Any given person would define my town as a city. We have an awesome downtown area, a great nightlife, and the traffic to match--not to mention the squished-in population and huge hoards of tourists. I guess, at first, people kind of take that to heart: A lot of our new students' parents get worried about their kids living in a "city environment," not only because of the crime (which we do have), but because of how overwhelming they think it might become.

This whole city knows damn near everyone. If you're out there for more than a couple days, you'll have a network bigger than what you'll know to do with. We have movie nights in the giant local park with all our favorite vendors (and yes, the whole city loves very specific vendors), and we have amazing restaurants with photos up of all their favorite guests--and some of these places give their frequent customers free drinks, pasta, and whatever else they feel like. We sit down and talk to our guests, at the bed and breakfasts. We hear stories about depression, and marriage, and childbirth, and a billion other things that you wouldn't expect to hear from strangers. You can run into anyone you know, in the shopping district--even people you didn't know were visiting. Even when you're also just visiting. And city people walking around the busy streets always remember to smile when they make eye contact with a passerby, because that's just us.

That's the south.

I used to think that my life was meant to be spent in New York City, or San Francisco, or somewhere...you know. Big. Busy.

There's just something to being able to sit out on the piazza in a big rocker, a glass of sweet (and I mean sweet) tea to the side, katydids whirring all around, and watch the sun go down. It's slower, here. People smile and make conversation and get involved with strangers' lives and conversations. We are what we drink--extra sweet.

And I don't think I appreciate it enough, sometimes.

I've never been to the south. I'm not sure I'd get the same experience from it as you though, being asian and all.
» randomjunk on 2013-04-05 03:54:40

Where do you live again?

I've never really been to the South. I've been in the Atlanta airport tons of times, and I went to Tallahassee once, but I've never really been to the REAL South. I'd like to go. See some awesome trees with Spanish moss and such.

I had a friend from Massachusetts who was doing voter registration down south and he said that it was wonderful but also really frustrating because you'd visit like four houses a day because at every house the people would ask you in and offer you sweet tea and chat with you for an hour. ;)
» Zanzibar on 2013-04-05 04:49:22

My folks are from the south (more accurately, western-ish Texas). I have lived in Kansas City area my whole life (parents moved up here for my dad's job before I was born). I've always wanted to go down and stay in Austen or some place for a time (as well as other places like ...IRELAND.) The friendly-ness of society down there is part of what I find attractive; that, and I'd like to just know about my roots and the romanticized idea of the cowboy and whatnot.
» invisible on 2013-04-08 04:01:47

south sounds fun. we are where we are now for a reason...
» renaye on 2013-04-08 08:53:29

this entry makes me nostaligic and wistful for aspects of the culture i extoll in defense of the region.

that said, living in a small community can be a nightmare.. the whole everyone knows everyone thing gets old when you do want to just get the fuck away and be anonymous. also, having everyone know everyone's business can oftentimes become oppressive and a bit encapturing.. on the flipside, the big city life ain't all that great either...

I'm not sure which I'll go to after grad school.
» undisputed on 2013-04-13 09:48:09

:)

Makes me miss living on the Alabama Gulf Coast.
» Amelie on 2013-04-18 11:32:02

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