I grew up in the heart of New York City, in a 650 square foot apartment, never more than a subway ride away from my desired destinations. The first time I ever moved out of my cozy home and my cozy life was to Southern Virginia for college. I became more of a visitor, more than a tourist, but not as much as a local. Here are ten of the things I've learned:

1. Cities and towns are not at opposite ends of the spectrum.

My campus is, in fact, located in a city, not a town. When I called it a town, the person I was talking to got more than a bit annoyed. In my defense, I hail from a monster of a city, so I'm a bit jaded. In my mind, you have a city with a couple million people, then the suburbs outside the city with a smaller number of people in a more spread-out area, then towns would be even more spread out and even smaller. I just missed a memo in the process. But isn't a city supposed to have a significant amount of sidewalks?

2. The top three modes of spirituality go Football, actual religion, and Sweet Tea.

Basketball during March almost made the list, but not quite--at least in my experience. Where are you even going to put a football stadium in New York?? Even the Giants play in Jersey. I'm also from a more artsy community so I missed the whole craze--even in public school I only did track because they had some snacks after practice. Support for football teams tends to be a more regional thing, you might like or dislike a team from outside your state, but in-state it's much more personal.

I'm more of an herbal tea sort of girl, but I'd see kids come to high school with a can of Arizona iced tea most days. We just called it "Iced Tea" and it came in a can. That's not the case. There is definitely a right and a wrong way to make iced tea, and step one is to understand the difference between Sweet Tea and regular Iced Tea. I'd like to think that the Boston Tea Party would have gone differently if it were in the Virginia. They probably would have also dumped lots of sugar as well and sat on the deck talking smack about the British.

3. Older Southern women have a great talent of insulting someone and making it sound like a compliment.

I've never seen anything like it. The best example I've heard is "He's so dumb, he could throw himself at the ground and miss, bless his heart." This is the highest tier of sass, and I know in my heart that I will never ascend to this level. Southern manners are so important, so once you have managed to be kind to someone while simultaneously insulting them, you have completely transcended. There are lots of hon's, honey's, sweetie's, and darlin's thrown into everyday speech, and *gasp* people actually smile at you. It's so ingrained in my nature not to make eye contact with strangers unless you are directly interacting with them, so I can't fathom smiling at everyone on a regular basis. I think I'd like parallel-universe me to be a old southern woman who wears Lily Pulitzer, drinks sweet tea, and who is both sweet and snarky.

4. It is not uncommon to see a white pickup truck with the Confederate and American flags flying on the back.

Fun fact: the Confederate flag you're thinking of isn't even the original conception. I'm also curious what the practicality of having two full-size flags on the back of your truck is. Do they ever get washed? What happens if one of them falls off? Are the flags only used for special occasions, or are they there all the time? Does one or both of the flags ever get stolen? In Texas do they fly the Confederate and the Texas flags in this pairing or the American and Texan flags? This last question is because I read that Texas is the only state where the state flag is flown at the same height as the American flag.

5. Loyalty is hugely important.

I'm so used to a revolving door of people in my life--friends move in and out, I go to school in different places, things and relationships change. But I'm really awed by how if you're close to someone, you stay close. Family, friends, neighbors, there's this consensus of loyalty that I'm not used to. I've seen people move apart or grow apart, but they still keep in contact or even stick up for the people they don't much care for, because they did at one point. Maybe I'm cynical, but I'm so used to getting close to the people that are in my life right now, and then when or if the connection is lost, it's just dropped. You might keep in contact with some people, so if you see them you can grab pizza or coffee, and then you just part ways and go back to the other people in your life. That's not the case, from what I've seen at school in the south. Many of my friends still see or Facebook chat with the friends they've had since they were eight. The best friend that I've had since I was eight and I don't talk like that anymore, but we do have a pact to get food and spend hours catching each other up on our adventures when we're both back in the city.

Even though I miss good bagels and people think I'm a Satanist when I sing the Carmel car service theme song (six six six, six six sixty siiiiix...the numebr SIX!), I've learned a lot from living a thousand miles away from home. The funny thing is how I've found a new home, and I'm going to miss it.