in January 2009, I had just recently received a grant to work at a university in Brazil. I decided that I would spend a month traveling during carnaval before starting my job. At the Brazilian embassy, I met a guy named Christian from Long Island who told me that he was about to travel to the same state that I was going to (Santa Catarina) with some buddies. We decided to meet up.

I did end up meeting up with him and his friends in Brazil, and we had a great time traveling during carnaval for 2-3 weeks. After carnaval ended, I parted ways with Christian and his friends and I started my work at the university.

Almost a year later, I was heading back to the United States a week before Christmas to spend the holidays with my family. My first flight was delayed, and I ended up getting to Sao Paulo an hour before my connection flight, and upon arriving at the gate, they told me they could not let me board the plane.

It was one of the most stressful events of my life. I had no idea where my luggage was, where I would stay that night, and how or if I would ever get home to spend the holidays with my family. To top it off, I was all alone in an airport screaming at airline employees in a language that was not my own.

After 4 hours of waiting for accomodations, a woman told me that I should have been waiting on a line to request a place to stay. The line was enormous. Completely and utterly depressed, I started walking towards the line when suddenly I saw a familiar face.

There was Christian, almost at the front of the line, chatting up some cute asian girl. At the moment he saw me, he silently uttered "​no f&​*$ing way"​.

He had been hired by a friend to bring some valuables to a state in Southern Brazil, and he also missed his flight on the same airline due to a snowstorm in New York.

It seemed to me a pretty big coincidence, but I was just happy to have a friend around during a sucky layover.

Christian left for Southern Brazil the next day. Unfortunately I ended up getting screwed over by the same airline, finding myself stuck in Sao Paulo for another day and a half. I hate flying.