Who Am I?

'Are you Filipina?' I get asked that question at least ten times on an annual basis. Well, I'm not(!) so stop bloody asking me!!! Yesterday at jazzercise, an Asian walked in. We looked at each other, smiled and nodded. She looked Vietnamese and 'older'... ok, not that much older but 'weathered' lol. She was a good jazzerciser, so I figured she's been to more than a couple of lessons unlike Julie and I who were at our second class and still lost and clumsy with the same steps we were just taught two days ago.

Right after class, Ms Thang came up to me and asked enthusiastically with her accent 'are you Pilipina?'. I think I resisted rolling my squinty eyes... but I know they also got really big (big like I was in my first traumatic earthquake experiance). 'NO?' I answered, trying to remain calm. She asked if I had kids. This time I think my nose flared lol... again, negative. Boy she was hitting all the wrong points wasn't she. She then asked if I'd just moved here hahahaha. I decided to be nice and started a semi conversation :)

Over the years, I have had uncountable people ask me an umpteen times 'pilipina?'. Gawd... from the bus driver who took me from my car to the airport terminal in Tucson, the bunch of guys at the bus-stop in Seattle, the group of Filina chicks who looked me up and down and smiled when they saw me walking with Bruce giving me the oh-you've-done-well-for-yourself look at Trafalgar Square, the Filipina cashier at Marks and Spencers in London, the doorman in Vienna who asked if I speak Tagalog, the lady at Buffalo Wild Wings in Memphis who practically cornered me and interrogated me when I said I wasn't 'her kind'... geez... and that's only a fraction of what I can remember.

On the flip side, when I tell the Chinese that I AM Chinese, they don't want to believe me! WTF?!