The Things You Learn In The South

So I've discovered some things living in the South that are quite different from back home.

1. Never ask for a pop. They won't know what you're talking about - here everything is Coke. Even Pepsi is still Coke. Soda is North and Pop is West - but Coke is the South. I learned this when I asked someone in the office for a pop and the whole office bust out laughing.








2. Tennessee must go through a lot of toilet paper - cause you can't find a paper toilet seat cover unless you find a nearby Starbucks (thank you Seattle). It seriously grosses me out that you can never find them in a public restroom of any kind. You should have seen how excited I got when I discovered they were in TJ Max - yessss!!!




3. Move Over Law - did you know that in Tennessee, when you pass a police car on the side of the road, you have to leave one lane between you and the officer's car or you will get a ticket? Years ago, this law was established when an officer was killed by a car as he was giving someone a ticket and ever since, you cannot drive in the lane next to a pulled over police car.





4. No Bingo! - The other day I asked one of the girls at work if she knew of any nearby Bingo halls and she said they're illegal in Tennessee. What.... Apparently, some government officials got caught taking kickbacks off bingo halls and were caught in the act and two of them committed suicide. Thereby outlawing bingo. Gambling has always been illegal, so you can forget about Casinos. Which I think is great, less temptation for people to throw their money away. Just until a few years ago, Tennessee allowed a state lottery.



5. Sonic - Sonic is the place to be for cold drinks and affordable food. It's a late night drive in, that reminds me when A&W used to serve food to us in our cars. But you won't find a Dicks in the South (man I miss those burgers!!) Jason's favorite is the cheese chili dogs and Diet Coke Cherry Limeades, my favorites are the fries, soft serve ice cream and Blue Coconut CreamSlush!



6. Rain - Is NOTHING like rain back home. Seattle is known for how much rain it gets, but in all reality, Nashville gets just as much rainfall a year as we did back home. BUT the difference is...it falls completely different! In Seattle the rain pittles down throughout the whole day...but in Nashville, people will leave the office early if its threatening rain, cause it will pour down to where you will be absolutely drenched in less than 2 minutes, along with crazy lightning and then the flash flood warnings are issued. Where I work downtown, I have to walk from the parking garage to the office and one morning it was raining. I couldn't figure out why everyone else was standing in the foyer of the garage. So thinking I knew rain, I walked outside with my little umbrella and by the time I got to the office, my light gray pants were now black and I was leaving a water trail in the elevators. Nice. I looked like I had jumped in a pool from the waist down and gone to work - I kid you not! If you wait it out 10 minutes, the rain & lightning will stop and the sun will come back out. It's strange. So lesson learned...NEVER get caught without a golf size umbrella in Nashville.

Those are some of my findings in Nasville :-)

Kim