People always say how the culture is different living in the south compared to living in the north. I never thought this would be true. How different could it really be? But when I moved from Chicago to Charleston, for college, I experienced some culture shock that I was not prepared for.

Being raised in a suburb outside of Chicago, all I wanted as a kid was to grow up and move somewhere new. Anywhere would do, and by the time junior year of high school rolled around I started looking at schools on the east coast. The southeast seemed like the perfect place for me. It had beautiful weather, beaches, southern gentlemen, and more. What could go wrong? As much as I love living in the south, it was not as easy as I thought to make the transition of moving to the other side of the Mason-Dixon line.

On my first visit, the beauty of the Low Country mesmerized me. No other school compared and I only wanted to go to The College of Charleston. However, over the past two years there has been a lot of culture shock that any northerner -- or Midwesterner, in my case -- will experience when living in the south. Luckily for me, my roommate grew up in Atlanta and moved to South Carolina in high school, so I had someone to show me the ropes.

It was move in day before sorority recruitment. My roommate and our families were all meeting for the first time and helping us set up our room. I was caught off guard when I heard my new roommate reply to a question from my mother by saying “Yes, Ma’am.” If I said that to any woman back home I’d get a swift, “Ma’am? Please do not call me that!” Where I’m from, women call that “getting ma’am’d”, and it is not a good thing. That is the first sign that you’re starting to look older and, naturally, it is very rude to tell a woman she looks old. It was extremely uncomfortable for me the first time I said the word out loud to a woman. I expected to get an evil look following the utterance, but I’ve eventually become accustomed to this as a sign of respect. 

The first day of sorority recruitment came along and we were all introduced to the Panhellenic Board during orientation. I immediately noticed something strange. I leaned over to my roommate and pointed out how I thought it was so strange that the whole board was wearing similar sandals. She just stared at me with a look of confusion, and then realized I was serious and said, “You don’t know what Jack Rogers are?” After, she explained about the wickedly expensive designer sandals that I had never heard of before I began to see them everywhere around Charleston. Eventually, this northerner caved and bought herself a pair -- on sale.

Later in the semester came the best time of the year -- football season! Even though College of Charleston doesn’t have a football team, my roomie and I made plans to go to the University of South Carolina vs. Georgia game. It was going to be the biggest game of the year. We planned drivers, gas money, and sleeping arrangements. When my roommate asked what I planned on wearing I told her my new jean shorts and I was going to go buy a USC t-shirt. 

“Oh, no, you can’t wear that!” 

“But we’re going to a football game.” 

“No, you have to wear a dress” 

“But we’re going to a football game.”

As it turns out, she was right. We got there and it was the strangest football tailgate I had ever seen. I think I was the only girl for miles that was not wearing a black or red dress and cowgirl boots. Needless to say, I felt out of place.

At the football game I learned another lesson. The phrase, “bless your heart,” is not at all a term of endearment. Almost every person to whom I explained why I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt replied with a painfully sarcastic, “Oh, darlin,’ bless your heart.” It took a couple times of hearing it to catch on that these people were not telling me how sweet I was, but in fact pitying me for not knowing the ways of the south.

Finally, I will probably never be okay with the fact that whenever I specifically request iced-tea for a beverage at any restaurant I will somehow end up drinking sweet-tea. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some southern sweet-tea, but there are times when I just want either plain iced-tea or “sweetened” iced-tea (which is very different than sweet tea) and that has proven near impossible to get in the south.