Who am I?

Not in a Bourne Identity way, in the plain everyday way you experience out of the blue.

Some of us look like famous people and are used to being incorrectly recognized by strangers. Me, I have what you can call a "passepartout" European style face. Which makes French people treat me as French until I open my mouth and utter something unintelligible.

Italians have shown a habit of treating me as one of theirs, again until...

A Slovakian fruit and veggie vendor took my "trizat odin" price confirmation without flinching and looked surprised when my next full sentence was in English.

In the Basque country outside of Bilbao, a friendly petitioner requested in Basque that I sign the petition (a pen and a clipboard being held under your nose is pretty universal). When I tried to explain in Spanish...I got yelled at in Basque (yelling is kind of universal, right).
That kind of face.

Which makes those occasions when I get mistaken for someone else all the more memorable.
I'll share two of them with you for no better reason than possibly a heightened sense of reflection and some procrastination in this young year.

Imagine a crew cut six foot plus trim male stepping through the exit door at London's Heathrow airport. That male is walking slowly.
An older man appears right in front of him. The man is wearing a suit and tie in that manner limo drivers in many countries display. The suit is black, a little older, kind of loose, the I am here to serve kind, not the gimme all your money business man kind.

The man asks: Mr. Bear from Frankfurt for the Israeli embassy?
Sorry, no.
The driver backs away with an apologetic smile and a "sorry".

What would the Israeli embassy in London be expecting from someone of that description?
We'll never know and don't wonder often.

Another plane encounter of that same male.
He boarded a plane from Dublin, Ireland to London and has settled into the aisle seat.
A couple, shoving two heavy bags in front of them is working their way towards their seats.
The woman sees the male, breaks into a smile and says: "Hey, have not seen you in a long time, how are you!"
Her companion smiles, too. The seated male smiles: "Fine". They do not stop, they are late and there are more people behind them.

They all get off the plane in London and take the tube, a rather quaint way to say "subway" in English.

The couple and the male end up in the same car but at opposite ends. The couple wave, and they are pretty animated. The male waves back but ignores further contact. He can see that their expressions turn from happy to concerned, they talk to each other with somewhat serious and eventually, he believes, slightly irritated facial expressions, glancing towards him, then facing each other again.

Possibly asking the same question: who is that person?