We were sitting at a cafe in Florence and talked with the people at the next table. It turns out that they were from a small town near my hometown and my father taught the husband. <BR>Last December I was at a holiday party in Vienna and I introduced two newly made friends to each other. It turns out that they are from the same small town in Austria and one went to school with the brother of the other. <BR>I took my Mother to Florida for a convention. She was talking with a man in the airport and he was a high school football coach at Burden High in Kansas, which just happened to be my Mother's alma mater. Burden is a very small town, so this was really a coincidence.

I just had another experience like this! <BR> <BR>I live in Shanghai and had a meeting with someone new to town. A standard expat small talk question is: "So, where were you before Shanghai?" <BR> <BR>She answered: "I was in Equador." <BR> <BR>Knowing this "game" doesn't normally work, I asked anyway: "Oh, I don't suppose you lived in Quito, did you?" <BR> <BR>She had. <BR> <BR>I then asked, "Well, I don't suppose you knew Mr. and Ms. X? I used to nanny for them in the states in college." <BR> <BR>It turns out they were very good friends, and their children still keep in touch! <BR> <BR>People I knew from the states, who met this woman in Quito, Equador, whom I am now working with in Shanghai!

And then...my ex-daughter-in-law and I, both Las Vegas residents for many years, got to talking and discovered we were born in the same hospital in Topeka.

I bought a coffee from a vendor in Sedona who recognised my accent,turns out he came from the same village in England as me but emigrated 25 years ago.On the same trip the postmaster in Oatman(a ghost town)was also able to guess where I was from,as his wife used to live 2o miles away from me.I also got in a lift in Las Vegas & 5 strangers also got in,they all came from my husbands old home of Bolton.Last but not least,I ended up in a restaurant in LA with someone who taught me in school,in England in the 1980's.Weird.

an oldie but goodie

topping again and again.....