That's... stereotypical!!

The negative world perspective of Americans....................

Lazy
Rich
Ignorant
Party animals
Want to be world leaders
Proud

A lot of these stereotypes are created from people observing the media. The U.S is a massive producer of T.V shows, movies, music, books, world news, etc. All of our media is spread about the whole world, especially Europe. When watching let's say... Mean girls, they could get the idea that most American High Schools are like that. They watch us on the news and hear Obamas speeches, they suddenly assume that we are way proud and want too much world power.
They look at our schooling system. Out of the 30 modern countries in the world, U.S is ranked 25th in education. They suddenly assume we're stupid, lazy and ignorant and put all our money into war and not schooling.
They watch our T.V shows, like for example: The O.C, or desperate house wives, etc. suddenly we're really wealthy and love to party.
I think media plays the biggest role, honestly.

I kind of started talking crap about our country. We know most of us aren't like that.... and Europeans usually don't look down on us quite that much. From what I can tell, most of them like us... at least the slightest bit.

How can I explain and respond to negative stereotypes while in Germany?
Just represent myself the best I can be. Be myself, is probably the most important. Represent the U.S as a well-rounded diverse country and just explain my culture to them, answer questions, etc. The thing about the U.S and Germany is that everyone is so diverse... A lot of Americans do fit the stereotypes but a lot don't and one can't make another change their thinking. "You can lead a man to reason, but you can't make him think"- someone said that.

I feel as though my writing is faltering. Oh well.