Was in a great mood generally and had to go to a meeting so it overspilled into the room. I didn't know anyone but was feeling upbeat and friendly.
Later at lunch a man I just met was telling us about stories of 'crazy tourists' he has encountered through his work. In his work, he plays a communist of the 1930s in Soviet Russia, explaining Expressionist and Soviet cinema. First anecdote was about an American who took him at face value and complained to the manager that there was "a commie" working for the museum. The humour coming from the fact that this conforms to our stereotype of Americans.
The second anecdote was about an Australian woman who was an evangelical Christian and told the guy off for something I can't remember. I asked, why was it relevant that the woman was Australian? He said, well Australians are much more open, less repressed than British people. More argumentative? (I could have mentioned that that is only true of middle-class English people, but I didn't.) I sat there confused. Didn't he recognise my accent?
or did he actually recognise my accent and this was some kind of an attack?
Some kind of comment on how I conform to stereotype?