Small World Stories

Amazing ways life brings people together in this small world!

Small World, Big Connections

“After Peace Boat, I felt drawn back to Australia—the first foreign country that I’d lived and worked in after college—to pursue a master’s degree in International Communication. Once again, I learned not to underestimate the power of connections and what I like to call the ‘small world effect’—the amazing way life seems to have for bringing people together again in the most unexpected ways and places—even when doing so seems to defy the odds…

Continents of Connections

In 1992, while in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China during my Semester at Sea study abroad program, a doctor from Madrid, Iowa came up to me after seeing my Iowa State sweatshirt. I was so excited to meet a fellow Iowan on the other side of the world! After the doctor got home, he and his wife sent my parents a lovely letter saying how they’d met me China. A few years later, I’d moved to Sydney, Australia and was watching a performance in the Sydney Opera House on Christmas Eve. I was feeling a bit homesick being so far from home during the holidays. But when I turned around...

I was living on the 9th floor of an apartment in the heart of downtown Zhong Li, Taiwan with a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains—about an hour southwest of the capital city Taipei—where I was teaching English. It was

Kyoto Crossings

In 2012 I was living in Seoul, South Korea teaching English at an English Academy in Daebang. During Chuseok (a traditional Korean holiday similar in some ways to the American Thanksgiving holiday) my friend Justin—whom I’d met at free Korean

Be Careful Where Your Photos Show Up in this Small World!

Before I moved to Japan, I worked at a community college in Iowa as a Japanese Student Advisor for an exchange group of Japanese college students from Tokyo. We took a weekend trip to Chicago and I showed them many

From the Fields of Iowa to Ireland…

I had moved from Iowa to Ireland and was doing some touring in the countryside when I came across the ‘World Ploughing Championships’ in the small Irish town of Carlow. I started walking down one of the rows and coincidentally

A Special Memorial Service at Sea

While on a cruise from Japan to China, I received the devastating news that my grandmother had passed away back in Iowa. I had to make the very difficult decision about whether to fly back for the funeral or

Island Full of Connections

Traveling solo, I arrived for a short stay on a tiny island in the South Pacific. As a small town Iowa girl, I never dreamed my travels would bring me to a Fijian island that was only four acres long.

Shared Friendships from OZ to IA

One day while I was working at the US Consulate in Sydney, Australia I got a call from a woman from Iowa who was visiting Sydney and doing some research on business opportunities in Australia. As we talked, it turned

I Knew I Knew Those Lips from Somewhere

On a whirlwind tour of Europe, my friend and I met a couple of guys from South Africa. For some reason, we would cross paths with them in a few different countries, including Monaco, over the next few months. A

A Love Story Spanning Continents and Cultures

During my last month of living in London, I was having a coffee at a local café in my neighborhood when I struck up a conversation with Sam who was a Jordanian doctor also living in London. We connected immediately

Heart Connections: From Israel to Australia…

In 1992, I was sailing on a ship, the SS Universe, for a study abroad program called ‘Semester at Sea.’ We stopped in Egypt and I flew to Israel. One night my friend and I met a couple guys in