My Name!!!

Wow. I have just had the laugh of my life. I always wondered why no one would either say my name "Nico" or find it difficult to pronounce it. People always said "Nicol" or even try "Nuukulus" (as my teacher says). And I always enunciate "N-I-C-O". Even "Niku" people didn't say.

So the other day I was getting a drink of cane juice when I started up a conversation with the sugar-cane man (a close cousin of Willy Wonka). He asked me what my name was and I told him "Nico". He stared at me a little oddly and asked again. I repeated and he laughed out loud. Confused, I resumed my drinking. He leaned over and asked me if I knew what "nico" meant in Egypt. I said no, and and winked at me and did a sort of vulgar thrusting motion with his pelvis from behind the counter. I wasn't sure what he meant or what he wanted, so I laughed, quickly finished my drink, and left, leaving him still laughing from inside the store.

Just now, a male teacher walked in and started talking to me. I wrote my name on the board, in English, and he added "las" to the end and said I shouldn't call myself Nico. Why? Because apparently in Egypt, he whispered, "Nico is a vulgar word for coupling between a man and a woman."

Ha!! And they thought only Arabic names have meaning! Fantastic.