Meeting international students is one of the best learning experiences you’ll have abroad. Since other international students are in the same situation as you are, you’ll find that it is very easy to make friends. Before I arrived in Mannheim, I expected to make lots of German friends. Although I made a few German friends, my strongest relationships were with other exchange students. Sometimes I think that I might have learned more about the cultures of my new friends than I did about German culture. Being an American has positive and negative effects on your experience. It is extremely convenient and comfortable that the default language amongst international students is English. At most events everyone is speaking English. At times I would often forget that English wasn’t the native language of most of the students. I definitely learned to appreciate the fact that my native language was spoken everywhere and taught in my classes. I have a whole new respect for the other international students who wrote our exams in English. I also thought it was really cool that my international friends would speak English to make me feel more comfortable. Even if I was the only American with a group of my Norwegian friends, they would usually speak English the entire time. We would all try out our German as well, but English was easier for almost all of the exchange students. Another positive aspect to being American was that everyone knows so much about your culture. I was shocked how much everyone knows about America. Although this is very convenient, it also gives you a responsibility. I often found myself trying to dispel myths about Americans and defend my country. Also I knew that I had to keep up to date with news and happenings in America, because other international students were interested in talking to me about it. Other international students really enjoy talking about American politics, and they expect you to as well. I noticed that my other exchange student friends were much more open about discussing their political views. As an American, I felt as though my political views were my personal opinion and that I didn’t have to share them. This was a cultural difference and was hard for some of my friends to understand. I found one of the negative aspects to being American was that other international students were slightly skeptical about Americans. Some students told me that Americans made them uncomfortable because of their “fake” friendliness. I was also told that Americans are seen as superficial. One student told me that when we first met he thought that I was very egotistical because I hardly spoke. Because he had the prejudice that Americans are superficial and self centered, he confused my shyness for egotism.