Identity.

Recently, I've been suffering from an identity crisis, well ever since I started living in South Asia, actually. This past week I traveled to another city and attended a meeting with several people from all over the country. Most attendees were nationals, a few were expats, like myself. During the meeting I was asked to give a short presentation introducing myself and my work in South Asia. I literally had to stop and ask myself, "Who am I to this group of people?". I'm certainly not the girl who once drove down country roads, windows down, music blaring, singing her lungs out. I no longer don a heavy winter coat and scarf and pray for sunshine 9 months out of the year (but I do miss you, RIT!). So who I am? These are some immediate (and slightly ridiculous) thoughts that came to mind:

Main American say hun. (I am from America.) <---this is a really important phrase to know here. I probably get asked where I'm from 15+ times a week. Some of my friends who have been here longer have grown tired of that question, so they've started speaking in British accents when they're in the city. No one asks them where they're from anymore. Sometimes I daydream about making up some weird accent or telling people I'm from Nigeria or Nova Scotia just to see their reaction, but I never go through with it.

Main Urdu/Hindi seekrahi hun. (I'm learning Urdu/Hindi.)

*Ok, English from here on out because that's about all I know and it's not as fun when you're reading it in Roman script.

I am a woman in a man's world. In a room of one-hundred Indian men, I am the only woman.

I often speak in broken English with an Indian accent.

I am slowly going deaf from all the noise here. I'm glad I know sign language because I may need it when I return home.

I am a student.

I am a follower of Isa Masih.

I am a daughter.

I am blessed and sometimes can't believe that I was born in America. How do I have it so good? Sometimes I don't understand why it wasn't me that was born on the streets here.

I am "Madaam".

I am sometimes mistaken for an Israeli or Iranian (?!).

I am not supposed to go anywhere alone after 8pm.

I am an artist.

I eat non-veg.

I feel that I have lost some of my independence.

I drink the water (haha).

I wear more "dresses" than I ever have in my life.

I bobble my head and grunt "huh" to indicate "yes".

I am a Northerner. I am a Midwesterner.

I am now a "Southerner" of this land.

I eat ketchup on everything (because that's what you do in S. Asia).

I buy food at the store only to find out it's not what I thought I was buying at all. (The first week I lived here I bought what I thought was spaghetti noodles and even cooked them for dinner. I later found out that you're supposed to fry them in oil and have then as a snack. It wasn't spaghetti at all!).

I'm developing A.D.D.

I take my shoes off outside the door.

I am an introvert learning to be an aggressive extrovert (when necessary).

I enjoy listening to Bollywood music.

I will never understand cricket.

Sometimes I eat dinner at 10:30pm.

I'm late to everything, which is actually on time here.

I have dreams about Wal-Mart and laying in fields of green grass.

The end.