A cousin I met pretty recently was watching me play with my youngest nephew.  I lifted him in the air and my sweater rose up in back.  She said, "Oh my God, you're so white!"

Well, yes.

It's true that my skin, particularly that which is not freckled, is paler than even most white people's.

But living in the side of my family made up almost entirely of Filipinos (we have another white girl - an aunt - and some Koreans and Vietnamese and blends of these with Filipino) is interesting for me, because growing up in the other side of the family - my biological one - in my super boring home town, I was a lot less white.

I'm very accustomed to, as a Jew, being the ethnic person in the room, or at least one of the "most ethnic".

And now I'm the white girl.  I don't understand the language, I still encounter new foods on a regular basis, and man, am I pale.

It's not a bad thing.  And I am a bit of a curiosity sometimes.  A nice lady who's not related to us asked me if Jews honor the Blessed Mother.  What was I supposed to say?  No, sorry, we can't get on board with that whole virgin birth thing?  I said, "Well, yes, of course, just in our own way."

As in, no, we can't get on board with that whole virgin birth thing.

But mostly I'm whitey American.  It is extremely interesting.  It's a whole new way of looking at the world - to this half of my family, I look like The Man.  To my elementary school, I was the girl who was going to hell because she didn't believe in Jesus.

Wait, tell me again what changed?

Hee!