We all look the same.
While most Egyptians automatically greet me with “Hello!/Welcome in Egypt!,” (to which I usually reply “fahima arabiya” or “ana aesh hina”), the rest have thrown a weird mix of ethnicities and nationalities at me.
Next to American, the most popular is French. It only ever happens on the train though— I will offer my seat to an Egyptian woman and she will say “Merci!” Once when I was walking back to my hotel in Heliopolis, some Egyptian guy yelled “Ohh, it’s the Canadian beauty!” Then, probably motivated by a desire to flatter me, men have told me they thought I was German, Greek, or Italian. My roommate, who is American and does not need to flatter me, thought I was Israeli. The woman who offered me a job at the international preschool said she thought I was German or Irish.
I then decided to say I was Russian in order to make a store owner speak Arabic to me. Instead, he promptly switched to Russian. The one time I said I was Romanian, I did get the guy to speak to me in Arabic. I think he didn’t believe it though— if I took to long to reply he’d repeat his questions in English.
Once a train ticket guy asked me “Inti Masreeya?” and I laughed and shook my head. If he really thought I was Egyptian, I doubt he would ask.
