I've started a monthly section of my class called "Ask Teacher Marisa," where the students can ask me any questions about America that they want (or about myself). Here's some of the questions I got:

"Do you know about the NBA" (Not much, kid, although the kids think it's cool that I've been to one game).
"Who is your favorite NBA player?"
"What is your favorite singer?"
"What rock bands are popular now?"
"What about American table manners?" (That class has a unit on "good manners coming up.)
"Do Americans eat hamburgers, milk and bread?"

And then some of the questions got a little personal:

"Do you believe in God?" one student asked. Talking about religion with your students is OFF LIMITS, OFF LIMITS in China. So when I said I couldn't answer that, she asked me, "What about hell? What about heaven?"

And, of course, they wanted to know about my fascinating love life. Someone in almost every class asked if I had a boyfriend. I was dying to say, "No. Do you know anyone who would be good for me?" But had I said that, they would have brought a potential lineup to the next class.

In one class, I had two boys tag-team the question:

"Do you have a boyfriend?" one asked. Before I could answer, the guy sitting next to him raised his hand and stood up.
"What kind of boy do you like?" he asked.
(I was still laughing about that one at the end of the day. I wish I had said in return, "I don't like boys. I like men.")

After one girl asked me "When did you have your first love?" in one class, I had a flock of kids around me asking how many American teenagers have boyfriends. But one kid had something else on his mind.
"Was she the paparazzi?" he asked. (We're doing a unit on film stars, so I had talked to them that day about the good and bad parts of lives of the rich and famous.)
"I don't think so," she said. "She would be the paparazzi if she told the rest of the world about it."
"But she will tell everyone else," he said. (Why do I have the feeling that's true?)

THEN, when I'm walking to the local rice place for lunch, this kid comes up to me again.

"If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn't buy nice things for her," he said. "I'd spend all my money on Transformers."
"Interesting. Do you want her to buy nice things for you?" I asked.
"Yes."
"She won't if you don't buy her anything," I said, and I left him to ponder that as I went to eat my lunch.