What is your best story when you were in a foreign country? (kbin.social)

submitted 11 months ago by guyrocket@kbin.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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It can be anything: Scary, funny, confusing or embarrassing. What happened that stands out most in your mind?

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[-] hactar42@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

I was in the US Air Force and stationed in England. In the military you use your social security number (SSN) for pretty much everything. There was a girl I worked with whose SSN shared the same first 8 digits as mine. Turns out we were born in the same hospital a few hours apart, but never met until we were in our 20s in a foreign country.

For non-Americans, the first 3 numbers are assigned by the geographical region. Then the next 2 numbers are a smaller grouping inside of that area. So, two people born in the same small geographic area have a good chance of having the same first 5 digits the same. In my case it was the first 8 that were the same. They are only 9 digits long.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

The laughing stops when you meet someone with the exact same SSN as you.

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 4 points 11 months ago

Somebody should do the math on those odds!

this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023

91 points (95.0% liked)

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