A familiar face, just at the right time.....
A few years ago I went to work at a summer camp in America for the second time. When I landed in new York I made my way to a youth hostel I stayed in last time. On my way there I met a guy who said he wanted to give a lot of money to charity because he was from South Africa and couldn't take the money home. Normally I wouldn't fall for this but for some reason after an 8 hour flight I was not really in the right frame of mind. I knew he was talking bollocks but I was unable to actually do anything about it, it was quite surreal watching events unfold but having no control. As you might guess it turned out to be a scam and I ended up losing $100. Could have been worse, I was able to keep my bus money and my hostel money, so it was just extra spending money. Something I could have used but not the end of the world.

So after all this was over I went to the hostel and felt a bit down being in a strange place and falling for an obvious scam. So I decided to go into the courtyard for a smoke. There were a few people out there but I was in no mood to meet people. But then I saw a face across the courtyard I recognized, an old colleague from work. Surely it couldn't be, as far as I was aware this person was back in Bradford. The more I looked the more I was convinced it was this person. Then she started to give me the same look of "surely not.....". I went over and sure enough it was someone I used to work with, apparently she had taken a few weeks off to travel the states and we happened to be at the same hostel at the same time. From there my night got better and she introduced me to some people she had met and we had a good night, I almost forgot about losing my money.
( bobzarkoff, Mon 25 Apr 2011, 23:47, Reply)