Running Into People

Today has been a strange day, not because I did anything that unusual or exciting, but becuase I kept running into people! It was a weird day, but a great one at that!

1) Linea and I went to coffee with a woman who works at the Kurobe gym. She took us to a small back street coffee shop/cafe on the far side of Uozu, near the ferris wheel, where a former lifeguard at our pool now works. We had no idea where we were going when we started out in the morning, but were pleasantly surprised to find this cute new hang out. I couldn't stay long because I was meeting two friends for lunch, coincidently also in Uozu. I joked with Linea that it would be really funny if I ended up back at the same place for lunch. I said my good-byes and met my friends in a shopping mall parking lot, jumped in their car and low and behold...drove back to the same cafe!! As I walked up the steps and say Linea and Yuki in the window we all started laughing. I mean, really, it was a 40 minute drive from our apartments. We both got invited to the same place at the same time by different friends! Weird!

2) On my drive back to Nyuzen, I got a phone call from a girl I met at our monthly International dinners. She called to invite me to her house for dinner, TONIGHT...NOW! Invitations like that don't come often, so I told I would be right over. I walked in the door, greeted the family and when I opened the door to the living room...who was standing there? Another ALT, Kyle, from 3 towns over (other side of the Uozu ferris wheel, 45 minutes away). I was so surprised and shocked to see him. I had no idea he would be there. We both looked at each other a little confused and were taken by surprise at the situation. We enjoyed several hours of food and conversation before I finally took him to the train station at 9:30! The international community is small, but it was odd to see him in my town without knowing before hand that I would be running into him, it was weird!

3) I got back to my apartment about 10pm, Linea and I decided to go for a late night walk considering the March like weather. This is the FIRST time in 18 months we have ever gone for a walk together, let alone at 10pm. As we are leaving our building a car is pulling in, who is it? It's Johnny P, of course! So he parks his car, and the Nyuzen crew enjoyed an evening stroll together....it was a beautiful brisk January night! Considering we all live in the same apartment building, it's not weird to run into each other. But I have gone weeks without seeing either of them because our schedules are so different! So, really, it was pretty unusual!! As we walked we talked about our days like a family sitting down to dinner together. It was super cute! I like my family away from family!