A bit more on my last weekend

So my post "Leaving China" was rather brief. The Saturday was rather
low key, but I did have an interesting chance encounter mid-afternoon.
I was in a bookstore in the Wudaokou mall when an American foreign
student and Chinese local student came in. I initially paid them
little attention, their conversation in the background, until I heard
"I've heard there was an Ikea around here? At my college everyone
goes to Ikea in the beginning of the year to get furniture." This
sounded oddly familiar. I listened a bit closer, and as I had a
hunch, she mentioned the name of her college - Yale. I walked over
and introduced myself - I was a little surprised to suddenly run into
another Yale student, though I had already done so once (Fellow HBA
student/Yalie Tory Jeffay and I ran into Chris Young, my
recently-graduated friend on the Yale-China Teaching Fellowship, on
the street at night in the Sanlitun bar district - completely
unexpectedly). I couldn't stay for long (I had to meet my friend for
dinner very soon), but I found she was a rising junior and going to be
at Beijing University this fall.