German-Americans or Germans in America?

Tonight I decided to go to the "Amerikanischer Kochabend" (literally "American cooking-evening") at the Lokal International--a meeting point for Giesseners and students from all over the world to come and meet.  I wasn't particularly hungry, as I'd had my first Döner kebab only a couple hours earlier.  I just wanted to see what the German take on American food was.  As I had predicted, their idea of American food was cheeseburgers, chicken wings, and French fries...and rice?  Well okay, the rice I didn't really expect.  But the fast food-style stuff was pretty predictable.  Though no one seemed that impressed with it.  I for one didn't hate it--the buns were stale and they used some weird sauce on the cheeseburgers that tasted like nothing I've ever had before...but I guess it wasn't the worst food I've ever had.  And certainly not the worst food I've ever had in Germany (I still gag even thinking about the 0.99 EUR meat).

After everyone had finished eating and cleared away the plates, some people began playing games, while others went home and still others began conversations.  One young man from Israel told me I looked like Avril Lavigne...not quite sure what to make of that.  I guess that's a compliment?

Then I spent a lot of time talking to one girl "from" California...actually, she's a Korean-German (born in Germany to Korean parents).  And from what I understood, she was raised mostly in Germany.  But she spent some time in Canada in high school as an exchange student.  And then she attended college at the University of California, and now she's back in Germany, studying medicine.  The weird thing is that her English was perfect.  I didn't even notice any accents.  And she kept calling "Cali" her home, and saying she was "from Cali" and a "Bay-area girl." 

Then after we got bored of the Lokal International, we went to Ulenspiegel.  Waited in line for around 2 hours just to get in.  It was worse than the last time I went there.  Except that this time I wasn't as tired as I was the first time, and this time I was with a few more friends than last time.  I also knew more of the songs.  So it was slightly more enjoyable the second time around...but only slightly.  I take points off for the long wait.

This time was also more interesting because as we were waiting in line, some people started talking to us.  One somewhat drunk German guy came up to us and asking us all if we were ERASMUS students (Henry and I are, the other two girls we were with are not), and where we were from.  Having had to answer this question so many times already, I decided it would be more fun to have the other person guess.  After a long struggle of trying to explain that I wanted him to guess (he thought I was telling him the name of a town, and he kept saying "I've never heard of that city.  Where is it?"), he looked me over a couple times before making his judgement.  "Chicago!" he pronounced.  We all thought that was really funny that he was able to get it right on the first try.  I wonder what it was that gave me away.

Then later on we met another guy in line.  This guy had a really strange accent--he almost sounded like he was from Minnesota or some backwater town in Canada.  But claimed to be from Wisconsin.  I later found out that he too was actually a German (though his parents were from Poland) who went to college in the US, and more specifically, in Wisconsin. 

One would think that meeting other Americans--even pseudo-Americans--here in Germany would be comforting.  Like knowing you're not alone.  But I just feel like staying away from Americans.  Some of the other Americans I've seen or sort of met just seem like the sort of people I don't even want to hang out with when I'm home.  So why would I hang out with them here?  And aren't we supposed to be meeting Germans anyway?

But one thing that particularly got to me on this night, that probably would never have bothered me in the past, was all these Germans who were saying that they were "from" America.  I imagine it to feel a bit like the irritation some Chicagoans feel when a suburbanite claims to be from Chicago.  (I've known some who get really upset when this happens.  I've never really fully understood why, though.)  But though I've never had any major problem with a suburbanite saying they're from Chicago, tonight, for some reason, it just irritated me a little that Germans were saying they were from America, even though they are not American citizens and had only lived in the US for a couple years at most.  I go to school in a small town in central Ohio.  But when I graduate next year, if I move to another country, I'm not going to be telling people that I'm from Ohio.  Nor would I tell them that I'm from Giessen, Germany, just because I happen to be living there currently.  But it's just so strange that I felt this irritation toward someone claiming to be from somewhere else.  I don't normally care where people want to call their home, since it's such a trivial thing and it's really all about what you personally consider to be your "home". 

And as I was standing in that long line in front of Ulenspiegel thinking about these German-Americans or Germans in America, I couldn't help compare it to my own experiences of people I know living in the US.  As I said, I would never consider myself an Ohioan, even though I've sort of lived, worked, and went to school there for most of the past two and a half years.  Growing up, we often moved every couple of years, and it never took long before I considered myself a part of the new town or new school or whatever else it was that I was being introduced to.  But now I feel so much more sedentary.  And one of my German professors once told the class that he always tells people that he comes from Pennsylvania, which is where he grew up, even though he's been living and teaching in Ohio for many years. 

Well, I wanted to say sedentary, but not really.  Because it's not that I want to live my entire life within the Chicago area.  But at the same time, I don't know that I could ever call any other city, state, or country my true "home."  Yet these Germans were ready to latch on to another country entirely and claim to be "from" there.  Maybe they just wanted to make us feel at home.  Maybe they wanted to seem cool.  Or maybe they really do adopt new homelands quickly.

One would think that of any people, it would be the Americans who wouldn't become so attached to any one city.  After all, it's often pointed out to me that Americans generally move more frequently than Europeans.  And Americans also have that history of being a nation comprised mostly of people who left their own homelands.  To stay within one's own town his or her entire life would make that person seem incredibly provincial, almost medieval.  But yet, it seems that so many of us just choose the region in which we grew up to call our "home," even when we live somewhere else for 20 years.

I just don't know what to make of these differences in mentality.  I think I need to sleep on it a little.  It's getting late, after all (nearly 3:30 am...so just ignore any weird typing I might have done tonight, since I'm not really in my right mind; I just had to write this before I went to bed.), and I have to get up early tomorrow (field trip!).  But I'm going to continue to think about this question.  Any input from my dear readers is appreciated as well.  So if you have any information on what you consider to be your homeland and what exactly do the words "home" and "homeland" mean for you or what you think could be the reason for the difference in mentalities between Americans and Germans, then write me an email, leave a comment, or contact me directly (for those who know me personally).