This week, instead of lamenting about my time here coming to an end, talking about my adventures or what’s been going on for the past few weeks, I want to tell you a story.

Last week, ironically the day of Dolphy Day—which, by the way, I hope you all survived and didn’t get too sunburnt like last year—I was sitting in the cafeteria/lounge area of my school here in Madrid [St. Louis University Madrid Campus], taking a break from my responsibilities and catching up on one of my favorite shows: New Girl.

Now, for some reason, in this episode of New Girl, there was a scene with a cat floating around in a bubble against a funky background. For those of you who watch New Girl, you know what I’m talking about. For those who don’t—use your imagination and picture it.

As I’m sitting on this couch watching this and not being phased by the weirdness that is New Girl, I hear someone behind me say: “Is that a cat in a bubble?! Why are you watching cats in bubbles? Are you a cat lover?” Those were the words of the Academic Dean, Paul Vita, on one of his daily strolls through the cafeteria/lounge.

After assuring him that I’m not a crazy cat lady, and that it just happened to be a show that I was watching, we switched topics. We went through the typical “where are you from?”, “I’m from the Bahamas,” “Oh really? What are you doing here/what school do you go to?”…. Until I told him I go to Le Moyne; that changed everything.

Oddly enough, his mother Marian Sopher went to Le Moyne and was in the first graduating class back in 1951. That started an entirely new conversation about Le Moyne, his family, his educational background and circled around to how I’m still writing for The Dolphin from Madrid.

So this article is for you Paul—thank you for the suggestion to write about this unexpected but interesting encounter, it is a true testament to how small this world really is.

Hope you enjoyed this somewhat unconventional article and remember: el mundo es un panuelo—it’s a small world—you never know who you’re going to meet or what can come out of any encounter you have.