So, do you ever have those moments where you're thinking about one thing and then that leads you another thought, which leads you to another one? And pretty soon, you're wondering what it was you were even thinking about in the first place? And then your head explodes?

That happened today, and I remembered back when I first got to site, I asked my co-teacher's daughter, who speaks impeccable English some questions from this cultural workbook that Peace Corps gave us because I'm a nerd like that. One of the interesting things that I asked her about was how non-Americans view Americans. According to a  Newsweek article from I don't know when, people from six countries-- France, Brazil, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, and Germany-- were asked to choose from a list of qualities those they most associated with Americans.

The list of qualities are:

Decisive
Industrious
Sophisticated
Greedy
Lazy
Energetic
Sexy
Intelligent
Nationalistic
Rude
Honest
Self-indulgent
Friendly
Inventive

I thought the four qualities most associated with Americans would be:

1. Friendly
2. Greedy
3. Inventive
4. Honest

And the four least associated with us...

1. Intelligent
2. Sexy
3. Sophisticated
4. Nationalistic

According to Newsweek, the top four were:

1. Energetic
2. Industrious
3. Inventive
4. Friendly

And the bottom four:

1. Lazy
2. Sexy
3. Honest
4. Sophisticated

My co-teacher's daughter's top three:

1. Energetic
2. Industrious
3. Greedy

Bottom three:

1. Lazy
2. Honest
3. Sexy

All of these results were actually better than I expected. I consider myself to be a fairly hardworking person, so I'm always really afraid that people are going to think of me as lazy. I have to justify every "lazy" activity I do to myself, like watching a movie. It's exhausting.