It's funny you mention that Scott

As I've gotten to know the men of the hostel, I've come to enjoy their company very much. We often hang out and make fun of each other. I even attended a fun event that the Masters of Computer Administration students put on for all their classmates (called C-STAR). When I entered the auditorium the emcee announced that a "special guest has just arrived- Jerome!" Yes, I go by Jerome here. The three syllable "Jer-ra-mee" becomes a hassle when I meet new people, so one of my new friends suggested I just go by Jerome (a common name here).
At C-STAR my friends thought it would be funny for me to tell a 4 minute impromptu story about a picture. I got a lame picture of a firetruck... For 4 minutes there were barely crickets chirping in the audience. Then later, at the conclusion, of the event they invited me up say some Malayalam and thank them for inviting me.

But back to the title of the post. Scott commented in my last post that I look "skinny" and that I shouldn't act surprised that he mentioned it. Well I WAS, for one very specific reason. Apparently it's totally ok to tell someone they're fat here. In the past two weeks I've been told I'm fat by different people at least once a day. Once, immediately after I was called the "F word" in reference to them offering me a bigger chair, I asked my friends what they meant when they said it. I explained that in America calling someone the "F word" is an insult. They were taken back by this and said "no, no, no, that's not what we mean when we say that." In India fat can mean the American understanding of fat or it can just mean big. My hostel friends explained that they mean that I'm big. To which Depack explained that he wants "to be fat too!" I can only hope that the rest of India was using the second meaning with me...

Here's to being fat