you stuff until the end.)
At the end of the project, I found out that Lori-Lyn actually had a longtime connection to Oxford - her mother studied here and always loved it here. I knew that her mom traveled here once in a while, and just recently found out that both of them were going to be in the UK this month, including being in Oxford late June/early July. Once I finished moving rooms next week, I had planned to get in touch.
Well, guess who I ran into at M&S today?
I was in the grocery section when I spotted her. I must have been staring, because she looked at me and we realized we were thinking the same thing. (We've never met in person until today, so I wasn't completely sure that I wasn't just imagining things.) I walked up to her, we exchanged a confused "You're not...???" and hugged, and we got to have a quick chat. Once I move rooms next week and they get settled into their ChCh accommodation, we'll get together again.
It's so interesting to see how things come together by chance, after many years, and all thanks to the Internet. It's also interesting to see how things come full circle: the Spoil-a-Blogger project was a memorable part of the beginning of my time in Oxford, and here we are meeting up at the end of my time in Oxford.
