Southern Snippets

Here are some things I have learned about the South:

-Refer to The People of WalMart website. It really is true.

-The locals- so far- are really nice. All three of them. This list includes the women in the housing office on base (civilians) and the barista at the coffee shop.

-The accents differ. You can understand the white people. Not so much the black people. They tend to combine all of the words in their sentence into one long word with no annunciation.

-THE SUN IS OVERRATED. Really. It is SO FREAKING HOT HERE.

-I don't mind bugs. I really don't. But the bumblebees are GIGANTIC. Same with the grasshoppers.

-"Lake" means something totally different here. You can't really swim in them because they are dirty (well, more just murky, I don't want to make it sound like they are polluted). Plus, there are alligators. YAY!

-If you see a sign that says "Ferry," this does not mean a Puget Sound-like ferry boat is awaiting you. It means boat ramp/marina.

-The people here can't drive. I'm not really sure why. They aren't all that bad, per say, just really slow. Say a they are turning left on a solid green light. In order for them to turn, there has to be no cars coming. No cars at all. When they do turn, they turn really slowly. Cari and I saw this multiple times. And they don't really let people into lanes if you have your turn signal on. So I haven't seen anyone do anything all that stupid (yet), they're just slow drivers.

-They move slower than city folk. This isn't rude-let me explain. The lady at the housing office went to go make us copies. While she was doing this, she also stopped to talk to someone, and when she made the copies, didn't move all that fast. This isn't a bad thing, really, it's just the way they do things down here. They aren't in a hurry- and neither are their customers. So it's not that they're "stupid" or anything, it's just their culture. I think we could all learn from this, everyone up north is always in such a rush. Just take a breath and relax and enjoy some extra down time! This is something that I actually LIKE about the south and will not need to get used to.

-They have farmer's markets down here too! So excited to go to the local one, and it's here 3 times a week! Yippee!