Thursday, July 22, 2010

No Other One

I know I've been severely overdue for an update, but I just wanted to write a quick little incident that happened today.

I met a lovely girl today who, upon trying to find out more about me, had this conversation with me...

"So what made you come back [to NZ]?"
"I dunno. Just liked it I guess"
"Just wanted to come back to your roots?"
"What?"
"Both your parents are Māori?"
"oh, no, I'm Filipino."
"So... You're not Māori at all?"

which resembled a certain conversation I had at home with my then manager...
"Your last name doesn't sound Mexican...!"
"No, I'm half white."
"Oh, so your mom is Mexican?"
"No, my mom is Filipina."
"So, your dad is Mexican?"
"No, my dad is white..."
"So... you're not Mexican?"

The ethnic ambiguity never ends. I have to go to Europe now to see what they think.

I guess I can update quickly and if I have the time, I'll come back and post more.
Jess's dairy farm was awesome. I milked cows and went to a giant farm expo, which was beyond awesome (All I have to say is "TRACTOR RACES"). After, I went to Mike's who lives on the West Coast (REPRESENT) in a little town outside of Stratford, which is pretty much middle of nowhere. We went to beaches which were beautiful and we watched both seasons of United States of Tara. Lazed around the last bit of vacation, which was very well needed.

This semester I'm taking (if I haven't already mentioned) Māori language 1B, Māori custom, lore and economics, Field Work in Human Geography, and Anthropological Enquiry. I've still maintained my participance in the Māori club, which I'm enjoying... I've started cooking a bit more, but not really.

Since I've learned Māori language, I've realized Tagalog is pretty similar grammatically ... so I'm starting to learn Tagalog! Success. Maybe now I can really actually be Filipino and people will know it..

2 comments:

  1. Nice bit of writing. I like its shape.

    What would Europeans think? I suspect Londoners would just assume you were from London.

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  2. You might get Paki in England LOL. I guess people just assume you're whatever is most common there. Yay racial ambiguity!

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