The United States of San Francisco

Last night we had dinner guests for Shabbat Chanukah, one of whom I knew and two of whom I did not. During the introductions, Nir explained that he was from here in Jerusalem and Helle told us she was from Denmark. When it was Sam's turn he described himself to the group as being "from California, Northern California, from Berkeley."

I felt very validated to hear this, since my housemates (Polish/Israeli, French, and Norwegian) always tease me for telling new people I meet that I am from San Francisco. "Not everyone knows where San Francisco IS, Sarah," Kenneth said in frustration one time. "Can you at least start out by saying that you're from the States to give people some context?"

As I tried in vain to explain to my "partners" (the Israeli word for housemates), introducing myself as being from the U.S., as an American, feels less than accurate . There is a perception or a stereotype, and not an entirely accurate one, about "Americans" and "people from the States" and this mindset about what those of us from the U.S. must be like does not often match my own experiences and points of view. In my travels I have found that while maybe this perception varies from place to place (in the Netherlands, Americans are all loud-mouthed; in New Zealand, Americans are all fat; in Israel, Americans are all rich) it most certainly exists. Describing myself as being from San Francisco also brings a stereotype to people's minds--I must work in high-tech, be liberal in my politics and hipster in my social life, and of course how could we forget gay?! This, while not completely accurate in my case, feels to me amuch more fitting description of the version of myself I want to introduce to the rest of the world.