It's a small world after all...

I attended Slauson Middle School in Ann Arbor from 2000-2003. I was chubby, brace-faced and, by that time, I was a pretty good-natured kid, having said farewell to my "Megan the Monster" days (for the most part...). In Ms. Turbin's 7th grade language arts class, I suddenly found myself sitting next to an international transfer student one day midway through the year. She was the classic 'new kid,' as I have been before in my life. She was soft-spoken, with a quick, big smile, wary, yet wondrous, of her new surroundings. Throughout that first day, I was to find out that Pavithira Kirupakaran was to be my classmate in Mr. Fuller's geography class and Mr. Bradley's chemistry class as well. The halls of Slauson became much more sophisticated that day with Pavi's presence. I think it is safe to say she was the most worldly peer I'd known at that stage in my life, claiming Malaysian ethnicity, yet having grown up in Melbourne, Saudi Arabia, and Los Angeles. I'm hoping that, at this stage in the post, a 'ding ding ding' is resounding and a metaphorical lightbulb has clicked itself brightly on above your head.

With that said, would you care to guess with whom I met for lunch this afternoon? Pavithira Kirupakaran. That's right, my long-lost 7th grade international acquaintance. Now, to be fair, she was not just an acquaintance all those years ago. In the year and a half that her family lived in Ann Arbor, Pavi and I actually became quite sweet friends. My 'elephant memory,' as Susie so often calls it, can reflect upon a snowy day when my mom brought Pavi and I to get peppermint mochas at the Starbucks on South University Avenue, and the long Sunday afternoon during which Pavi and I slaved over Mr. Bradley's worthless 'hot house' insulation project in the 8th grade. I even have photographic evidence of the farewell dinner that Tracy Richardson and I had with Pavi before her imminent return to her Melbournian home in November of 2002 (you'll be tickled to know that the dinner involved escargot at Cafe Felix..a tad extreme for our 8th grade sensibilities if you ask me). We kept in touch for about a year after her departure via our hysterically self-titled yahoo email accounts (which have since been deposed).

I lost touch with her for the ensuing five years, as higher education and some 10,000 miles served to distract us from the friendship we once shared. Nonetheless, and may I say with extreme gratitude extended to the Facebook team, I spent the entire afternoon with her: lunch at Pizzeria Il Bimbo (organic pizza? yes please!), shopping on Little Collins and Bourke streets, cruising the laneways for the best thrift shops and sushi stands, and capping off the evening with fanciful southern cocktails at Madame Brussells, a rooftop patio lounge that allows you to saunter ever so sweetly back to the days of tennis whites and fairy lights. Over some pitchers of delightful drinks (the names are a bit risqué for the blogging community, I'm afraid) mixed with grapes, mint leaves, and raspberries, we continued our epic "catch up session." I'm quite fond of the ironic notion that Pavi and I have reversed the roles that we once assumed at Slauson, so that while I'm here in Melbourne, I get to be intoduced as the foreign friend. All in all, I am lucky to have such a spectacularly fun and like-minded Melbournian friend for the next few months and, as always, I am ever pleased to have made another connection to prove how small our world really is.