Coincidence?

I didn’t mean to write a post while I was away in Paris. So just  think of this as a little greeting from the banks of the Seine.
It’s been a wonderful few days. During the weekend, my husband and I mostly ate, lurching from one wonderful meal to the next, as one does in Paris. We hooked up with some old friends for brunch, and then ran into them again by chance the day after. A minor coincidence…
But the biggest “coincidence” is that upon arrival, one of the people I am scheduled to interview while I am here wrote to ask if I knew about the Cambodian arts festival which just happened to be planned for Sunday — an entire day of performances, speeches, food, crafts, all just outside the Grande Pagode which I had hoped to visit anyway.  Coincidence? Well….
 
So, on Sunday, we hopped on the Metro and headed out to a part of the city we had never been to before et voila…I was transported back to Cambodia. People were speaking French, of course, but also Khmer. People were eating sweets wrapped in banana leaves and drinking from coconut shells. Cambodian music was broadcast over loudspeakers. There was laughter everywhere, amid the serious speeches about the strength of the Cambodian culture and the dangers of politics. I kept thinking I would run into someone I knew. I half expected to hear a teenager’s voice yell out, “Suos d’ei Teacher Sue!” It was a real joining together of my loves and interests. Coincidence? Is there such a thing?