Isolationism

My roommate tried to explain to me today that he had never really connected with an American. (Take into account that he has lived with 3 of them besides me and is comparing us to countless German, French, Scandinavian, Australian and other extranjero roommates). He said there was a border, or maybe a better translation is a wall, that just didn't get crossed. That he felt like he never knew them completely.

His explanation included a quite beautiful example. "You know how you were sick this week? When the German girl was sick she vomited on me." Gross, yes. But I got his point. (I think, anyway;) He was demonstrating the necessity of depending on other people in certain situations. He said basically that Americans don't show their more vulnerable side. That we are always politically correct. Granted all of this is translated from what I think I understood, but we talked about this for probably half an hour, and what I know I'm not confused about is that he was saying we are guarded in a way that others aren't.

When I lived in Europe, it was very apparent to me that there was much more of a group mentality among my friends from various countries. But I never considered that we might somehow be excluded from a certain level of intimacy because of a persistent independence inherent to American culture.