I am an east coast Polish/German Catholic girl and my husband is a midwest German/American Indian Lutheran boy. He converted so religion isn’t a problem, but boy are things different between the midwest and the east coast!!! When I first moved to Illinois, I had a hard time because nobody ever invited me to join them when going to the movies or dinner, etc. Finally, I went off on some friends about how they never invite me and I was shocked to learn that you don’t wait for an invite around here, you just join in! Also, it seems that the small town I live in has very few ambitious people. I have heard things like: “We hope you finish high school…” and “if factory work was good enough for my dad, then it’s good enough for me and it’s good enough for my kid…” Totally foreign concepts to the way I was raised. I have just about (not just about… I have!) bankrupt myself to put the kids into good schools and there is no dropping out… because I want my kids to have choices and opportunities that I didn’t have.
Ohh… and food… totally different! Around Illinois chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes is comfort food… when I mentioned this to my family back east they said the same thing I did years ago when I heard this… too much starch!!! or wow, talk about carbs!
I miss east coast foods. That is probably the hardest part of moving here for me. You can’t get a good hoagie or cheesesteak to save your life around here… and soft pretzels… forget about it! The seafood is another thing. We had seafood places everywhere out east… I guess living within a few hours of the ocean does that!
As a reprieve to the food thing, I am lucky we have a guy from Japan working here whose wife loves to cook Japanese dishes (I love sushi!) and a Mexican guy that does too (he makes the best salsa and the best fajitas!)… at least I get variation! Ohhhh… and a boss from the east coast that is Italian… he makes the best meat sauce I have ever had…
