That makes a lot of sense, and I wonder if I moved to Germany, if I'd find myself more American. I wasn't the most introspective college student ever, so I can't really say if that happened before. There weren't other Americans in my dorm, so I didn't really have that experience. The Australian gal who moved in next door in the summer semester made friends with these British gals, and we all hung out a lot.

I had more culture shock going from NC to Oregon than MD/PA to Germany, which is kind of surprising...

Last year in Berlin, the 2 other Americans in my class and I took great joy in busting people's stereotypes (flag-waving, Bush-loving, gun-toting, capitalist religious nuts) by being atheist socialist democrats. A variety of people told me they were surprised I wasn't like the people they see on TV. Yay?

But (and this is kind of embarrassing to admit) the Hetalia episode "America's Closet Cleaning" got me kind of misty-eyed. So yeah, I'm very deeply American, for the definition of American that includes "give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."