Whether it's "what do you do?" on a form, "where do you work?" from a seatmate, "what brings you here?" on arrival, or "what were you doing there?" on return, it's basically the same question.

I have 7 answers. I usually just say I'm university staff. I can show them current valid photo ID to back that up. And I don't teach; I just help with graduate research. Conversational dead-end, generally.

Once people hear that I help with research, most of them just decide that "research" is my reason for being wherever I am. That's rarely accurate, but if asked, I will divulge that I am either:

• visiting family who are studying abroad,
• attending a conference (like a good little academic), or
• visiting friends (typically academics or government-department sorts)

If I don't think they'll take it the wrong way, I'll sometimes tell first-world types that I'm just making sure some tiny portion of their tax dollars goes for something other than politicians' drugs and prostitutes.