People ask the bluntest questions around here. I'm not sure if it's because the questions are culturally ok to ask anyone here, or if they think it's ok to ask me because I'm a foreigner. Not sure. Most common questions that I get asked are

1- how old are you? (EV-eryone from the little boy down the street to the guy who delivers the water may ask this question.... I don't really mind, but it still takes me by surprise...we seldom ask that in N. America)
2) When are you going to have a baby? People ask me this at home too....it's the question you get after you get married, but it's taken to a whole new level here. I also don't mind the question, the answer is, we really don't know. Not trying to be vague. We just don't know.

There's a guy in my class from Great Britian. Yesterday he was telling me that he often gets asked why he's so fat. Someone asked him the other day if he was fat before he came here. Now, being larger than most of the women in this country, (not hard to do!) I am so thankful that thus far I have NOT been asked that question....(although one lady at the market last week made a comment that I'm still pretending I didn't understand.) If and when I am asked the fat question, I think it will be hard for me to feign good humour. But, it would also be hard for me to be mad at someone here for asking that question. Really here, a little extra weight is not as big a deal as it is to us North Americans. A couple weeks ago I met a girl who is soon to be married. She told me that my husband and I are very suitable for one another because we look alike. (ok, I knew the matchy matchy two for one glasses were a mistake!) She said that she and her fiance are also suitable for one another because they also look alike ...in her words ...they "are both a little fat." She was laughing as she said it. and I think that here, that's generally the feel about extra weigh. "So? You're a little fat? So what?" Therefore, the question pops out.... But still in the end, when the question comes.....I will probably come home, curl up and cry.