No matter how long I live in this country, people never cease to come up with unexpected questions about my origins.
At Kohl’s, the cashier made the obligatory remark about my accent.
“I’m from Ukraine,” I said.
“Military?” she asked, throwing me off completely.
I doubt she was wondering if I’m a member of Ukraine’s armed forces. But what then? That I’m a “native” wife of an American soldier stationed in Ukraine? There are none, though.
So strange.
Clarissa's Blog 
\ I doubt she was wondering if I’m a member of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Why not a wife of an Ukrainian soldier in America for training?
She has probably heard about the war in Ukraine and that USA supports the country, and America has helped friendly foreign military forces in their training before.
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“Why not a wife of an Ukrainian soldier in America for training?”
We do have a military base nearby and there are scary black helicopters coming out of there every once in a while, so it’s not impossible.
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They ask if you are the spouse of a soldier because they see this happening, despite their being no American troops in the Ukraine. There are, however, no shortage of Ukrainians in Germany where there are American troops.
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Ah! That’s convoluted but very possible. It is strange that people come up with the weirdest explanations for my presence in this town when there is a university right there and it’s filled with professors who have all sorts of accents.
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