blending in with my friendly face

I like to travel in a way that I can blend in with the locals and not be stared at. Maybe because this is such a departure from my daily reality that it provides a nice break. Here the shop owners on the street know exactly which flat I live in and how many eggs I order every week. Lots of people that I've never met know my name, where I am from, where I live, and what I do here. I make some cultural faux pas, a few hours later the whole neighborhood knows about it. I don't say this like I'm someone important, but we are kind of a novelty around here. Plus, in this culture, people talk and everyone knows everyone else's business. Blending in doesn't work so well, which is funny, because I don't like attention so much. Especially being the center of attention. It makes me self-conscious and uncomfortable, and my heart starts pounding like I just drank eight cups of coffee really fast.

When I went to New York City a few years ago, I was secretly pleased when people started asking ME for directions and how to use the metro. Apparently I looked like I belonged there. Last week as I was getting ready to board the plane in Rome, I decided to go to the bathroom one last time. I was waiting in line when this grandma marched in and came to the front where I was standing. She was speaking a language I didn't understand but I could tell it wasn't Italian. I motioned to her that all the stalls were full. She kept talking to me, and I just kind of smiled and shrugged to her that I didn't understand. Finally she pointed to herself and bellowed, "GREEK!"

"Ah. English," I said, smiling and pointing to myself. "Greek, no." The Greek Grandma kept talking to me in Greek and smiling and making non-universally understandable hand motions. We met again over the paper towel holder (it was a little weird and no one could figure out how to use it correctly, including myself). She kept talking to me in Greek until we finally waved goodbye to go to our respective gates.

Several hours later I was walking through the streets of Istanbul. As I was going through a walkway, a lady turned to me and started speaking Turkish. It was pretty clear she expected me to understand her and respond back in Turkish. "Um...I don't understand Turkish," I told her. She burst out laughing and hugged me and squeezed my hand before I kept going on my way.

And just the night before, I had been taking pictures of the Trevi fountain in Rome when this couple approached me and asked me in English to take their picture. "Of course, sure!" I told them. The man looked totally surprised and said, "Oh wow! You speak English!" "Yep, I speak a lot of English." Turns out they were Canadian.

But all this in the span of 24 hours made me think: What language do I look like I should be speaking? I don't have Greek or Turkish features AT ALL. I'm not sure if I'm culturally versatile enough to look like I belong in a lot of places or just have a friendly face and look like I'll understand you if you speak to me.