1. You get asked where you're from on a daily basis.

2. Or how long you've been in Australia.

3. Even when you get into a taxi, the first thing the driver wants to know is not where you're going, but where you came from.

4. And you try to tell people you're from Canberra but they don't believe you.

5. Then you get, "but where are you REALLY from?"

6. Some people speak to you really slowly because they think you can't speak English.

7. While others come up and speak to you in a language you definitely don't understand.

8. People stare at you like they're trying to figure out something really technical (and the something "technical" is just your ethnicity).

9. And they tell you that you look like that one racially ambiguous celebrity, but it doesn't feel like a compliment.

10. You're often referred to as "exotic".

11. And if someone tries to describe you, it goes something like: "Tall but not that tall, dark skin but not that dark - but not light either, but like tan but not that tan..."

12. People try to make your name more complicated than it actually is.

13. And this kind of thing happens a lot when you order a coffee.

14. If you do salsa dance classes, ethnic food cooking classes, or language classes, your teacher expects you to be way better than you are.

15. You can't talk about another country without people assuming that it's your motherland.

16. And when you travel the world, everyone thinks you're a local.

17. Sometimes, people you've known for a really long time think you're a different ethnicity than you actually are.

18. But worst of all is when people think asking your country of origin is a pickup line.