1. The Current Election

Need I say more? We have a completely unqualified racist man and a secretive flip-flop woman as our country’s main candidates. No wonder multiple people in my travels abroad have asked me: “Who did you vote for?” It’s just embarrassing.

2. The Lack of Language Focus in America

In the past four countries, I’ve been to in the past ten days, almost every single person I’ve come across has been able to speak at least a little bit of English in addition to their own language. I can hardly speak proper English, let alone speak another language poorly. In fact, a man on a train yelled at me for not being able to speak to him in another language considering he knew some of at least four. I felt ashamed that our current education does not place more of an emphasis on it.

3. The “Ugly American” Complex

I cannot express how horrible it is to hear someone “brag about how America does it” in another country. Where you are not in America, America is America. Why leave if you are not trying to experience a different way of life? In addition, Americans are LOUD. I mean loud and proud; patriotism is admirable, but not when sporting a “Make America Great Again” shirt on the Budapest Canal.

Overall, in my travels as an America student abroad, I have felt judged at some points not because of the way I have acted, but because of my accent. Currently studying Italian in Rome, some ignore my pauses searching for the correct word while others will role their eyes and simply demand I speak English to them. The most frustrating part is that other Americans I have met in my travels are misrepresenting those of us who are trying our best to fit in. The moral of this short story? Try your best to keep your screams to a minimum when abroad as an American and be as respectful as possible of the culture you are visiting. We must change the way the world sees us if we ever want to make a difference globally.

Yours truly,

An American Girl Trying to Make it in a Non-American City