After a decade of exchanging life stories online, I decided to go to Paris on November to visit Victoria. I originally met her when I was taking student on tour in Europe, it was a chance meeting that she was a friend with our tour guide. We exchanged numbers at the time, but I never went back for another 10 years. There was a year I almost went to visit her, but it did not work out.

Victoria picked me up from the airport, and I finally saw the apartment she bought.

We had breakfast, and took off to the castle of versailles. It has being a long time since I seen it. It was and still is one of my favorite castles. I met one of her friend for dinner at the end of the day. We have crepes, and it was way too sweet. I did not finish it.

Second day we visited the Eiffel tower and rode the public transport and walked around downtown. We finish the day downtown and return home.

Third day, her car broke down while we were out, she did not take it very well. Afterwards we hung out with some of her friends at a local pub.

Fourth day, Victoria took me to a local motorcycle bar/ store that recently opened. They had live music, and food. The place got around getting food license by having food truck in the store selling food. Very clever. It was a very neat store. I really appreciated the attention and thought she went to curate the itinerary for me.

Fifth day, we went to a wine tasting place. It was perhaps the highlight of my trip. If you know me, I love red wine. There were thousands of free tasting, and wine from every part of the world. They also sell food as well. It was a very nice final day.

I always feel that the people I meet, that there is something fateful of the connection. A different time, a different moment and all these things would not conspire for a chance meeting. But everything worked out a certain way for the connection to be made, and there is something to be said about seeing where the interaction goes, where does fate have in store. So, it is a bit of both making meaning of the chance as well as curiosity, for me to follow through with a lot of these interactions. Some of these interactions have blossom into life long friendships, but there are many that does not work.

Who you are online is very different than who you are in person. Even if that person does not purposely try to catfish you, you still only see a biased view of the person through the lens of a monitor. You do not see the demeanors they have, the social skill deficiency when they are not behind the computer screen. The few days I have spent with her, a few things are true. She spend a lot of time making sure I was happy and wanted to make sure I had a great time. She took the time to spend with me. I will forever be grateful. What is also true, was that she projected her adversities with emotional lashing out that created a lot of unnecessary stressful situations. If you know me, I’m allergic to people trying to stress me out.

We said our goodbyes at the airport with positivity, but I doubt I’ll visit her again.