misconceptions ...

it happened again! today, i lunched with visiting colleagues from south americas (meaning from mexico, columbia, costa rica and venezuela) – and this is the first time we met despite the exchange of many work e-mails between ourselves. believe it or not, each of them swears they have met me before. my features, without any doubt, seems to be very common in their respective countries – but i swear i’ve never been any where near these exotic places. everytime i say that i originally come from the philippines, people would roll their eyes and say that i don’t look asian at all – they say i look more Spanish (or portugese) … i guess i’ll credit all these observations to my “morena” complexion as “enhanced” by the nice european weather. still, misconceptions goes a long, long way. in the end, i still pride myself being a filipina.