it's a small world afterall

on my google reader account, i subscribe to a lot of "overheards." basically, people submit a conversation they overhear and usually its really funny because its taken out of context or just really dumb sounding or whatever. reading this one the other day made me laugh because it reminded me of when i was in berlin last fall. i emailed my friend, michela, to tell her i was going to be back in europe and see if she wanted to meet up. michela is italian and we met going to school in france 6 years ago. at the time, she didn't speak english and since i don't speak italian we spoke french together. she lived across the hall from me in our dorm and was always super nice with a huge smile on her face. we went to stockholm together and had a great time staying in a hostel on a boat. it was a fun trip. so it had been 6+ years since i had seen michela and she told me she was going to visit me in berlin. i was really excited. i met her one day downtown with her boyfriend who didn't speak english or french. he understood a little english, but was afraid to speak, so michela and i spoke english (she has since learned it through her job - she's amazing with languages. she learned spanish just by hanging out with the mexican girls we went to school with in france). it was a little bizarre speaking english with her, but good for me since it had been so long since i spoke french. anyway, we met during some sort of german celebration so there were tons of people around, a mini-fairground with a ferris wheel and carnival food. on one side there was a huge concert of german rock bands and on the other side there was this mini parade. we walked past these people in traditional german outfits blowing these horns like seen here:
and i instinctively said, "riiicolaaaa" kind of to myself, not really thinking anything of it. michela and her boyfriend stopped me and started lauhing, "we have same in italy!" she exclaimed. her boyfriend agreed. apparently the ricola company has the same marketing all over the world. it was one of those "it's a small world after all" moments and then the three of us started to merrily skip down the street. not really but it felt like it. anyway, here is a picture of me and michela and below that is the overheard that i read that made me think of this.

You Are the Weakest Link. Goodbye.

Spanish teacher: And you really have to be careful what you eat, because they have a lot of E. Coli problems.
Teenage girl: E. Coli? Like in those commercials with the cough drops?
Spanish teacher: What?
Teenage girl: Y'know, like the "Eeee-coliiii..."

Jersey Shore High School
Pennsylvania