Stranger ins Strange Land
The project I’m on right now has me up in the Garden State. For those of you that don’t know your state mottos, that means I’m getting an introduction to New Jersey. I say introduction because I’ve never been here before. To be honest, the closest I’ve been to “New England” is Stubenville, Ohio.
It’s funny too, although it might not be funny to my friends and family back home. I was in line at A&P today. The lady at the checkout asked me if I had one of their cards. I didn’t of course since we don’t have A&Ps in the Nashville area. I told her this and jokingly asked her if they would take my Kroger card. We got to talking about the weather and the fact that it’s nicer here than it back home. I said that it’s probably not that often someone comes north for the good weather. We both shared a laugh and I left.
I’m saying all this so you’ll know why I was so amused when watching ER last week. They have a new RN, who is from Georgia. Of course everyone else makes fun of him saying “ya’ll” (or “y’all”, whatever). It makes me wonder if I’m getting any of the same treatment at my customer’s office. I know that I don’t really have much of an accent when I speak, but I have the vocabulary. I say “ya’ll” (or “y’all”, whatever), and “reckon”. I haven’t heard anyone talking about the way talk yet. But I wouldn’t be surprised.
So now as I get ready to head to the airport to return to Nashville, I have to say thank you to all the folks I’v encountered up here. Like I said it’s been my first trip to this part of the country. I have to say the courtesy and politeness of the people have completely changed my opinion of them as they have not met the stereotypes at all. So goodbye New Jersey. I hope I get to come back soon.
Technorati Tags: New Jersey, north, travel, work
December 5th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Yeah….That is supposed to be “Stranger in a Strange Land” of course. I’m not gonna fix it though. Flame away!
December 6th, 2006 at 6:17 am
Um, I’m not gonna flame on that one. But…
New Jersey isn’t really part of New England. Yes, the “old” Jersey is in the “old” England, but New Jersey is not in New England. Very confusing, I’m sure.
December 6th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Thanks for not flaming…
New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New England……They all sound the same to me….
December 6th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
What’s even more embarrassing than thinking New Jersey is part of New England? Correcting someone about that point and then, wrongly, saying that Jersey is part of England. It isn’t. It’s an island off the coast of Normandy. Yes, it’s a British dependency, but it’s not actually part of England. Mea culpa.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
You know…..Now that you’ve done your mea culpa…..I never said New Jersey was part of New England. I just mentioned that the closest I’d ever been to New England was Ohio. I was just using it a geographical reference point….Yeah that’ the ticket….
January 24th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
[...] Can I make another u-turn please? Published January 24th, 2007 in geek and web. A while back I talked about my visit to New Jersey (at the time I thought it was part of New England, little did I know it wasn’t). One thing I didn’t mention was the crazy directions I would get to go places from my hotel. I was there over a weekend, so I had to find a Mass to go to. The directions to the closest Catholic church the concierge attendant gave me seemed to have me going in circles. I mean I was literally on the same highway twice, each time going the opposite direction as the other time. But I got there and realized that the only way for me to get there was by following hat seemed like crazy directions at the time. I get the idea that this is common in the Garden State. Since that was my only trip though, I don’t know for sure. [...]