This morning I met with one of the employees at the Swiss Library where I am volunteering. She asked me if I knew someone who lives in Kansas City.
I've gotten this kind of question a lot. Especially as most Swiss do not fully realize how large the United States is. Or that even the smaller US cities are larger than any of the cities in Switzerland.
Example: "No, I'm sorry. I do not know your friend in Boston. By the way, Kansas City is approximately the same distance from Boston as Zürich is from Moscow. We were unlikely to ever meet..."
However, for the first time I actually know the person!
Turns out that I used to work with her aunt in Kansas City. I knew my former co-worker was from Zürich. Indeed, before moving here I quizzed her about Zürich and Switzerland on a couple of occasions.
But still, what are the odds?
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- Roman Holiday
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Travels in 2008
- January: Cleveland, US
- February: Cairo, Egypt
- March: Naples, Italy
- April: Kansas City, US
- May: Las Vegas, US; Berlin, Germany
- June: Hong Kong, China (GLH only)
- July: Eastern Mediterranean Cruise
- August:
- September: San Antonio, US
- October: Minnesota, US
- November:
- December:
Travels in 2007
- January: Basel, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; Winterthur, Switzerland
- February: Konstanz, Germany; Paris, France; Prangins, Switzerland; Rapperswil, Switzerland
- March: Bern, Switzerland; Schaffhausen, Switzerland; United States; Zug, Switzerland
- April: Aarau, Switzerland; Ballenberg, Switzerland; Basel, Switzerland; Colmar, France; Interlaken, Switzerland; Luzern, Switzerland; Maienfeld, Switzerland; Rome, Italy; Solothurn, Switzerland; Strasbourg, France; Stuttgart, Germany
- May: Bern, Switzerland; Dublin, Ireland; Geneva, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria; Lausanne, Switzerland; Lyon, France; Montreux, Switzerland; Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria
- June: Einsiedeln, Switzerland; United States
- July: St. Ursanne, Switzerland; Winterthur, Switzerland
- August: Basel, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dijon, France; Chartres, France; Gdansk, Poland; Helsinki, Finland; Interlaken, Switzerland; Luzern, Switzerland; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France; St. Petersburg, Russia; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia
- September: Ballenberg, Switzerland; Einsiedeln, Switzerland; Mallorca, Spain; Zug, Switzerland
- October: Munich, Germany; Paris, France; Venice, Italy
- November: London, England; United States
- December: Munich, Germany; Nuremberg, Germany; Salzburg, Austria
4 comments:
it is downright scary how small the world is in academics, my parents are on a trip (work for my dad) in Japan and have been hanging out with a professor from Vienna who knows The Husband from when he was a student there. This morning on the way to work The Husband said to me, I never imagined having an American father in law who was eating dinner with my calculus professor.
Through another science connection my parents met my cousins girlfriend (who happened to be a post doc of a friend of my dads) before the cousins parents even knew they were dating.
That actually happens a lot. I remember walking down Queens Road in Hong Kong and running into Bill Larson a friend from my home town. In fact my dad worked for his dad. Than I was walking into the ATC building a Tachakawa AB in Japan and someone called by name. I turned around and it was Alan Depies a high school classmate. I,ve meet people in airport that I knew etc. Remember Helen in Poland went to a party at the house of one of her friends and met Dr. Stransky from Cleveland, Oh. When asked where she was from she stated Owatonna, MN and the Dr Stransky said me too. Turns out Helen had dated his nephew
It did happen a lot to me in Switzerland also.
Take this example. Met a friend who knew a friend who happened to be also from California. WE grew up in the same city! Ironically she left switzerland just after me and we still keep in touch as she is back in California now...
My American friend KayTe (who works in Santiago, Chile) was just writing on her blog that she was traveling in Argentina and ran into her friend from Santiago. It's a small world indeed.
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