the final countdown: the final 4

Things I've learned during my Fulbright year:
#10 - a lot about the English Language
#9 - there is such a thing as too much free time
#8 - riding your bike in the snow can be dangerous
#7 - missing your last train isn't always a bad thing
#6 - how to not be the student
#5 - German
#4 - I am a Georgia girl

This is a truth I have been trying to avoid for the past 13 years. Even though I wasn't born there, and didn't even move there till I was 11, I have spent over half my life in the state of Georgia. In fact, having been born in Nashville and never having moved north of the Mason-Dixon line, I don't know how I even managed to deny my southern-ness for as long as I did. 

I remember a similar thing happening during my year in Switzerland, only on a less specific scale. I've never felt more patriotic (Go 'murika) than I did that year. It wasn't that I was wearing red, white and blue everyday and singing Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" in the shower every morning. But instead of being annoyed or embarrassed when I ran into loud or obnoxious (or loudly obnoxious) Americans, I felt a little twinge of kinship - those are my loud and obnoxious people!

This year, however, seemed to go a bit further and awaken my southern belle. Although I still don't say "y'all", like grits, or believe the south will rise again, I have embraced my southern roots more than ever. I don't know if it was my group of very not southern American friends here or the fact that I was constantly asked to prepare lessons or talk about my home in the US, or maybe some weird combination of the two. But whatever it was, it's made me miss hearing a good southern drawl, the standard of southern hospitality and cold sip of sweet tea on a scorching summer day more than ever! 

I wonder if I'll still feel that why by the end of July...