The Food
Oh man, the food. I grew up eating corn bread, drinking sweet tea, and having lots of different spices on my meals. Plus I was spoiled, I had a mother who cooked the majority of my meals. The South is famous for its comfort food, and for good reason. In Maine? It's all about boiled dinners, Italians (yes, there's a sandwich called an Italian), steak and potatoes. Very simple, down to the basics. It took me a while to adjust to this - and to find where I could find my own spices/flavorings. So far the only place I can find sweet tea is McDonald's - needless to say, this isn't nearly as good as the real thing!
The Accents
Every once in a while, my super strong Southern accent will pop out. Whoever I'm talking to will do a double take, and go - "...what did you just say?" In the South, the accents are slow compared to Maine's. Here in Portland, they don't pronounce their 'r's. For example: "I'm going to the car so I can pick up some lobster." = "I'm going to the cah so I can pick up some lahbstah."
No joke.
I remember when my mother first heard the accent, she turned to me and asked, "What country is he from?"
My reply? "New England."
The Music
Growing up in the South, I quickly grew a strong fondness for the blues and jazz. One of the first c.d.s my dad got for me was Louis Armstrong. Besides, not only is the birth place of both these genres, but the beginning of rock'n'roll. So it's a musical mecca. In Maine, it's all about alternative rock, metal, or indie rock. Which is fine - but I barely see any of the strong blues and jazz influences that reigned supreme in my home. It was quite a shocker. I mean - where were the bands that included BB King and Muddy Waters as their inspirations? This wasn't as much of an adjustment as an addition to the kind of music that I grew to enjoy - but it was definitely a huge change.
Family Dynamics
This was a huge one for me. My family pretty much almost always knows what's going on with its members, because the grape vine is just that strong. Some view as gossiping but I've always enjoyed it. I like getting a random text/email/call from a cousin saying: "Hey I heard this and this. What's up? You need anything?" Needless to say, we are all very tight knit.
Not to say that Northern families don't love and appreciate each other - or to say that they aren't as close. But from what I noticed, they don't talk about each other to the others as much. There's family gatherings, and hanging outtings from time to time. But there isn't that certain element of - for lack of a better term - Southern Comfort. There's a certain distance between cousins - where they're treated just like that, cousins, instead of basically 'sisters from another mister' or 'brothers from another mother'.
Like I said, I'm not trying to discredit Maine/Northern families, but there is a distinct difference.
Language
This is an obvious one. I usually call people, 'child' as a term of endearment or when I'm scolding that certain person; the majority of the time, however, it's the prior. A lot of people take offense to this because they think I'm insulting them when I'm actually doing the opposite. In Maine, everything seems to be so straight forward. No sugar talking, nothing. "This happened at this place, this time, end of story". This also goes hand in hand with the Southern tradition of story telling, which is probably why we use as many adjectives as possible when talking. We're also very fond of taking our times with talking, instead of - excuse the description - talking as if we're on meth. This is definitely one of the things that I had to adjust greatly with.
All in all, though - I'm glad that I've had the chance to live on both sides of the fence.
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