Its a Small World After All

Twice within the first five days of arriving we were just shocked by connections we had to people we had met in Shanghai. Here are those two stories.

On our first morning we walked over to the school to use the internet and get some information needed to setup our apartment. All morning we were meeting different people as they came through. The second teacher we met, Dani, was from Philadelphia but had been traveling internationally the past 17 years. During the usual "Hi my name is.... and I teach...." Bri mentioned being from Colorado. Dani, looking like she was trying to stump us asked, "Do you know where Joes is?". Now to some of you this will mean nothing but for the rest you'll probably be as shocked as the two of us because Joes is where Bri's Grandpa lives and grew up. Bri's mother also grew up in little ole Joes Colorado, population teeny tiny. Dani is actually good friends with the son of one of Lynn's school teachers. Imagine that.

After the story above we had a good laughed and couldn't believe the connection. After the story below I've decided that the world is just smaller than I thought and I'm going to assume everyone knows everyone else. Saturday night the school took all of the new teachers to a fancy chinese restaurant for dinner. When we arrived Bri and I saw that there was assigned seating to try and integrate teachers from our campus, Hongqiao (Hong rhymes with long, qiao is chow) with teachers from the Pudong campus. We went our separate ways and within three minutes Bri is giving me this look and I know she wants to share something but I'm really not good at ESP and I'm in the midst of my own conversation. Then the man she was speaking with comes over to introduce himself.

His name is Matt Barton and he teaches english at the Pudong campus. He taught one of my best friends and groomsmen, Tom Eisenhauer in high school. After years teaching he knew Tom's name right away when Bri mentioned that she had a friend from Manitou Springs (where Matt moved from with his family this summer). He actually said Tom is one of his favorite all-time students and that he still uses the goldfish speech Tom gave in school as an example for his class every year. We both enjoyed that coincidence and now I'm convinced that the world is just too small, so never gossip about anyone, because everyone knows everyone and based on my experience in Eastern Colorado....they might be related.

Tom, what I'm wondering is if that goldfish is the same fish Cody and I found dead when it jumped out of the tank at the Laura street house in college. Could it be?