Cleo ???

Walking up the five million flights of stairs at my local subway station and trying not to die. An old man starts talking to me, "Where are you from?" Typical first question to a foreigner here in Korea, often followed by "How old are you?" And "Are you married?" At some point they may or may not ask "What is your name?" Age and marital status set your place in the societal pecking order. Name and origin are matters of curiosity. But I digress...

So I'm climbing hell's stair case (it's really really long, ok?) and this old man starts chatting.

"Where are you from?"
"New Zealand."
"New Zealand, that is a beautiful place, I thought maybe America." (Because the first assumption is that all foreigners are American.)
"Thank you, New Zealand is lovely."
"What is your name? Cleopatra?"

??????? I laughed, what else can you do?

Then he wandered away.

I am left to wonder - Really? Is my nose that big?? Well it is big compared to Koreans I guess. But I like my nose so I shall pay no attention to him!

(According to history Cleo had a BIG nose.)

Just another of those rather weird encounters that happen all to frequently here in Korea. Luckily I like weird ^^