Türk Yüzüm (My Turkish Face)

"You look Turkish."

I get it more often than you might think. Turkey, you're thinking deep, dark Middle-Easterners. Arabic-style. Swarthy, almond-eyed, black-haired, coffee-eyed, olive-skinned. Ok, some of them are like that, and in general, their hair is darker, but you've also got your fair share of whities with varying eyes. Blues, greens, hazels. Milk white skin, pink-white, yellow-white. Caucausian, basically. Me.

I was buying a dress a couple days ago. The shop keeper was telling me that I have a Turkish face. And that he had thought I was stringing him along, pretending to be a foreigner. We had a good laugh about it. But I've had cab drivers, cashiers and my own students tell me that... The people who occassionally stop to ask me directions obviously think I'm Turkish.