Kerstin

In fall of 2008, I went with my mother to Toronto to experience the city (and the Toronto Film Festival) for the very first time. And I did. We saw the sites and even an awesome German film, which included a question and answer session with the director after the film. However, I never expected to meet such a wonderful friend.

One morning we got up bright and early to head to Niagara Falls. My mother had arranged for us to go with a tour group, thus avoiding logistics and making it more comfortable for us. On the bus I wanted to die. It must've been 8am, an ungodly hour for me (come to think of it, anything before noon is ungodly to this girl), and I was half asleep. However, as soon as I heard someone speak German, I just perked up. (To this day hearing German in America makes me smile) I turned around to see a girl about my age conversing with her mother in what happens to be my foreign language of choice.

To say something or not to say something? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But the girl was my age, and we were going to be on that bus for a long while...so I thought, why not? And I did say hi, and we did start to talk. She was German, studying at a university nearby, and her mother was there for a visit. Her name is Kerstin, and we spent most of the day talking.

At the end of the day, we exchanged first and last names, promising to add each other on facebook: and we did. We e-mailed back and forth for about a year and a half. Just short facebook messages, letting each other know what was going on in our lives. And then it got to a point where I was going to study abroad. I got a scholarship to study in Salzburg, and when I told Kerstin that, she mentioned that she studied only 20 minutes away from there! It was really a ridiculous coincidence.

So, a girl that I had only met one time met me at the train station in Salzburg, helped me get to my room, and hung out with me at dinner that night. Since then we have met up numerous time, including when she helped celebrate my birthday with me. In February we are going to visit her parents in Abu Dhabi, where they currently live.

Who would've thought? Just reach out and say hi to someone. You never know where it will take you!