I bet your English is really good.

Geez, the days are flying by here! This is a reflection on my ethnicity and how the time I've spent here has changed my self perception(Karlie):
Never in my life had I been made so aware of the color of my skin. I grew up in an affluent neighborhood and was socialized with majority "anglo-americans." For the past 8months, living deep in the south of Mexico, I have become fully aware that my skin is the color of the earth.
The variety of questions that are asked of me or comments that are made occur on a daily basis. The most common being "Oh, I thought you were Mexican." or "Parece que tu eres una Mexicana(It seems/looks like you're Mexican)." These comments are usually followed by questions like "If you're American, why does your skin look like that?"or "Oh well, your parents are from Mexico right?" I can't count the number of times I've told people that my family were all born in the U.S. The funniest part is that nowadays my Spanish has improved so much that it confuses people even more!
Students at the school stare at me with a perplexed look on their face and say "SO...are you from here or...where are you from?" Other gringos just assume, "So, you're originally from Puerto..." My favorite comment so far, which inspired me to write this, was from a Southern Californian student who after a bit of a failed attempt to speak to me in Spanish, switched to English with the commment "I bet your English is really good!"
In the beginning, the routine onslaught of such queries left me feeling annoyed, pestered and sometimes offended. Many months later however, I've becoming accustomed to the curiostiy as I realize that's all it is. So the next time someone says " I bet your English is really good." I'll say "And my Spanish is pretty good too."