A Minor American Clarification

As of now I have moved out of Bernhard and Dagmar's house in Garbsen (I'm going to miss the fresh fruit/vegetables out of the garden), and I'm living in my second temporary home in Hannover. While I was searching for a free room in a WG (shared flat/apartment), I was getting discouraged by the lack of positive responses to my enquiries (or responses at all). Then I exchanged a few emails with a guy named Mathias who had a free room in his WG in Linden-Nord (a very cool neighborhood in Hannover practically right next to the middle of the city). Over a long and drawn out process of missed phone calls and meeting him and his roommate Daniel, it turned out they couldn't offer me the room...they gave it to someone else. However, they felt so bad about the situation that they offered me a place to stay for a month or so until I found my own place (Daniel has two small rooms and offered one to me for the time being).


The point of the story being--last night I was hanging out with Mathias and his girlfriend when his girlfriend brought up the song "Sweet Home Alabama" by Kid Rock. I quickly informed her that to be a true [US] Southerner, she has to know that "Sweet Home Alabama" is by Lynyrd Skynyrd. She disagreed with me and we research it online until I realized that she was thinking of "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock which sounds like and references "Sweet Home Alabama". Apparently she likes this song, and I was hesitant to tell her that I really don't care for Kid Rock and that this song was used in a crappy string of KFC commercials. Anyways, one thing I always find difficult about being an ambassador from the US is how you have to represent every aspect of American life/culture--even the things that you yourself hate or don't understand.


Did I mention that when I was leaving Bernhard/Dagmar's house on Friday, Dagmar gave me a sheet of coupons she had found to Burger King. I don't know if this was prompted by her trying to help me save money on my small budget or because I must love Burger King because I'm American, but it was still nice (I suppose). I didn't have the heart to tell her that I don't care for Burger King, so I took them graciously and threw them away later.


It's always weird to go against someone's stereotypes. So far I've been told that Americans like Kid Rock, only eat fast food, only drink cola and drive everywhere. So the last one is pretty true, but I mean...America is a big country!