Strange Coincidences

Weird night last night of 3 random meetings with people.

I went to pick up the Austrian girl Janine at her place in Little Italy and we walked to Oasis for the AIESEC dinner that was supposed to be at 8pm. We got there 15 minutes late, but there was only one person who had arrived before us. People only really started coming in at around 8:45, most of whom were from York U. Later met a few more people from U of T, Brazil, and Germany, all of whom were so friendly and great to talk to. Because of all the stragglers, we only started eating dinner at 9:45. The meal was tapas, which is basically like Spanish dim sum, where you order a whole bunch of tiny dishes to share with others. There were quite a few interesting dishes, most of which were pretty spicy... unfortunately, Janine wasn't too big on the spiciness. She did have a great time though and got to mix and mingle with a bunch of people.

I, on the other hand, was so late for Branco's b-day at Raq n Waq because of the late dinner and because it took forever to get the bill sorted out. At College & Spadina I ran after the streetcar that had stopped at the intersection but it took off without me. So while I was waiting for the next one, I saw my sister's friend Mike, who I had met last summer at the Electronic Music Festival, walking towards the shelter. I was staring at him trying to figure out whether it was him, but because it was so dark, he looked kinda of scary. He started staring back at me, so I was afraid it was because I was staring for so long. But he recognized me too and we both started saying "Aren't you...?" It was so random too, because the last time we saw each other was in the fall when we were volunteering for the McLuhan Festival of the Future, and our encounter started the exact same way. It turned out he was heading the same way as me so I had company on my way to Branco's party. But when we transferred at Queen Street, a half empty streetcar just drove past us without stopping to pick us up, delaying me even longer. I hate the TTC.

Inside the Raq n Waq, I noticed this girl that kept staring at me. Finally she came up to me and said I looked really familiar and started asking me questions. Are you from Richmond Hill? Yes. Did you go to Bayview SS? No. Are you sure? You look so familiar...?? And then it hit me. It was happening all over again. Two years ago I was shopping at a store in Hillcrest Mall, and the cashier said she knew me. I had no idea what she was talking about, and when she insisted that she was my neighbour I thought she was out of her mind. But it turned out that she really did live on my street, and I just have no idea what my neighbours look like. Flash forward to last night, and it was happening all over again. The girl was the same neighbour! (When Christian asked me whether I know any of my neighbours and I answered no, he didn't really think that I REALLY don't know my neighbours). The funniest thing however, was that we knew random facts about each other, like my mom's name and what school she goes to (although we didn't know each other's names). As it turned out, the girl's boyfriend was one of Branco's best buddies. What a small world.

On the subway ride home, I noticed two semi-familiar looking girls from my high school. They were a year younger than me and I never spoke to them, so I wasn't really sure if I was just delusional. But once we stopped at a station and everyone from the gorup stood up, I saw one of my old classmates whom I hadn't seen since graduation. As she was stepping out, she saw me and started smiling and waving, but we didn't get a chance to speak. It was a fleeting moment, but it was kind of nice to see an old friendly face after many years.