You are exotic

The other day I went to the hairdresser and she asked me if white guys looked at me. I said "No. Sometimes, but not that often". She said that she thought that happened becasue I was "exotic". She said they might think I am pretty but I am just "too much". "Too much?", I replied. "Yes. You look very different and they are used to the traditional white, blond and green eyes girl. They do not know what to do with you." I thought this behavior or way of thinking in white guys was weird. I told her she was not the first person who told me I was exotic and that sometimes I wondered what people are trying to say when they say I am exotic. She said "That is just a complement. They are saying you are pretty". I still can not understant how can this word might mean pretty. For me this interpretation is weird.

I went home after trusting my curly exotic hair on her. By the way, it was difficult for me to find someone in the city who knew how to deal with exotic, I mean, curly hear. And luckly, I found her. A woman who was aware of the racial dynamics in this city and was able to work with my exotic hear becasue she herself is African American. So, I went home thinking someone else just told me the same thing, that I am exotic. But what is to be exotic? What people try to say when they say I am exotic?

Just the other day I was telling my co workers I was in the car with my husband speaking on my cellphone when a guy in another car was literally shouting "YOU ARE EXOTIC! YOU ARE EXOTIC!" I asked to my co workers what exotic meant for them. One of my co workers said that meant I am not white. I told her the guy who told me that comment was African American. My supervisor jumped into the conversation saying that people mean that I am gorgeous. She said it is just a complement. I went home with the same question again wondering why people in the United States tell me I am exotic meaning I am pretty when there are hundreds of pretty women in the city who are not called "exotic". This is weird.

Not being satisfied with people explanations I went to the ditionary online and confirmed what I was thinking people meant. The dictionary said the word comes from the latin word "exoticus". It has three definitons. The first one is foreigner, pilgrims, specially if the person comes from a country far away. The second is when something is weird or shoking. And the third one is the definiton used in Mexico, which is a woman who dances on a cabaret. Well, the definiton is clear. I am a foreigner. I am a pilgrim on this lands expecting to go back to my country, and my country is really far away. I have to fly five hours and a half to go to Puerto Rico. For many people here, due to my features and curly hear, I am weird and provoke different reactions when peole look at me. Something would not happen if I were white. And third, I do like to dance. I love dancing and maybe I will take that further step and put dancing in a cabaret on the list of the things I want to do before I die.

The question is why people has to emphasize you are different. Or that you are pretty but different. Or that you are pretty different. People would wonder why I give so much thinking to this word "exotic". But for me, a person who comes from another country, who found herself surrounded of weird and different people, is weird to hear I am "the exotic". It is interesting to go through the street in a pretty divided white/black society (which for me is weird) and being called exotic. I would say that after being in the United States, and seeing all these wierd things you all do, "you all are exotic".