Having lived in Europe for the last three months, I tend to perk up when I hear of the homeland.

Whether it is someone speaking in an American accent or mentions of the Etats-Unis, my attention is caught faster than a street crepe stand.

I suppose this is, in part, because I miss home and welcome familiar conversation. Yet it is also true that as fascinating as it is to study French culture, it is perhaps even more interesting to study how the French or Europeans study American culture.

Whenever I hear a European start to speak about America or Americans, I just want to know all they know and think. There are so many different things within our media and our politics that could inform their opinion. Did they watch Spielberg’s Lincoln, Tarentino’s Django, or the most recent American Pie? What does their image of Americans come from? The news? “The Simpsons?” Rumours of Walmart? The NFL?

It is a thoroughly strange and new experience for me to realize that I too have a culture that can be studied. I am not sure it is something I will ever get used to. In fact, I cannot imagine feeling anything but strange when I find others trying to comment on America. No matter what, I always tend to find what they choose to study or what they already know odd.

Here are some of the more peculiar examples of Americana I have come across in Europe.

You will find at Kebab shops and grocery stores something called sauce américaine. It seems to be a ketchup-mayo mixture. You’re welcome France?

Especially after explaining that I am normally a student in Texas, many ask about guns. A Frenchman once asked me if every man in Texas owned a gun. A Scotsman who was about to go to Texas also expressed how he had been wondering if he would get a chance to shoot a gun. I hope his visit went okay.

The best, and perhaps most disturbing, are American-themed restaurants like “The American Dream” fast-food shop I went to back in my first month here. All over their walls were posters of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, and a million other stars as well as the kitschy-est pictures one could imagine from New York and Times Square. The folding chairs bore “USA” embroidery and each dish on their menu was named after a place in the United States for no apparent reason. And no one spoke English. I regret the meal but the decoration was a priceless experience. I would very much like to have explained to me what exactly it is that draws Frenchmen into such a restaurant.

There is also the sheer popularity of shows like “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Simpsons,” “American Dad,” and “Laguna Beach” (AKA “The O.C.”) which make me wonder as to what generalizations are made about America especially if that is their main source of information. We are not all Barney’s or Marissa’s and for better or worse, my high school experience was not at all like “Friday Night Lights.”

I have started to think a lot about how every American has a different America and the idea of a pure American culture – or any culture for that matter – is absurd. So, I am trying to be a little bit more careful when I find myself trying to characterize the French, recognizing how I cringe when upon hearing that I am American, people ask me about certain things.