It's a small world after all.

The "Human Web" theory holds that there will be no more than six degrees of separation between you and every other person on earth. I was told this is probably BS in real life, but completely true in Estonia. If you REALLY need it, the Embassy told me, someone you know knows someone who can get you a sitting with the President.

On Thursday, I went to an Erasmus party. One of the "tutors," local students who are paired up with exchange students to help us settle in, recognized my accent as American, interrogated me (ok, not really, but Estonians can seem rather abrupt before you're used to them) to find out why I was in Estonia since I'm clearly not an Erasmus student (since Erasmus is a European program), and then reveals that he knew a Fulbrighter named Erin, and he would introduce me. He later did- popped up out of nowhere, said "Come with me," plopped me in front of her, and promptly disappeared again. Two degrees of separation.

On Friday, my roommates and I went to an apartment to have some wine and chat with new friends. Karin, my Austrian roommate, had met one of the guys, another Austrian, the night before. He invited her to this small gathering at his friend's apartment. His friend was a Korean man named Kiyoho (I think) who came to Estonia on study abroad and never left. He now owns a Korean restaurant here. It was a lovely evening, but nothing seemed too strange. My roommate met a compatriot who has a friend- seems typical enough, but wait.

On Saturday, I met Erin for coffee, and she invited me to dinner with some friends of hers. We ended up at Kiyoho's restaurant, which was one of our dinner-mate's favorite restaurants in Tallinn. As it turns out, one of the friends who met us was an Icelandic composer who knows Eugene, the other Fulbrighter in Tallinn, because Eugene went to Juilliard with one of the Icelandic fellow's (whose name was almost completely unpronounceable) friends from home. I was a little mind-boggled by how many connections I'd made simply by leaving my flat three days in a row, and that the people from all three evenings were connected. Erin just smiled and told me I'd better start getting used to it.