Yea, I always did think you were weird. I never thought it was because you were one of them "fere-ners."

And your response?

"Ah, I'm from...uh...Northern Ohio."

Well, that IS another country. Funnier if you had said, with genuine earnestness, "Oh no, I'm from the CITY."

sarah does have a point on northern ohio being a different country.

alternate response: "so, where did you learn your social skills?"

not the usual what planet are you from... no wonder you were confused.

everyone's a comedian..

It's not like you're the only person in Ohio who looks ethnic in some way. This woman was clearly an ass clown who doesn't mingle in polite society often enough.

you do look that different, though. embrace it!

Next time this question is asked, consider the following responses, in charicaturesque accents:

[loudly, bowing excessively, and tugging the corners of your eyes] "I flom China! I heah onry foh sree day!"

[quietly, with tears] "I...I've never known my parents. I was raised by a flock of pigeons in Cleveland..."

[gruffly]"You fuggin nuts? I is from dis country, and I should gut ya mutha fuh givin birth ta such a balloon-headed clown!"

nice.

i should have made up a country.

like Elbonia.

>alternate response: "so, where did you learn your social skills?"

priceless!

i, too, like elbonia. lol

so, what did you say?

There's a lot of dumb people in the world.

ah, kt, always the practical one.

i lied to her. just kidding. i told her my mom is from the philippines. she pressed onward. "and your dad...?" lady, what do you think? if it was remotely interesting i would have mentioned that, too. i inwardly rolled my eyes, and outwardly shrugged and said, "ohio".

sheesh.

I once read a great book review on the Philippines. I know the country well!

people love exoticism. I am one of those people.

Mdog, it never occurred to me that you might be from another country, or that your parents might be either. I remember being somewhat surprised to learn (when someone mentioned just in passing) that you had a parent from the Philippines. Not shocked or anything, just "oh, I didn't guess that". So you apparently don't look exotic to everyone. Sorry to break the news you. ;-)

Here's another example of a Midwesterner being mistaken for a foreigner: when I was in grad school, there was a student named Brian who sounded a bit like he had a British accent. After a while you might notice it wasn't exactly British, but not exactly anything else either.

As it turns out, he was from a little town in Ohio, as were his parents. I had no idea why he sounded "foreign", but thought he might have picked up the accent from school or from spending a term abroad or something. I didn't ask.

One of my professors DID ask him where he was from, convinced his accent was British. So when Brian said he was from Shade, Ohio or whatever, the professor said, "no, where are you from originally?" Brian was completely confused. The professor was confused about his confusion. It wasn't until the professor understood that Brian and his parents were all natives of the Midwest that he stopped questioning him.

I'm not sure if Brian really understoon WHY he was being questioned like a foreigner--I doubt he recognized that he seemed to talk with an accent.

One of my fellow grad students later postulated that Brian's jaw was a bit off (severe underbite) and that was what caused him to sound as if he had an accent. Who knows. I never asked. It's hard to bring off "why do you talk funny?" politely.

One thing I love about living in the So Cal area is our amazing ethnic diversity. So amazing that it isn't much of an issue. The guy I sit next to speaks Tagalog all day long. The woman behind me switches between Romanian, Armenian and English. And Spanish - fuhgeddaboudit.

I practice a don't ask, don't tell policy. On forms, I always claim to be "Other" or "Mixed." I figure it is none of anyone's business anyway.

PS - You look just plain Lucida to me.

Oh my goodness. Mdog, I am usually able to just lurk quietly, but this whole string of comments just has me hooting. Please tell me what an ass clown is!

miss mary! hi. :)

ass clown, according to urbandictionary

Hi!

Oh my! :o