Never have I ever felt more American than now that I am finally someplace outside of the states.

I am not particularly patriotic. Many things about American culture kind of disgust me actually. I don’t trust our government, and I’m not always the biggest fan of the military. I spent a good deal of my teenage years believing that if I had been born in Europe my life would have been much much better.

I was however born in Portland, Oregon, and have since spent half of my life in Oregon and the other half in Iowa, and nothing that I do will ever change that. Even were I to move to Europe, I will always love the mountains and forests where I was raised, and I will always miss peanut butter and apple pies. Nuttella and crepes are amazing, but I didn’t eat any of either until I was 19 years old; no matter how great they taste, they will never have the sentimental value of food I grew up on.

It’s not just food either. Europe is in general very similar to the US: I’m still firmly within the realm of Western culture….. but it’s the small things. Things like where people live: in the Basque country at least, towns can be smaller than 5,000 people and it’s still normal for everyone to live in apartments instead of houses. Things like travel: It’s faster here to travel by train, carry-ons in the airport are limited to one bag, and said bag is smaller than carry-on size in America, and said bag is limited in weight as well as size. Things like homosexuality: I was in a library in a tiny town…. the kind of town which would be extraordinarily conservative in the US… and two guys kissed right in front of me. And not the famous cheek-kissing that you do with complete strangers – full on undeniably romantic kissing. Things like language: I don’t think I have yet met a European who is not at LEAST bilingual.

Little things. Things that in some cases I actually prefer here…. But still, things that make one realize exactly how American one is. I miss peanut butter.