when harry met sally, did people think they were a couple right off the bat?

I wasn't going to say anything about this. I was going to try to forget it. But obviously I haven't been able to, so I feel the need to blog about it.

This evening, a male friend of mine came over to where I live. He had applied to live in my college, and since he'd never seen the kind of interiors he almost got, I thought it was about time he see an example. So I showed him the communal bathroom (he's got his own), the kitchen (which he shares with only 5 other people, as opposed to my sharing it with 20-25), and my room.

When he left, he followed me into the kitchen, where I was going to start making my dinner. (I had to go to the kitchen for this reason, you see.) In there were three guys, two of them Americans. They must have been really bored because they were obnoxious, trying way too hard to make my friend feel welcome. That is very nice, but it all seemed rather lazy and forced to me. They were overdoing their manliness by doing some sort of stupid, awkward handshake with my friend and then telling him he was welcome back anytime.

As soon as my friend left, one of them started teasing me about my having a guy over. "Hey, that looked like a guy." He even went so far as to recite that stupid "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" song. I interrupted him with, "What is that [the "that looked like a guy" comment] supposed to mean?"

I should tell you the guy who teased me is also the same American who called me Harry Potter. Yeah, he really shouldn't open his mouth. I told him that I don't think he knows me well enough to talk about me like that. I understand now he must think I am a lesbian for sure. I don't care anymore.

Before I left, someone--it might have been him--brought it up again. Then he apologized for offending me. I cannot remember who said it first, but the three guys kept passing around the word "degrading." I think the offender said, "I wasn't trying to degrade you" or something to that effect. Then someone else said, for sure, "No one should degrade Allie. Or is it no one can degrade Allie?" I said, "Saying my friend is my boyfriend is not degrading. But no one should try [to degrade me]."

I write this because I understand this guy was just trying to have fun and thought I would enjoy it, too, but I didn't appreciate it because he really knows nothing about me and shouldn't presume that he can poke fun at my always being alone and for once having a friend over (who just happens to be male).

I've said this before, but one of the cultural differences I have noticed between the youth in the US and in the UK is that men and women can easily be friends in the UK without anyone (including themselves perhaps) assuming they are a couple. For instance, whenever I see a guy and a girl walking together, chatting, laughing, smiling, I cannot assume that they are an item because there are many couples like this walking around. It really is rather freeing to see that people count as individuals here first and that it isn't everyone's natural tendency to pair people off. Of course it had to be an American who would assume that my friend and I are an item. I guess he hasn't noticed this difference between our cultures, but I have, and I can't easily wipe away this new perspective I've learned about human relations.