So I've been in Indonesia for 2.5 months now, and it's obvious that many of the local folks don't see me as a "real" American. When they think of an American, they expect someone white. Every time I meet a local, inevitably I'll be asked to explain how I am American yet not white.

Now that's fine. As the vast majority of Americans here are white, I don't mind explaining. But it does feel funny to have my American-ness regularly questioned, and to see how some locals treat white Americans differently than me.

Then this thing happened the other week. I was at a market with some friends and we saw an older dude, who was white, setting up shop. We all wondered what a white dude was doing working in a local market and wandered over to chat.

Obviously, I didn't know if he was Australian, British, or whatever from sight alone, but when we all started chatting I could tell instantly that he was American too. I was pretty psyched because I never meet other Americans here (unless I specifically seek them out) but I played it cool and so did he.

We all chat about dude's shop and how he came to live in Jakarta. I ask him where he's from in the U.S., he says [X city]. We chat about that city and about some other East Coast cities I know well. I expect that he'll ask me any minute where I'm from in the U.S., and why I'm here, but he never does. Conversation moves on.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of chatting, dude asks me: "So, where did you study in the U.S.?"

And suddenly I get it. Despite the fact that I speak American English, dress like an American, am loud like an American, and have a vast, intimate knowledge of America, dude thought I couldn't possibly be from there. I must have just studied there. Basically, even my fellow American didn't think I look like an American. I mean, I don't know what could have thrown him off other than my appearance.

And it's frustrating, because I've traveled some and I know I could recognize a born-and-raised American anywhere once we started talking. Color doesn't matter: the accent, slang, and behavior are dead giveaways. Still, I guess for some, one's ethnic background overrides all other behavioral cues.

Add that to years of "Where are you from? -- No, where are your parents from?" and it's like, I get it guys. I'm American yet not white, do I seriously have to explain this all the time?

It is kind of funny and I can definitely laugh about it, but it's also a symptom of perpetual foreigner syndrome, which can get old.