The other day a player approached me in WoW, telling me that he had seen a picture of me and my husband, and at the same time mentioning that his uncle was married to a woman from Thailand. He told the same thing to Simen. Like, uh?
Now, really, I shouldn't mind, and at first I just shrugged, cause well, he meant well and was trying to get a conversation going I guess, but...*boggle* so? I later had to admit that yeah, I slightly disliked that comparison and found it annoying at best. I also have to admit that I, in the past, have tried to avoid being associated with other Asian people, as in, not wanting to be seen together with asianlooking strangers in case people thought I was one of them. I don't mind when it's people I know (duh), but strangers I've tend to try avoid standing next to and stuff.
I also recall that when I was fourteen or so, I went bowling with a bunch of my friends, and there was an Asian gang of boys at the place we went to. They kept looking at us/me, and in the end they asked me to come over and wondered why I was with "them" - the non Asian people. I was like, "uh, because they're my friends?" Then I had to explain that I was adopted and that really, the people I was with were my friends and I was not at all comfortable with the situation me having to explain myself to these strangers.
Maybe I'm just too touchy since well, I am adopted, been so since I was a little toddler and to me, my identity is totally Norwegian, it's just my look which isn't traditional Norwegian and in some situations it's easy to forget..? Hm. Yes. I guess I just have to face the reality that it's no wonder when people silently wonders if Simen's found himself a "Thailandian bride", because sometimes that's what I silently wonder myself when seeing ethnic Norwegian men together with asianlooking women (or Russian/east-European/whatever) - even though I myself really should be the one knowing better.
Yes. I know. I should be ashamed and embarrassed of myself for even thinking like that. I just can't help it :( And about the comparison of that player who had an uncle whom married a woman from Thailand? Guess it's like when you meet someone whose wife is from, say, Sweden, and you mention oh cool, my cousin got a girlfriend from Stockholm. Or something like that. Just that, I'm not adopted from Thailand. *shrug*