About a year ago I met a girl from Finland at a party. We spent
the evening talking and dancing and when I said I was going to leave to get
the bus home, she left with me. We took buses in different directions, me
having completely failed to take the hint and ask for her phone number. I
always was incredibly shy, though many who know me have failed to believe
this. My arse was sore from the kicking I gave myself all the way home.

Soon after this I decided I was going to do my best to trace her. I only knew she was called Nina, was a buddhist, worked as a waitress and was Finnish. Quite
quickly I connected with a girl called Karin who had made a video of Dechen Choling, a dharma centre I lived at in France. Nina had told me that a friend, Karin, she had lost touch with had stayed in a dharma centre near limoges. Karin was that friend and was able to tell me Nina’s family name. Strangely I had seen the video she made as a friend at the time, Lex, who is somewhat obsessive due to short term memory problems had insisted I watch it several times.

Yesterday I searched for people with her name on Skype and found three. I messaged them all explaining my predicament. This morning when I turned on the computer one of the three had accepted my connection and was online so I phoned. It was Nina’s uncle Markku on a business trip in China. Sure enough he has given me her fathers email address and my contact details, and those of Karin who would love to be back in touch, are now awaiting Nina’s next connection home.

I love this teeny weeny itsy bitsy planet we live on and I love the internet for all it can do to change the world in small ways and big.