Anyway, I digress. It got me thinking on the whole being American abroad. On the one hand, living in Europe has made me realise just how American I am. In terms of shared history, shared experience, shared culture, whenever I meet another American abroad, regardless of their skin color, this is what we connect over. Oddly enough, I never realised just how American I am until I left the US.
On the flip side of that, living overseas has allowed me to look at America as an American from the outside. It’s an interesting experience. America and her people are much more complex than most folks give her credit for. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve run into someone/received and e-mail/read a comment about how “all American xxx” I’d be a very rich woman right now.
I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be living in Europe. Another month, another year, another decade, I have no clue. But I’m glad I’ve had this experience, both for me as a Black person to really connect with my Americanness (pretend that’s a word) and to experience various aspects of European culture, especially those of the crazy Brits, Frenchies and Belgians.
I (often) make fun of all three but it comes from a place of love and (grudging) respect. But I again digress. Living in Europe has allowed me to explore just a tiny slice of a huge world. Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to continue diving in and digesting more of it.
8 comments:
"But I’m glad I’ve had this experience, both for me as a Black person to really connect with my Americanness..." Yes to this! So much of my life in America I felt like the "other", but now that I live in Germany, I'm surprised at how defensive I get when someone criticizes the US! Especially since I ALWAYS criticize it. Good read!
Same here! I'm definitely more defensive of the US after living in Europe, mainly because I keep confronting the same stereotypes, invariably by folks who have neither met nor know Americans.
And I have a tendency to start sentences with "My people (Americans)..." when talking about some aspect of American character.
Ha! I think I've been saying "Well, in AMERICA we..." :)
And, off topic, i've been enjoying your blog from afar for a while now. It was great research when I was deciding to move.
Yay! Glad my blog was of some help to you. Oddly, I just discovered your blog a few days ago! Adding it to my blog roll now. And do let me know if you happen to be in the land of frites, waffles and chocolate!
I took some time and went abroad during my college years. It was one of the best experiences of my life. You come to view the world differently. I was able to spot an American just by the clothing they wore.
@Caria - Same! Especially in London, it was fairly easy to pick out the Americans by how they dressed. Oddly, I could pick out American guys by how they walked. Can't explain how. Just could.
It's funny I've even been defensive of Americans as every time someone mistakes me for one they profusely apologise as if it's the worse thing in the world someone could have called me.
I think people feel they can type cast Americans because your politics and film and music are so far reaching. Doesn't make it right but they probably feel like they know a little more about Americans than people from other countries.
Since living in Europe I think I feel even prouder of Canada and being Canadian than I did before (well not as of late with us dropping out of Kyoto). People have a limited view of Canada but what they think they know seems to be all positive.
I didn't realise I've been abroad basically the same amount of time you have. I swear I read your blog before I moved for research as well.
It really takes leaving your country to really understand it. Hearing foreign perspectives of the U.S. is always fascinating to me, I usually don't get defensive but that's probably because as a visitor, I don't have to deal with it all the time. I can imagine how living abroad can adjust your whole outlook on nationality.
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