15 but married with a spare tire

2 funny stories that have nothing to do with each other.

First, In my Chinese class today I learned the word for spare tire (被抬，beitai). I wondered if you could also use 'spare tire' the same way we do in English, referring to someone's (usually a man's) impressive but oversized gut. Before I could ask though, my teacher says "we also use this phrase, 'spare tire', when talking about a woman who has many boyfriends lined up just in case her current one doesn't work out." And she, jokingly, asked me if I had any spare tires. I laughed and told her "no I'm really not fat." She was confused and I explained to her the English usage of the phrase. Good laughs had by all.

Second, swimming today attracted an unusually large crowd that some of which came over to talk to us. I was with Nick and his wife Gigi (who happens to be Chinese). They asked Nick and I if we were married, we laughed, and I said no, and Nick said no, his wife is actually right there. After a few minutes of "wow! you're married to a foreigner" (poor Gigi), a woman asked me, "so your how old? 1..." asking if I was in my teens. I said "no no, 22. I'm a teacher." standard response. and she said "wow! I thought you were 15 or 16, just a child." This is the same woman who had asked me 5 minutes beforehand if I was married. Hmm.