Hooooy, Pinoy Ako!!

"Excuse me, I just had to ask.. What are you?"

Uhh... That was the weirdest phrasing of all. I usually get the normal ones like "Where are you from?", "Are you (insert every other Asian ethnicity aside from Filipino here)?" at least three times a day. But this one was the best. He was so genuinely curious and confused. His face was all scrunched up as he investigates my facial features.

"I'm Filipino. Why?"

"Oh.. I just really had to ask. I couldn't figure it out on my own."

Haha funny. I've been asked if I was Chinese, Korean, Cambodian, Malaysian, but NEVER Filipino. There was even this one time while on the bus, I recognized this lady as a Pinay so I smiled at her and she said, "It's so hot outside." I thought, why the hell is she speaking to me in English? I replied, "Oo nga po e." She did the funniest double take and said, "Pinay ka pala!"

Also this one time, I was looking for a certain cafe around Koreatown. So I approached the security guard to ask him for directions. Before I left, he asked me if I was Chinese. I told him, "No, I'm from the Philippines. I'm Filipino." He nodded his head and said, "Yes, yes! I'm Korean too!" then started blabbering away in Korean. Huh??! Am I so un-Filipino looking that even after saying where I'm from, you can't even process it? Haha but he was really nice so I just laughed.

I swear, the first person to ask me, "Are you FILIPINO?" gets a prize.