Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From Home

[Smith1942]

Has this ever happened to you?

In England, we had to sack a guy at my company for doing no work. So, I emigrate to the States. A year later, I'm on Ellis Island doing the tourist thing. Three and a half thousand miles from home, OK? And I literally bump into the guy coming out of the museum as I was going in. Awkward.

When I was a child, I was on holiday in France with my cousin and her family. We're in this little village at one of the chateaux in the Loire. We walk past a phone box and this man pops out and says to my cousin, "Hello Hilary!" It was her teacher

Well, today I hear through the grapevine that another guy in my industry from the UK - who I worked with for five years in London - is over from the UK and in Boston on business. He was a sleazebag. I'm going out and about today running errands. Central Boston is very small. Now, what's the betting that I run into him??

 

[minousbijoux]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Yeah, but I want to know is are you gonna hug him?!!

 

[Kelinas]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I met my husband originally in South Korea , stuff didn't work out and we went out separate ways.

4 years later, 5000 miles away, we literally bumped into each other in Busch Gardens.
Who'da thunk?

 

[bright ice]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Yeah, but I want to know is are you gonna hug him?!!

 

[JulieN]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Yes, once at an airport.

 

[GemFever]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Yeah, but I want to know is are you gonna hug him?!!

I once saw a former classmate at a Korean spa. In the all-female section where you bathe completely nude. Man, was that awkward. We pretended we didn't see each other. Or maybe she really didn't see me, that would be even better.

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

That's happened a few times to me. I've been at airports around the country and I've bumped into people I know who were coming home from their vacations.

Several years ago my husband and I went to Ireland for a friend's wedding. Another friend of mine happened to be in Ireland at the same time, on a family vacation. This friend was on a walking tour and we decided to meet on the Aran Islands at the B&B her group was walking to. My husband and I had toured the island, killing time until they arrived (on a walking tour, the group's arrival time is kind of hard to predict). It was surreal to see my friend and her family walking suddenly out of the mist, up the hill towards their B&B thousands of miles from where we'd usually meet to hang out.

Oh, and on that same trip, we ran into someone I went to high school with on the airplane when we left Ireland. I think we might have also seen this guy and his wife at Blarney Castle, too, but I can't remember.

 

[JewelFreak]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

The summer I graduated from college, a friend & I blasted around Europe for 2 months. Ran smack into somebody from college, on Sloan St. in London. Never was more surprised. Didn't know her well during school but we had a ball together in London.

Kelinas, if that's not in the Meant To Be category, I don't know what is!

--- Laurie

 

[yennyfire]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I was at a football game while in college and happened to overhear someone talking about a tiny town in Norway. I turned around and it was a friend of my first boyfriend whom I met in Norway. He had introduced us in passing at a party two summers prior and here she was, a continent away!! We took a photo together and sent it to my (then) ex-boyfriend, whom I am still friends with 25 years later. That experience has always made me say "what a small world we live in"...

 

[HollyS]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

All together now: "It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world."

 

[AprilBaby]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I'm a dental hygienist. Two years ago we went to Italy, flying into Frankfort and out of Rome. On the flight from Rome a patient and his wife were seated right in front of me on a 747.

 

[ame]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I seriously make my husband insane with this.

LITERALLY every time we are out of the state, we run into someone I know or who knows my family and there's (twice!) through the 9 day trip, all but two of those folks were in Waikiki, one of the people was on Hawaii (and we were literally there for A DAY, we saw them in the Volcano park) and another on Maui when we were shopping. Odds?! Then in San Fran we ran into a couple I worked with on invites, and three days prior we had been in Salem OR visiting family and saw someone I knew from school. In NYC we ran into a couple I knew that I used to work with. It happened again in LA, my husband heard someone yelling AME! AME! and we turned and I saw a friend of mine barreling down the road at me. She had been out there interviewing people for her work. In TX, we've had it happen a few times too many (my MIL thinks its just strange, but I used to have clients in a few cities there so that's part of it), and in Chicago as well. And I see people in Minneapolis every once in a while too. The best of all: JOHN TRAVOLTA. My family has "met him" in the airport three times, the first two when we were much younger (before my brother). And he knew our names the third time, despite it being 10 years after the first two (well not my brother)! So weird! And sorta cool! I look just like my family--mostly my parents, less my siblings, so I am hard to deny unfortunately.

But it's funny as hell to me, and it just makes my husband totally insane. "How in the hell do you people know everyone!" We're a personable bunch apparently.

 

[sonnyjane]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Not someone I knew, but I actually have two "small world" stories that have happened just recently.

