To be or not to be... An American?

When I first thought about our upcoming American Studies interview project, I could not decide whether or not to talk to my neighbor on the right from Thailand, my neighbor on the left from Pakistan or to my Jewish neighbor across the street.  Yesterday, I walked over to my Thai neighbor's house to ask if I could interview her for the project.  I walked up to the door, wrung the doorbell and waited for her to answer.  She did, and naturally we said hello.  She was standing there expectantly, waiting for me to say something. I slowly started to say, "In my American Studies class, we have been asked to interview Americans about their lives, and I was wondering if I could interview you."  She looked at me with a very confused look and questioned, "Americans?"  The next thing that she said was extremely interesting, "Ok... but... maybe you would want to interview my husband instead? He is the REAL American."  Her response took me by surprise and I did not know how to respond. I simply (but stupidly) agreed by nodding my head. As I turned around to head home, she laughingly added, "I hope it works out for you because his life was pretty boring!"  As you can probably imagine, this was not a very reassuring thought at the time.

Later that night, I was talking to my mom about what happened.  I was very frustrated because I had already written my interview questions for her specifically. Obviously, writing 4 pages about a boring man did not excite me. My mom told me to call my neighbor back and tell her that I wanted to do the interview with her and not her husband.  In the end, everything worked out and we have an interview set up for tomorrow after school. I am excited to interview her and to learn about her story.

I had always assumed that my neighbor considered herself American. My Dad told me that she had moved to the US from Thailand when she was very young.  Based on her strange response, either she was taken aback by the question, or she doesn't consider herself to be American.    

What makes someone "American"?  This woman is a US citizen and has lived in the US for the vast majority of her life, and yet it seems as if she doesn't consider herself as "one of us".  Is it possible to be a US citizen without being an American?  Is being an American a mindset?  Please comment below!