During my study trip to Berlin, I was surrounded by Americans yet again (that seems to be a theme here). However, many of them have been out of the US for years at this point. It creates a situation where one isn't quite totally enfolded in the new country, but one isn't totally up to date with American culture either.
For example, we were teasing one classmate (there was a lot of teasing on this trip) and told her that she was Tebowing it. I got in on this session of teasing late so I wasn't sure what she did that prompted this. She had no idea what people were talking about. Tebowing is based on the actions of Tim Tebow, an American football player, who would get down on his knees and pray at odd times. It was a reasonably well-known meme; I had even heard of it and I avoid American football like it's the plague.
There were some other instances where people in class didn't get the references to US culture because they've been gone so long. I don't think that is bad in any way; it's just interesting to me, and it's not as if the US is the height of culture anyway. I think that expats don't always get the full effect of their new host culture, especially if there is a language divide. It seems to create this third place, so to speak, of existence.
:)
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