How American am I?

It's a strange thing to live in a country that's not your own. Some things are easy to adapt to, others are more difficult. My American co-workers and I still maintain our American identity in many ways. Tonight my friends are hosting a bbq to grill burgers and eat banana splits. At our largest local movie theater, we have seen 3 American movies: Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Ocean's 13. (Is it just me, or are there a lot of "thirds" coming out this year?) The only difference was that they had Turkish subtitles and a 10-min intermission. I haven't gotten a picture of the movie theater itself, but here's a shot taken inside the mall that houses the theater.

Even though we consider ourselves very American, it's been interesting that most of the people I've met don't think so. I frequently am asked "where are you from?" But I have never been asked "Are you American?" If people guess, they always guess countries other than America. I've been asked if I'm German, English, Irish, Moldovan, Ukrainian, and French. Never American. Even my roommate was asked just yesterday if she was from Moldova. When our Turkish teacher refers to us, she always calls us "the foreigners" even though she knows we're all American. When we see foreigners in America, we usually refer to them with some sort of ethnic or national identity (i.e. Hispanic, Middle Eastern, German, Indian, etc.) But for the most part here, we're just foreigners.

It's interesting the things they notice about you, as well, as a foreigner. We're frequently asked "do you dye your hair, or is that the natural color?" They always think our blue eyes are so beautiful. Last week, our neighbors commented that I had a very small nose. Now sometimes even I look in the mirror and find myself surprised by how light my hair is or how many freckles I have!