An American in the (uncomfortable) spotlight

The other day I became acutely aware of the fact that the rest of the world keeps a close eye on the happenings in American politics.

When I walked into German class Friday morning, two young women were already there. One, Nicaise, is from Cameroon and had joined the class the week before. The other was there for the first time, and I assumed that she was Muslim based on the fact that she was wearing a hijab.

I said hello and introduced myself, and after hearing my name the new student asked if I was from Russia. I sort of laughed and said that, no, I was from the U.S. Her facial expression changed when I said that, but I couldn't really read what it was saying. Nicaise asked her name and where she was from, and the young woman said her name was Heba and, glancing at me, that she was from Iraq.

At that point I wasn't really sure what to say, but Nicaise chimed right in. Turning to look at me, she said, "Your president is always wanting to start wars with other countries. How can he do that?"

I kind of sputtered for words and finally said that I'm not the American government, to which Nicaise responded, "Are you a Republican?" I avoided that one by saying that I'm not the president, and I don't make decisions for him. How in the world does a person answer questions like hers?

Heba still looked a bit uncomfortable, but other students were beginning to arrive and, thankfully, were taking a bit of the attention off of me.

But then the teacher began class and decided to look at the results of a survey presented in our textbook. The survey asked responders about various things they would or would not do for their jobs. Questions ranged from things like moving to a new town and changing the way you dress to forgoing time with family and friends.

Most interesting, though, was the question that asked if the person thought it was okay to have a romantic relationship with a boss and the fact that 9% of the people surveyed answered yes. This sparked intense feelings on both sides from my classmates, and at one point Nicaise (again) looked toward me and said, "But in the U.S....," to which the teacher said, "Yes, Alicia, what happened in the U.S. with Bill Clinton? And Monica Lewinsky, was it?" I couldn't believe it. I wanted to hide under the table. Everyone was looking at me, though, so I did my best to explain the story with as few details as possible and with the German words I know.

Later, as we began reading about Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, a German woman who won the Noble Prize for Biology, the teacher turned to me and asked if I could think of any successful women in the U.S. As I took a minute to ponder my definition of "successful," he said, "Isn't there a woman running for president?" Nicaise piped up yet again and said, "Who? Condoleezza Rice?" That did not receive a good response at all. The teacher even interjected an "I hope not." I finally said that Hillary Clinton wants to run for president. Thankfully, though, my attempt at explaining why she is not actually on the ballot yet was interrupted by a new conversation concerning Germany's current (and first female) chancellor, Angela Merkel.

I think any of those three instances would have been stressful enough, but I really could not believe that all three happened on the same morning. It was the first time in my life I've wanted to say, "Did I say I was from the U.S.? I meant Canada."

Hey, I even like hockey.