Impressions

On Friday before dinner when I found out about the Northern Illinois shootings I asked Maripaz (my host mom) if she had heard about it. She told me she had heard the previous night on the news, "the fourth one of the week" she said, following quickly up with her concern of ever sending her son to the US to study for college becuase of all the shootings. For lack of vocabulary and not wanting to be misunderstood I didn't say anything hoping the the confidence of the American students she hosts speaks for itself...
That's lame, I know. That was my decision yesterday, but after today, I've realized that my silence is only making the sterotypes worse.
At lunch today we somehow got on the topic of roads. Maripaz was sayign how the contry highways in Spain are in really poor shape, and doubts that in America there are roads in poort condition. Meagan and I started telling her that there are in fact poor roads, roads that aren't paved, and that even in Oregon (where Meagan's from) there are even dirt roads. Her response "no lo creo" (i don't believe that).
I know I can't generalize Maripaz's beliefs of the US to that of every Spaniard, but i think I can generalize to people who have never traveled to the US or especially who have never travelled out Spain. America is seen as a place of enormous welath, where everyone is well off, teh streets are paved, and parents can pay for their children to only to go to a $40,000/year university but also send them abroad to study. Maripaz's only impression of the US is from movies, news, and most strongly the students she hosts. I would be t that almost if not all of the sutdents she has hosted come from families of middle-class or higher, after all they are able to afford a semetser aborad. And as much as I want to tell her how messed up the US really is, I find it so hard becuase I don't have the vocab and i'm the exact representation of the stereotypical American. So I have taken it on to show her the America past hollywood productions, as much as I might be discouraged from her questioning eyes when I can't speak Spanish (haha, like half the time I talk).
PS. America - you know I love you, but I want people to know that the US isn't full of people with the perfect lives and endless opportunities because I feel like people could relate more to a non-perfect America than one that they think has everything.