The coincidences never cease to amaze me

I registered for classes and met the administration, professors and other students at AGS this afternoon, which was a very pleasant experience full of surprises. The first among them was finding out that Meredith Rainey, a girl who was in my brother's class in middle school in Mandeville and whose sister was in mine, is also starting a Masters at the school this semester. We figured it out when she mentioned that she was from New Orleans, though even from the beginning I thought she seemed slightly familiar. However I never pursued the thought since the likelihood of it being true was so miniscule.

This is however not the first completely absurd coincidence that I've ever experienced in this city. During my year here as an undergrad, I was at the grocery with a Finnish friend when a certain monsieur started chatting with us. About two weeks later, I was walking in a completely different neighborhood probably a half hour away from the site of the first encounter with this monsieur, and I passed him on the street. I am positive that it was him, because our eyes met and exchanged a look that is rare and hard to describe. All within half a silent second, our eyes said to each other, "I know you, we never said our names, only chatted about brioche at the Franprix for 2 minutes, I have nothing to say to you but boy is this a coincidence!!!"

To get back to registration today, I enrolled in courses on:
Global Communications, Media and Int'l Affairs;
The Scramble for African Oil;
Factors and Theories of Analysis in Int'l Relations;
and Current Economic Problems and Policies

The first I chose because it seemed logical to take advantage of the current US presidential elections and all the media I consume in France and from elsewhere that puts its own spin on it. The second, because I want to be able to critique my father's and many of his friends' profession from an academic standpoint (it's my duty as the youngest child to challenge everything my family does!). The third will be key to lay the theoretical foundation of what I'm studying at AGS; and the fourth seemed highly relevant due to the recent US and global economic downturns. Then I could thoroughly participate in debates with Germain and all of his friends who are math and economics majors...

Competition can be an okay motivation sometimes...?