Eugenically challenged
In the U.S. we take it for granted that the indelible marks left on us my our ancestors (and the muttliness that can result) are generally meaningless. Former national identities are quietly forgotten. If the day without immigrants were to apply to all immigrants and children of immigrants in the last century, NOT ONE FUCKING PERSON would have worked yesterday.
Most people think I’m Russian. I have a Russian face. This is understandable, because my mother’s family stems from Ukraine (close enough). I don’t look Austrian, for which I’ve recently begun to thank GOD.
Sometimes Russian people come up and ask me for directions in Russian. Usually I just shake my head and shrug. Sometimes when I’m feeling cheeky, I’ll stare at them, smile and say SEBACA (dog) or PUPIK (belly-button) really loudly, seeing just how far the two words I know in Russian can take me. Either that or I’ll pretend I’m deaf and say STO (what?)over and over again in my best Corky voice.
I’ve also been mistaken relatively often for Scandinavian, as a result of my accent with spoken German, or Dutch (hopefully not due to my inborn sunburn, enormous incisors and upturned nose). Once I even got Spanish, from a taxi driver.
A couple days ago, I was at the grocery store at the Graz train station, waiting in line behind a raving homeless man who paid for several boxes of ultra-shitty wine with a crisp EU 100 bill. As I was putting my items on the conveyor belt behind him, he turned in my direction, peered at me with big, watery eyed and said, with a mouth smelling of something furry and likely long-dead:
"Wow, do you look German"
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:12 am
okay. so i always read your blog, and never comment, but i have to put my $0.02 in on this one. so i ALWAYS get mistaken for random nationalities as well.
last time i was in copenhagen, this couple came up to me and began speaking hebrew to me. after i clarified that i wasn’t israeli, they informed me that i must be and just not know it (i was asked if i was adopted). apparently, i could not look more stereotypically israeli. these people then proceeded to tell me that i must “at least” be jewish, and chastised me for not knowing hebrew. then, they began speaking to me in hebrew AGAIN.
point is, you’re totally right on with us being mutts, and it’s always interesting to see what you’re mistaken for.