How We First Met: Mongolia, Parasailing, Cruise Ships and Broken Showers

Here is my MP's post. Enjoy.

My discovery of the Nerddd's blog was a result of a seemingly random, yet interconnected set of happenstances that involved Mongolia, parasailing, cruise ships and broken showers.

Here is the sequence:

1. In the winter of 2004, after having to completed law school a semester early, I went on a five month around-the-world-pre-bar-trip, including a jaunt along the Trans-Siberian railroad through Mongolia.

2. A few months later, in the summer of 2004, after writing the New York bar, I decided that I would spend some quality time with my sister in Toronto in the interim before beginning my new job in Manhattan.

3. Whilst in Toronto, I attended the house party of my friends P. and L., whereupon, by chance, one of L.'s sister's friends, G, stopped by for about 15 minutes to take a shower (as her shower had broken down just days before). I spoke to her for all of 4-5 minutes, mentioning in passing my travels.

4. Fast forward to summer 2006 - I received a random email from L. (who was interning in New Delhi at the time) asking me whether or not I remembered the chance encounter with her sister's showering friend G, and if so, whether G. could pick my brain for advice on traveling through Mongolia. Apparently, she was in the midst of her own around the world trip, was at the time heading to Mongolia and had remembered our brief five minute conversation. I, of course, obliged.

5. I emailed G. to give her some thoughts, but also sheepishly admitted that as I had traveled to Mongolia in the winter when it was prohibitively cold, I didn't have too much to offer in the way of sightseeing tips. I then suggested that if she happened by any one of China, Tibet, Vietnam, Thailand etc. during her trip, that I could probably be of more use.

6. She wrote back a few weeks later asking for advice on Tibet. I give her a long dissertation, apologized again for not being terribly useful on Mongolia and then randomly asked her how she enjoyed her travels there.

7. During that time, my parents were thinking about going on a cruise and had tasked me with doing some initial research. Originally we were targeting the Caribbean and I was researching shore-excursions/activities and came across parasailing.

8. Almost at the very moment I did a Google search on parasailing, I got an email response back from G. thanking me for the Tibet advice, and letting me know that she had a great time in Mongolia and gave me the link to her blog. She then mentioned that she had found excellent travel advice by doing a search on Blogger for Mongolia. Reading about the direct experiences of others gave her great ideas about her own trips and she suggested that I use that as a resource the next time I was planning a trip. As I had never read a blog before, I followed the link and read through her stories of travels through India, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Russia and Turkey. After reading her blog, given that just minutes before, I had google-searched "parasailing," I spontaneously did a blogger search for "parasailing.”

9. Also by happenstance, the Nerddd had just recently completed the entry "The Nerd and her BFF Parasail" as it happened to be the fourth hit on that list (sorted by date). I had read through the first hit, and didn't think much of it. Before parting from the search page, I randomly clicked on the Nerddd's link, found it delightful, then read through her original set of entries and admired her love of Ken Burns, William Faulkner and ee cummings, among others, and then in an out of character move, spontaneously bookmarked it as a favorite, and the rest is history.

10. As an aside, I have not done a Blogger search since, I have not bookmarked another blog as a favorite since, my family never ended up cruising to the Caribbean and I've never dirty madlibbed either.

So, in brief, the road to my meeting the Nerddd was contingent upon a chance encounter four years ago, an email out of the blue based on my (supposed) knowledge of Mongolia, the temporal intersection of my discovering blogging at the same time my parents were asking for research on cruises and the Nerddd having blogged about parasailing, combined with easy access to a blogger search function which no longer appears to be available.

Kismet, it seems, is alive and well.