I find it sad that some people marry the policies in Washington to the citizens. Though I know not all do that -- it still brings tears to my eyes watching the Olympics as the US team comes out and gets such a big welcome. The stories of the jeering aren't new to me. I've not experienced any directly myself, but it's common knowledge that it happens. Besides, spending enough time on the internet, being an international meetingplace as it is, you get a glimpse of the attitude.

That being said, I'm glad that the attitude is turning. Also, it warms my heart to read the article. It always sucks if you have to hide your nationality, especially if you aren't ashamed of it in reality.

"It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning..." "I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English.
Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop.

Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans."

Did it ever occur to him to check to see if he still had his wallet?

/joking

Maybe she thought he was hot.

But seriously, I have a desire to travel to Europe and one of my concerns was how I would be received as an American. Here's to hoping.

I am going to school in the Italian region of Switzerland, and stayed up all night (the CNN called the election at 5 am for me on November 5th) to see the result.

That morning, as I went to get breakfast, the server, an Italian woman who speaks no English, greeted me with excitement, exclaiming in Italian how beautiful the election had been, how happy she was for us Americans.

Though i was cheering hard with all my classmates when Obama won, hearing this woman so excited and happy was the best part of the whole experience.

I think a true American was always proud to be an American and not let someone like Bush make you not be proud of who and what you are. I have always been proud to be an American, even when I was not proud of my leader.

Don't you get it ? Almost everyone in the Western world loves the US. But not everyone loves its leaders at times.

I remember when I took a trip to India in 2001. It was the month after 9/11. It was amazing to me how wonderfully everyone over there treated us. They were all so kind and generous, and happy to see us Americans. Hopefully things will be more like that now.

We definitely got the "Yankee go home!" treatment in Italy and our tour guide got cussed out by a fellow Italian while we in Pompeii. She told us it happened a lot whenever she had American tour groups.

It's good to hear that things are changing.