I may go to school in Michigan, but I am no where close to being a native. I was born and raised in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, but I have spent a good part of the past ten years in and out of Michigan. Throughout my time in the mitten state, I have had to learn a lot of terminology specific to Michigan. Here are some of those words or sayings that I have accumulated over the years that Michiganders say that I simply don't understand.

Party Store.

This has to be the most deceiving of them all and to this day, I don't understand this one. When one thinks of a party store, I would assume everyone thinks of stores like Party City, where they sell candy, balloons, and costumes. However, this is not the case in Michigan. When I first heard someone going to a "party store" to buy a case of beer, I thought they were talking about Party City, and I thought to myself "that was a lit Party City." I was sadly mistaken. When you hear a Michigander refer to a "party store", they are in fact referring to a liquor store.

FIP/FOP.

Now this may just be a Western Michigan saying, but it is something I have heard in Michigan nonetheless. FIP stands for "F'n Illinois Person" and FOP is a "F'n Ohio Person". It's meant to be a derogatory term toward Illinoisans and Ohioans, because we're both an hour behind Michigan. Some of my co-workers like to use the term FIP, because it is rather aggravating (and I agree) that Illinoisans don't adjust to the time zone that they're in and just expect everyone to adjust to their time zone.

U-Turns/Michigan Lefts

To this very day, U-turns make absolutely no sense to me. Almost all of Michigan is made up of a divided highway system, and you have to go out of your way to make this U-turn to make a right. It would be a lot simpler in my opinion if the highway system were two way so you could just make one turn instead of two.

It's "Mackinaw", Not Mackinac.

I fell victim to the mispronunciation of Mackinac when I first arrived in the Mitten state, and I cringe every time someone pronounces the island as "Mackinac". Just for future reference, it ends in an "-aw" not an "-ac".

Caldean.

This word was also pretty bizarre and took me a minute to figure out what it actually meant. If you hear a Michigander say the word "Caldean", they are referring to someone of Middle Eastern or Indian ethnicity.

Meijers/Krogers.

This one really annoys my family. The two main chains of grocery stores in Michigan are Meijer and Kroger. However, a large portion of Michiganders like to add an "s" to the end of the grocery chain, unnecessarily pluralizing it. It is one singular grocery store, not two or three.

Up-North.

This can literally mean anywhere north of where you're staying or living in Michigan.

Coney Island.

This is a popular hot dog chain in Michigan that claims to do the best "New York" style hot dogs. I think this is highly overrated. Cross the border into Illinois and go to a Portillo's.

Now this is not me bashing on the awesome state of Michigan; this is just a way for me to poke a little fun at the state that I have come to know and love.