Another Unexpected Encounter

I had been in the mall for about an hour and a half, an hour of which was spent in the bookstore. After perusing the shelves for a long while I had bought: a Turkish-English dictionary (you'd think I would have picked up one of those by now) and a children's book called Sihirli Kitap (I thought the title of "The Magic Book" was a good sign that it was the right one to buy). Anyway, I was going to meet Pınar's mom, Berrin, in the Starbucks where she was going to pick me up. So I was in the Starbucks, in the mall, and I was reading my new book with some help from the dictionary when I looked up to see a familiar face that was not that of Berrin. In fact it was İpek. 

I think her surprise was greater than mine. İpek graduated WPI and went on to graduate school at Cornell last year. I had seen her once or twice since. If I was going to run into her by chance somewhere it would have been inside a coffee shop of one of about 3 malls in this city of İstanbul. She of course asked what on Earth I was doing here, etc. We conversed for a little bit. I was calmer when this surprise happened compared to the one 2 weeks ago. Am I getting lulled into thinking that these things are no longer as special? Just then, Berrin arrived. I thought this is an introduction I never thought I'd make, as I introduced them.

When we got home, Berrin jokingly asked how long it takes for me to be out and about in İstanbul before I see someone I know. So far this trip, the average time has been about 2 hours, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep myself cooped up inside the house for the sake of the numbers. Who knows, I might just run into somebody else today.