Some advice how to deal with an awkward thing?

A japanese girl came to romania 2 days ago to visit a friend she has here. She's never been to romania before and I went to drive her from the airport. I know her friend but she couldn't come because she had a night shift. So I went to the airport and the plane came at 1:00 AM, she knew I'd be waiting so it wasn't a problem finding her.
Anyway, we went in the car and started driving. Everything was good, we were talking, she seemed very interested in our culture since she was never outside Japan (talking in english obviously).

The awkward thing happened after a few minutes of driving thru a forest when she said "Do you know that japanese girl that was killed here a few months ago". At that moment I remembered that about 6 months ago a japanese girl was taken from the airport by a guy pretending to be a taxi driver, driven into the woods and raped/tortured/killed. And needless to say I fealt really awkward at that moment since I'm a romanian guy driving an asian girl thru the forest at midnight and she just happens to mention a dead japanese girl.

And I would have kept quiet about it but she quicly realized what I was thinking and started apologizing and then I apologised for making her think I thought that and so on. And it was weird. There was an air of silence all the way to the destination after that. We both tried to start a new conversation but didn't quite work. It wasn't like I was upset or she was upset or anything like that, just that it was weird.

I'm writing this because next week I'm supposed to take her back to the airport and I am a little worried because I don't know if I should mention it again, or let it go ( I'm thinking of letting it go) but what if there is the same awkward feeling again, then should I mention it? I don't quite know.

 

when you pick her up, there should be a hatchet noticeably sticking out from under the driver's seat.


nah, i probably wouldn't mention it.

 

wear fake fangs and smile often (after she is in the car)

 

i would suggest not bringing it up

awkwardness is one of those funny things that exists in our heads and gets worse when we think the other person is feeling it too, and if they feel it they think we're feeling it, and so on... if you can help it, drop it, it will not only help you but also her to just be comfortable and make the trip light and easy

there's a tendency to feel like awkwardness is avoided by trying harder to not make it awkward, in my experience this only makes it worse... i think it helps to not try harder, but to let go, because the awkwardness is something that we're creating, so we can't solve it by creating more... you know? let go, you'll be fine

either way, don't think too much

 

It was a passing thing, she probably regretted bringing it up, so the polite thing to do would be to let sleeping dogs lie.

 

That will make it better :sunny:

 

Maybe she knew her.