Sticking out abroad

The decent in to winter is well and truly under way. Although I did report a few weeks back that the temperature had dropped this was a temporary measure with their recovery back to wonderful highs of mid 20's Celsius. However a quick check of recent weather reports shows that the current highs are in the tropical low teens (if that).

At first I had been wary of donning my scarf to hold of the garotting hand of the wind around my throat. However no sooner had I started my expeditions, scarf in toe, I noticed that many other men wear also wearing their scarf's as well and did not feel so awkward about my clothing arrangements. I don't normally worry about what I wear or similar issue but here it is a different story due to a strange and unexpected factor. I look foreign.

I'm not sure what it is (well I know some factors) but apparently I stick out as though I have a sign which says "English" above my head. My first instincts was that this was due to my obviously accent when ever I spoke. However the continued looks in the streets, being informed by one of the Ukrainian receptionists that no one wears a smart jacket and a rucksack (and in fact only kids wear rucksacks really) and being asked for a photo (twice) made me realise that actually this was due to my appearance.

Perhaps coming for a place where there are so many people from different back grounds makes it harder to identify someone in the street as being foreign but here my looks, very dark hair and bone structure, are obviously foreign. there are some obvious advantages, people generally forgive my horrific pronouciation ( р and ы are particularly hard letters) and random people wishing to speak to me in English is quite a nice treat. However I don't like the idea that I stick out here.

Of course there isn't really much I can do. I can buy a new bag (well I did) I can think about what I wear....(see above) but the factors that really reveal my identity are written in to who I am.

It's interesting to think about this in terms of personality. After all, often the elements that make us most stick out are the attributes of our personality that are so central to us. Sometimes we just want to hide these and just not stick out but really we're just covering up ourselves. Why should we do this? It doesn't really work anyway (as everyone knows) and if it does work then we aren't actually being the people we are. We should be proud of these quirks that make us the unique people that we are.