Every once in a while we get the chance to do something out of the ordinary, to have an experience that can only be described as a convergence of coincidences. I was lucky to have that chance the over the last fortnight, and I am very glad I took it. It is chance; how else can you explain why an American in Oxford could spend week skiing in the Alps with four married Polish couples (only one of which he knew) and then attend a Viennese Ball all the while conducting vital aspects of his doctoral research? You ready for the story?

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