Culture Shock: some things about the South

• People really and honestly are ... surprisingly friendly.  It's not that there aren't lovely chatty clerks with senses of humor, and neighbors who want to hear all about how you're doing now you moved in, in California -- but here it's almost everybody.
• The weather is much nicer than I was expecting.  When we flew back to house-hunt, I thought it was miserable beyond belief.  But it turns out I was not admitting to myself that I was really, really sick so it seemed worse than it was.  Also, it was in the middle of a heat wave.
• The hurricanes that hit the coast in North Carolina cause even nicer weather to happen in upstate SC -- we get nice cool dry breezes.  I feel vaguely guilty about this.
• I sort of expected to go through ethnic-food deprivation, especially because the girl at one of the visitor's centers said that we'd just have to get used to fried-and-barbecued everything all the time.  But they've got a lot of stuff.  Everything I'm accustomed to eating and much, much more.  They have Asian food brands at our local Ingles I've never seen before -- including some culinary soup broths I can't wait to experiment with.
• Nobody sells 4x6 recipe cards anymore.  Admittedly this is not really a thing about the South but a thing about everywhere, but what is up with that?
• It was worth moving just for Hobby Lobby.  They carry everything.  Jewelry supplies I usually have to special-order, at great prices.  And then there's a leathercrafting aisle and a doll house aisle, which always makes me salivate over the charm potential.  Relatedly, apparently M has always wanted a dollhouse.  I think one day I'll get her one of these.  Anyway:  Hobby Lobby.  Awesome.
• Cracker Barrel's idea of vegetables pleases me.
• Geraniums seem to do well here, judging by other people's balconies.  The landscaping up by our loan office/community center heavily features impatiens and lavender.  We have full northern exposure on our deck, but I have been researching native woodland species that won't mind.  Next spring, when I'm here for good and the frost (they have this thing called frost here) is mostly past, I intend to plant Jack-in-the-pulpit and wood anemones and probably some fennel.  I wanted a Passiflora but they're invasive in Georgia and we're all of twenty minutes from Georgia.  I am passionflowerless.  This is a source of sorrow.
• Our milk has a slightly stronger flavor.  It's not just one brand, either, it's pretty much all of it.  It's tasty, just different.
• In and near Anderson County, you can easily get hand-gathered eggs, giant jars of dark rich honey from bees kept by a dad and his two daughters, blue cheese made in Clemson University's dairy thirty minutes away by slow truck, and more local preserves than you can shake a slice of bread at.  Squee.
• Oh, God the bugs.  They're everywhere.
• They refer to cockroaches as "water bugs" in the South.  I could have gone my whole life without knowing that.
• Life just generally happens a little slower.  It's nice.
• My upstairs neighbors are generally quiet, but today they're either autumn-cleaning or moving furniture.
• Beadless and shoeless and chairless and at loose ends as I find myself, I am so, so glad to be here.