Does everyone in America eat hamburgers???

No.  They don't. 

Two weeks ago, I had to interview 160 students (40 students per class period) so they can practice their conversation ability.  For the third year students, I had to ask "Have you ever been to any foreign countries?"  "If not, where would you like to go?"

* Students who responded they want to go to 'America' (USA), had some interesting reasons. 
----they want to eat hamburgers and hot dogs

Kid. You. Not. 

Many of the students want to try 'BIG hamburgers'.  Once I told them that it is not healthy to eat those burgers, they told me they didn't care.  I was appalled. 

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I have been in Hiroshima for about 6 weeks now.  My Japanese is decently fluent enough to carry on a conversation beyond introductions.  After talking to many teachers, families, students, and new friends, I have discovered that many people have this image of U.S. that is ,,, well, untrue.
I often have to stop and rephrase "In America, I blah blah blah blah" to "SOME people in US blah blah blah blah, but I like to blah blah blah blah."  Who knows?  I may be the only US citizen some people will ever encounter.  If I have to eliminate one stereotype at a time, I'll do it.  This also goes for the untrue believes of Hong Kong.  One of my host moms were shocked that we eat rice in Hong Kong. 

^ If I say, "my practice teaching school had about 3500 students."  Then the person will think "Oh wow, American schools have many students!"
^ During meals, I have to tell my host mothers that "don't worry!  I will eat anything!"  Not everyone in the US dislike seafood, tea, or seaweed. 

^ And no, not every US college student works hard for five years and doesn't have a tv... 

I've had to thoroughly describe and discuss about the U.S. and Hong Kong to many people.  General topics include: education, government, food, weather, religion, "freedom", alcohol, media, fashion, and the arts.  All the topics discussed will take about ten more posts, therefore, I'll wait.  Plus, I hate generalizing.  To avoid any mistakes, I want to reflect on these confusions, gather more information, ask more people, and take time to reorganize my thoughts.

Upon arriving Hiroshima, many people asked me about their assumptions of Japan.  I myself too had some influenced assumptions based on people I've met or books/articles I've read. 

At this point, I feel like it is safe to say: it is impossible to make a true and honest assumption on a town/city/state/country until he/she has stayed there for a significant amount of time with deep cultural understanding of values and believes; one should not make any assumptions at all based on a second-hand experience because it will always be different based on the person, place, and situation. 
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Finally, my 'must' share.   :)
I keep meeting people who have high respect for teachers and the arts.
Today, my third host mother said this to me before I moved to my next homestay....

"Ingy, you must work hard and become a great music teacher.  I think music and education, are very important to people."

Let's just say, I cried instantly. 
It meant more than she could ever imagine.

My host mom's awesome cooking.  I don't know half of what I ate, but it was GREAT!