For the first, my friend offered to pick me up from the airport in San Diego after a trip. She and her boyfriend (that I had never met) picked me up and we were making small talk while driving. I asked him where he was from, and he said "all over". I told him I was too and listed the places where I'd lived, including Pennsylvania. He said he had lived in Pennsylvania for a while too. I asked him where specifically and he said "Oh, small, small small small small. I promise you've never heard of it.". I told him "Yeah I was in a small small small small town too! Where were you?" He tells me "I was going to a private boarding school called Kiski Prep but it's tiny tiny, only 200 kids". "UUUMMMM THAT'S WHERE I GRADUATED FROM!!!" Turns out he transferred in as a senior the year after I graduated! It was so bizarre! We couldn't get over it, especially since we just missed each other for a year and there we were, meeting for the first time in San Diego!

The second one is that I just went on a cruise last month out of Miami, but I live here in SD. While on the boat, my friend and I were randomly assigned to a table in the main dining room with two other girls our age. We were making small talk the first night...

"Where are you guys from?"
"California"
"Me too! What part?"
"San Diego"
"ME TOO! What part?"
"Linda Vista (neighborhood here)"
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEE TOO!! I live on XYZ street!"
"We live across the street!!"

They literally live 200 yards away from me!!!! We have hung out a couple of times since we got back from vacation. So random!

 

[AGBF]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Not someone I knew, but I actually have two "small world" stories that have happened just recently.

(snip)

The second one is that I just went on a cruise last month out of Miami, but I live here in SD. While on the boat, my friend and I were randomly assigned to a table in the main dining room with two other girls our age. We were making small talk the first night...

"Where are you guys from?"
"California"
"Me too! What part?"
"San Diego"
"ME TOO! What part?"
"Linda Vista (neighborhood here)"
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEE TOO!! I live on XYZ street!"
"We live across the street!!"

They literally live 200 yards away from me!!!! We have hung out a couple of times since we got back from vacation. So random!

I thought I had one story, because I have only one story of running into someone miles from where we lived. I do have one of those huge coincidence stories as well, however! I'll lead with that since sonnyjane's story reminded me of it.

In 2004 my husband, my daughter, and I moved from Connecticut to Virginia. As I was getting ready to leave many people asked me what past of Virginia I was moving to and told me that they had friends and relatives in Virginia. I assume that thia is normal wherever one lives and wherever one is moving. I paid little attention to a friend's telling me that her brother lived there, because it seemed that everyone I spoke to had someone who lived there. As the conversation narrowed down where we ere moving and where her brother lived, however, it turned out that we had bought her brother's house! That was where she had spent Thanksgiving every years for the past I don't know how many years! So we ended up talking about her brother's family, whom I had met, their dogs, the house, etcetera. Really unbelievable.

My running into someone story was, like that of so many of you, embarrassing at the time. I was sitting outside the Duomo in Florence, Italy and I suddenly heard s young girl scream, "Mrs. AGBF! Mrs AGBF!". A teenage blonde ran across the piazza, very excited to see me. I was in Italy with my husband visiting his parents and she was on vacation. But I had just given her an "F" in tenth grade European history before the summer vacation started!

Deb/AGBF

 

[iLander]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

This only happens to my DH.

He was living in NYC and ran into a woman who he went to college with, even though college was 3,000 miles away. Ever the opportunist, he took her out a few times.

Fast forward 30 years: DH was talking with his cousin's wife, and the conversation turned to growing up, where they lived, etc. Turns out they were in the SAME kindergarten class together! They didn't know this, even though she's been a relative for over 20 years.

Freaked me out.

 

[texaskj]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

All together now: "It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world."

Nooooooooooooooo
AAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE
Not that song!!!!!

My family went to visit my uncle one summer in L.A. (from Iowa.) My mom and I are in the shoe department in Saks in Beverly Hills
and someone taps me on the shoulder. It's one of my classmates in high school and a neighbor and she's wearing a dress I also own.

 

[VRBeauty]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I ran into longtime family friends at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. I was traveling on my own, which was fine but for some reason I really wasn't looking forward to eating lunch on my own. The friends were on the opposite side of the buffet table and recognized me! At that point I hadn't seen them in years. Now, a few decades later, they're living next to my folks in the little town my parents moved to after retirement.

 

[distracts]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I am in Scotland on my honeymoon. In a parking lot, I ran into a woman who used to babysit me when I was a kid (she's four years older), also in Scotland for her honeymoon. Scotland - a more popular honeymoon destination than everyone would have us believe.

 

[princesss]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

This happens to me a lot. I think the two best incidents were the time I ran into a girl at H&M in DC who looked familiar. We were both in college and giving each other the eye and eventually we started talking adn trying to figure out if we'd had a class together. Turns out we'd been in the same Spanish class. In high school. In Singapore.

I was studying in Spain my junior year of college and a group of us were wandering around and I said that I'd been in Thailand for the summer with my family, and this girl gave me a weird look and then said, "Have you ever lived in California?" Turns out we'd been in the same classes in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade before my family moved to Thailand. (Also in that group: a girl who had lived on the same military base and had the same kindergarten teacher I did two years before I was in her class.)

