Where are you from?

I met a really nice young woman from Shanghai today and she asked me where I was from. First off, do you know how rare it is for me to even see an Asian person in my neck of the woods? Disney aside, we rarely make it to the theme parks anyway because it costs an arm and a leg. Besides, it's not the real Florida, not even close, but that's a subject for another time. 


I used to get asked this question on a regular basis but it had been a really long time. I answered as I always did, that I was born here but my mother had immigrated from Japan after she met and married my father while he was in the military. She smiled and said, "Oh, that's why you looked Asian to me". =D


It's strange to walk around in a society where half of yourself is not represented in the faces you see around you. And also where there's now a bizarre 180 degree attitude shift regarding my not being 100% of the majority ethnicity. My school years were pure torture. Long before the days when being half Asian was considered kinda cool. Back then I was never allowed to fit in or forget that I was "different". Taunts, cold shoulders and a couple of instances of getting whupped on in the playground were the norm so imagine my frustration now when many people learn of my parentage and respond with, "Really? You don't look it". HUH? Is that meant to be some sort of a compliment? Where, I wonder, were all of these folks back when I desperately could have used someone with their perspective to balance out everyone else's? Oy Vey! Not that I would want to change the past. It's made me sensitive to others and given me the ability to appreciate people and cultures that are different from my own. 


There was one hilarious incident when I was sixteen and riding the Grey Hound bus to visit my American grandma in Alabama. Two little kids in front of me kept peering over the seat backs and staring. Finally, the little girl gathered enough courage to ask me if I was from Mexico, LOL! We had fun talking, they peppered me with questions, until they got to their town and had to leave, waving and smiling until the bus pulled away. 


I enjoyed talking to my beautiful Chinese friend during our too brief encounter. She had moved to Miami just a year ago, met the man she's now married to and has settled into American life. Her parents could not get Visas to attend the wedding here. Although she misses them terribly, and the "Chinese" food here is "awful" and unrecognizable, she likes the quietness of the neighborhood she lives in compared to the crowds and noise in Shanghai. Still, I'm sure she's often homesick being a stranger in a strange land. I admire people who have the courage to live in a culture not their own. I wish I'd had the chance to delve deeper into this with my own mother.


How about you? Have you ever been the odd woman out? What are the favorite things you enjoy about different cultures? What foreign country would you live in if you could?