Is this even possible? I just had the biggest coincidence of my life.?

So back when I was in High School (5 years ago) in a suburb somewhere in Iowa, I barely knew this foreign exchange student from Izmir, Turkey. Today I was walking in a random, small shopping mall in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey and I couldn't believe it but I recognized this girl, and we both stared at each other, and it turns out it was that foreign exhange student. What are the chances? Seriously. Wow.
Answers

Speed

Since you were in Turkey, this is not as amazing as the coincidence my long-ago friend Larry experienced. Larry lived in Iowa. After college, he taught English in rural China for two years. Most of his students could not read or write in Chinese and didn't fare any better in English, although they learned words and some simple sentences. They did not do anything he could call "speaking English." Fast forward three years. Larry is attending Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, a long way from Iowa and a real long way from rural China where he taught. One night he goes to a Chinese restaurant and his former student is waiting tables, speaking passable English.

bluebellbkk

It's an extraordinary coincidence, but these things do happen.

ibu guru

Such things happen. Including unlikely events such as running into someone you knew several years ago & have not been in contact with over intervening years. Yes, life occasionally holds surprises. It is what it is.

RoaringMice

Obviously it's possible, since it happened to you. I was in NYC, in Times Square, and across the street through the crowds I saw a guy I knew from college a decade before in a different state. So it does happen. It's funny when it does.

Stella

You've known thousands of people in your life, at least to the extent of being classmates. You happen to be in her country now. So it doesn't strike me as that unlikely.

Jahal

That's pretty cool and amazing! Most people don't get how uncanny the chance meeting was. Istanbul is a big city, but Iowa ain't NY, it's a rural state, so the odds of her studying in Iowa are slim in the first place. Fast forward to Turkey, if either of you'd had a five minute change in your routine, you wouldn't have bumped into her. To see her again on the other side of the world is a huge coincidence. Life is full of amazing twists and turns. Better to appreciate the random beauty of moments than to be jaded. Hope you and your schoolmate enjoyed catching up!

Rona Lachat

The world is big in some ways and not so big in others most are only a few connections away from most on the planet. a student from Iowa goes to Turkey MOST of those students go to certain parts of the country not usually some obscure village. A student from Turkey goes to school in Iowa doubtful they came from some obscure village.It would be reasonable they would end up in the parts of Turkey that have lots to do with foreigners. Be that the business district, tourism or whatever. With computers and things like Facebook or Linkedin you can see thousands of connections of the friend of a friend of a friend variety.you already have. Suggest you get out your old year book and start looking your old friends up. Your Alumni group on Campus also has lots of help in locating classmates of years past. On Yahoo Answers I reconnected with 40 year old friend. Took one connection and the others patience to make a few phone calls to confirm the "missing" person and get an email address from them. My language skills were not up to playing phone tag getting past secretaries. I did not give my name to the searcher. He was to get it from the person I was looking for. the next email was directed to my name.to confirm he was the right one. I had discovered the company he worked for. Not easy to find the ones with common names of their country. give it a try. google search name + place + career Helps to translate the last two into the other language before you search. Is this even possible? Of course it is it happened to you.

ignoramus

What had you been smoking ? If you were not hallucinating, and you had all your senses about you, then it DID happen. So yes, it IS possible. Big deal.

Andy

Not as big of a coincidence as the Boundary waters