 

[Ally T]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I bumped into my English teacher from school many years ago waiting in immigration at JFK.

But the spooky one was when I was out in Manchester (UK) several years ago with an old boyfriend, who was convinced he recognized the guy behind the bar who served us. About 15 minutes later he realized it was a guy called Jon, whom he'd met backpacking around Australia 10 years previously!??! They had met in a hostel & travelled up the Gold Coast together (Jon was an Aussie on a break from college) so they spent 3 weeks together but never kept in touch. This Jon was now working his way across Europe all those years later. They had a lovely & very surreal catch up, then we all went our desperate ways again.

 

[partgypsy]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

20 years ago, my boyfriend at the time and I, were doing a semester abroad from a very small (think 1240 people in entire college) liberal arts college. We then wandered around Europe for a month. I think we ran into classmates about 3 times in random places (Netherlands, Edinborough castle). One of the funniest was running into a classmate who was with his mom at the French Riveria (along the boardwalk). You could tell he was embarrassed (apparently he was well off but didn't want people to know, plus, he was hanging out with his mother).
We were waiting for a train to transfer from France to Italy, when we heard a person talking. He was from Asia, and talking to another person how he was excited about spending the next year abroad at a small liberal arts college. They asked him the name of the college, and yes it was our college. I look at my boyfriend, thinking we should introduce himself, but he was sick of all the coincidences at that point and just shook his head so we said nothing. I still feel kind of bad about that.

Oh, the very weirdest was, I also visited my sister's exboyfriend and his flatmates in London on this trip (her boyfriend was dual citizenship American and British, while the flatmates were English). A year later I am in a random truck stop in Iowa, middle of nowhere, and this guy comes up to me, introducing himself as one of the flatmates I met in London. I was so flustered I forgot to ask him what was he doing there??? It was almost like some weird Matrix glitch.

 

[canuk-gal]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

HI:

Yup, in Santorini--we were on our honeymoon and ran into a colleague from work, drinking ouzo at a local restaurant...

cheers--Sharon

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Smith, let us know if you bump into him. When the weather is nice my husband and I try to meet for lunch. I'm in the financial district and he's in the back bay, so we try to meet in the Common. And we always manage to somehow miss each other--so hopefully you have equally bad luck running into the sleazeball.

I grew up in a farming community of about 200 people in rural Missouri. So imagine my surprise when I bumped into somebody from my town while touring the Vatican in Italy.

 

[lovebug1031]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

I was with a friend of mine on vacation in St. Maarten one year, and we're in the touristy part and some guy walks right into me - turns out it was a colleague/boss of mine who was on a cruise and that was one of their stops! it was def. weird!

 

[Smith1942]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

It's amazing how common experiences like this are!

So, I didn't run into him yesterday but we were at the Copley Square memorial two hours apart, according to his public Twitter feed. And there's always today!

 

[smitcompton]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Hi,

This made the news. Some details may be not accurate, but the essence of the story is.

A young man went away to college and registered for his classes. His dorm mate told him he had mistaken someone on campus for him. This incident repeated itself where his roomate persuaded him to check out the person he was referring to. When he did he was amazed to find he was an identical match to himself. Of course he chatted with the other student and soon thereafter found that they were twins separated at birth and adopted to different parents.

The bizzare story made the local news where another young man in the town saw the story that had photos, and realized he looked exactly like them. He made contact with the others and found their mother had given birth to triplets, not twins. They fast became friends and decided to open a restaurant in New York City, which they named Triplets. I have been to the restaurant, but its quite a while ago, so I do not know if it still exists. But that is quite a story, isn't it.


Annette

 

[woofmama]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

In 1995 my sister and I decided to take a three day trip to the Bahama's. When we got off the plane we saw two brothers who we went to grade school with 1st thru 8th grade. She had graduated with the older one and I with the younger one. Turns out they were staying at the same resort so we bumped into them all weekend.
Fast forward to now, the older brother does videos for same biz advertising and came to my business. It took both of us a few minutes to realize who each other was.

 

[Smith1942]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

So many great stories!

I've realized that there's a great possibility that the sleazebag from my old London office who's currently on business here in Boston is on my flight back to the UK Sunday night!

I am going back to the UK Sunday 5th until 22nd May to visit my mum, and I am flying BA. I know that he is flying BA too because his public Twitter feed mentioned flying to Boston from Heathrow Terminal 5 - that's BA. Monday is a holiday in the UK, so he will probably leave Sunday night like me, landing Monday. Most people would do that in order to get the max out of the trip and be back in time for work Tuesday.

 

[Smith1942]

Re: Bumping Into Someone You Know, Thousands of Miles From H

Yeah, but I want to know is are you gonna hug him?!!

No, I am not going to hug him! If he's on my flight I might sit behind him and kick his seat all the way across the Atlantic, though.