📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you met a friend by surprise

This episode's vocabulary

Schedule (noun) – a plan for carrying out tasks or activities. → My schedule is so well-organised that I rarely miss appointments.

Bump into (phrasal verb) – to meet someone unexpectedly. → I bumped into an old friend at the grocery store.

Idly (adverb) – without any particular purpose or focus. → He was idly scrolling through his phone while waiting.

Speculate (verb) – to form guesses without solid evidence. → Without updates, I can only speculate about her plans.

Clarity (noun) – clearness in understanding. → The meeting provided clarity on the new policy.

Get up to (phrasal verb) – to be involved in (often something unusual or secretive). → I wonder what he’s been getting up to lately.

Exchange (verb) – to give and receive information. → We exchanged phone numbers before parting ways.

Rude (adj.) – impolite or offensive. → It would be rude to ignore my friends for too long.

Hometown (noun) – the town where one grew up. → She moved back to her hometown after college.

Run into (phrasal verb) – to meet someone by chance. → I ran into my neighbor at the café yesterday.

Reunion (noun) – a gathering of people after being apart. → Our high school reunion is next month.

Catch up (phrasal verb) – to update someone on recent events. → Let’s meet for coffee and catch up!

Coincidence (noun) – an unplanned, surprising occurrence. → Running into her was such a coincidence!

Lost touch (phrase) – to no longer communicate with someone. → We lost touch after graduation.

Reminisce (verb) – to recall past experiences fondly. → We spent hours reminiscing about our school days.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a time when you met a friend by surprise. You should say when and where you met him or her, who he or she was, what you did together, and explain how you felt about the experience.

Rory: Well, generally, my schedule is so well-organised that this rarely happens. But I did bump into one of my old classmates from university while we were both climbing a few months back, although we were with other people. I was with some friends at this climbing centre where I live, and it turned out that she went to the exact same place. The only reason we ran into each other, actually, was because my group of friends and I had changed our usual day from Wednesday to Tuesday. And this was the day that she normally went.

It was funny, actually, because, like I said, we were at university together and I hadn't seen her in ages. And I was just idly thinking, hmm, I wonder what became of Holly, actually. And then, just a few days later, there she was, saying hello and getting me caught up on all her experiences, the teaching and what she'd been getting up to since university. It was just a short time we spent talking since we were both with people that wanted to climb. And really, I didn't want to be rude to my friends and I didn't want to take her away from her friends. So we just exchanged some basic information. But it was nice seeing her again and finding out how she was getting on. If I hadn't run into her, I think I'd still be speculating wildly about what she was doing. So it was good to have that clarity, and it still is. Although, now that I think about it, I haven't actually seen her since then, so I wonder what she's up to now.

To give you a little bit more detail about the kind of person that she is, she's actually not from my country. She's from Ireland, which is a different part of this country, although she lives in Scotland now. And she also lives in my hometown, although I'm not quite sure where. But it must be close by, since she's so close to… well, she was able to go to that particular place.

Maria: And do you often meet this person?

Rory: No, not regularly. Not anymore, at least.