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Create your own travel map


Anonymous has traveled to: Cambodia, Canada, China, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United States, Vietnam

This is not a map of where I've traveled (although I have been to China and Canada, in addition to Germany and Austria), but of where people have mistakenly thought I was from. Laos is standing in for, "Are you Hmong?" and although you can't see them, Hong Kong and Singapore are on there as well. Finland is not a mistake; that was from someone who had never met me in person, trying (very unsuccessfully) to suss out where my first name was from. For the record, I'm ethnically half-Japanese, half European mutt (French/British/Polish-German-Czech-no-one-really-seems-to-know-for-sure). Ironically, although people never seem to be satisfied with an answer to, "Where are you from?" unless it includes a foreign country, I can probably trace back my American heritage farther than most people who ask that question — if you go back far enough, I have ancestors who were some of the original white settlers of Kentucky.

Typical conversation that I have had way too many times:
"Where are you from?"

"Minnesota."

"No, I mean, where are your parents from?"

"Minnesota."

"Well, how about your grandparents?"

"California, Minnesota, and Kentucky."

"No, but I mean…"

"My great grandparents on my mom's side were from Japan, and my dad's side is European."

"Oh, okay, cool! I like sushi."