Accents. You know, I have a love/hate relationship with accents. I LOVE Matthew McConaughey's accent. That southern drawl - mmm!

Then there's Richard Armitage... I discovered him in the movie, "North & South" His British accent, delicious!

Then there's my accent. It's non-descript but it's still there. Here are my experiences where people have tried to figure out my accent.

1. 8th grade French class: Mlle. Larsen, our teacher thought I was French just from one word, "Here!" when she called my name.

2. 10th grade French class: Mdm .... can't remember her name. She also thought I was French from the way I pronounced my name, "Sara S.......dore." She immediately jumped into a French chat with me to which, surprisingly for having 2 years of French thus far, I was able to say, "Non, Je ne suis pas francais." Which is, "No, I am not French!" She was disappointed, yet had me go up all the time to demonstrate conversational French so the other students could pick up on the proper enunciation & pronounciation of the French language.

3. 19 years old: I started working for the government. I had to travel by bus from the suburbs of Seattle to downtown Seattle. I would only say, "Good morning!" to my fellow travelers and immediately I had a few older men asking me where I was from. Ew, yuck!

4. 19-24 years old: Coming BACK from Seattle on the bus, I would get all these... exhuberent men asking me for the time while I waited for the bus. "3:30," is what I would say. "Say that again! C'mon, say it again! Didn't hear you, say it again!" It made me feel very dirty and I began to read a book or pretend I was asleep. ANYTHING to avoid that.

5. People in general in my life: I've had 4 types of experiences. 1) Peeps would just look at me and say, "Oh." Then walk away. 2) Peeps asking me to repeat and getting it wrong each time. 3) Peeps who GET IT and just talk away. Obviously, many of my friends come from the 3rd sort. But then there's 4) People I haven't met, and talk to them on the phone for the first time. It's like they're disappointed or surprised. Friends that I had been chatting with online for a year or so, that drop me when they hear my voice on the phone for the first time. It's weird. Due to #4, I'm very hesitant about talking to peeps on the phone, I just don't like the feeling of being "dropped" as a friend just simply because of my accent.