I had the chance to live overseas in New Zealand for 6 months. It was an expereince I will never forget. Because of that I'm open to many more cultures than most people. I'm not going to say I didn't step in it a time or two, but I really try to respect other cultures. I can't say the same for many people, including my own parents.
I'm the first person in my family to move out of the county in 3 generations. I'm the first in the family to live outside of the USA without being in the military.

To be honest the only time we ran into someone who didn't like "yanks" was a guy who just didn't like anybody. He told my husband off for missing the recycle bin with his soda bottle. My husband was in the middle of picking it up when the guy let in on him.
My only problem was trying to explain to the kiwi's around me that yes I lived in Texas but I'm not Texas. I have a slight texan accent, but I loose it real quick when I'm out of the state. I'm Ozarkian, and proud of it. Some of them had a hard time understanding that Boston'ers, new yorker-er's, Texans, southerners, californian's , michicans, and midwesterns all have different accents from each other. They all have a different culture of their own. When I went to an "American's in New Zealand" social event i felt out of place. I had more cultural differences with them than I did with my kiwi classmates.

One thing I remember after we came back to the states we were on vacation at a Disney park. It happened we ran into a kilted Kiwi gentelman. He told us he was glad for a 'friendly' face here in the states. Apparently some one reported him for inapropriate apparel in a disney park. And it wasn't for his kilt. It was due to him wearing an All Blacks Rugby Tee. It read "All Blacks for the win for over 100 years." Or something along those lines. I was mortified for my own culture. He changed into a disney tee, but it still ruined his day at the parks.

Almost any day I would rather share stories over a pint with any scottsman, brit, irishman, Kiwi or Aussie then many of the guys in my office. One thing all of them know, is what makes a good dark beer.