Caitrin -

You're certainly right there! Once again I seem to have put my foot in my mouth - in turn, I did not mean to imply that Southerners were all loud, arrogant or difficult! I think it is just an amusing phenomenon. And you're very right about the cultures within the US... It's a huge country, full of different people and different ways that never ceases to surprise me.

I have a friend from your area of NC (I think) near Bryson City, and I've seen him react interestingly to our Northern ways... I tease him about his southern drawl, which comes out when he's tired, drunk, or reading Shakespeare (!), and he teases me that my skin's so pale! (He's Choctaw.) Someday I'd love to see his home...

-J