[Versus]

Suddenly I realized that I had just presented myself before an international clan! Wow. I wasn't prepared for that. Thanks!

True. Since I've never done this before, the first thing I thought was, "Wow, I'd better behave myself like a good little girl." The second was, "Yikes! I'm American! There are Americans that are doing nasty things in other countries, making the rest of us look bad!" We don't get the most accurate news over here, so we don't always know what's going on. It's sort of nationalist here (although it was Much worse when Bush was president), so even though I may not go out of my way to prove myself to anyone, that doesn't mean I'm not conscious of how we might look to the rest of the world.
As for me, well, I'm not "bad" or "good". I'm just me, of course. However, Isaloween, it's nice to be reminded of that once again.

I'm pretty sure the things Americans do to themselves are significantly worse, and that they didn't need any help from those "other" Americans to look bad.