On being obvious

So I went to my first Borges class at the Rojas, a local center for adult/continuing education. These classes seem much more popular than their equivalent in the states. On inscription day, there were at least 200 people waiting at 9:00 in the morning to sign up for classes (they teach everything from practical classes like Photoshop and Excel to languages, literature, philosophy, acting, etc.)

Anyway, I'm taking a class called Introduction to Borges, which promises to be quite interesting. Last night was a general overview. Then we're going to read and discuss one story each week (I'll only be here for the first 4 classes). After talking for about half an hour, the quite genial professor got around to taking attendance, which went something like this:

Prof: Marcelo Locio?
Marcelo: Si.
Prof: Lidia Martinez?
Lidia: Si.
Prof: Bruno Goldstone?
Bruno: Si.
Prof: De donde eres? (Where are you from?)

Really???? Is my accent so prominent in a one-syllable word that it's obvious I'm a foreigner? I mean, I know I have an accent, but I didn't think it was quite so glaring. So I spent quite a while mulling it over in my head: is it my "s" or my "i" that's a tell? I narrowed it down to the "i," since consonants are fairly close in English and Spanish. But finally, I concluded that the fault probably lies in my surname, not my pronunciation. People here have a lot of trouble pronouncing it (and I often shorten it to Gold just to make things easier.)

Anyway, I've been outed as a foreigner, which would have happened anyway, but was kind of disappointing, because no one wants to talk to a Yankee when there are perfectly good locals to chat with. So my plan of meeting a new pal in class may not come to much. We'll see.