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Honestly, being from the Midwest (Michigan,) when I've visited the Northeast, I've experienced basically zero culture shock. There were a few minor things that seemed different - the Northeast is built up more with shorter distances between places, for example - but none of it really registered as shocking to me. When visiting the South, it seemed a little more different from what I'm used to than the Northeast, but still generally not anywhere near enough to register a culture shock.
The only place in the U.S. that I might have experienced culture shock was El Paso, Texas. That's because the terrain is completely different, the isolation is much more pronounced, and it's heavily influenced by Mexico. Still, if you ducked into an Applebee's or another similar establishment, it didn't seem that different at all.
I visited Dallas about thirty years ago, and that was a culture shock to someone coming from the northeast. I don't know if it's the same now, but back then it was like going to another country. All the men wore cowboy hats and cowboy boots, some very expensive made out of alligator and lizard and other critters. Also, when you stepped off a curb or something, a man would take your arm as if you were going to fall. It was polite and kind of nice, but we weren't used to that at first and wondered what they were doing grabbing our arms.
People tossed the "N" word about very freely, which was uncomfortable because that was something we'd get whacked for growing up in my house. Not that my parents knew any black people or my town had any, but it was considered wrong and on par with swearing.
And of course, EVERYONE had guns. Even the mother of the friend we were visiting had one in her purse. I had never known anyone who had a gun before except my uncle and grandfather, who had hunting rifles. It made me a little nervous that every so often, someone was pulling out a gun and waving it around. One guy got angry at his girlfriend while we were there and went into the house and shot his kitchen floor.
We were 23, and all the girls our age at our friend's apartment complex were on their second marriage and had two or three kids already.
And the other thing I remember is that it seemed as if the worst insult someone could use against another was to call them "ignorant". They would describe this person or that person as ignorant, and that person's parents were ignorant, and so and so was a nice guy but he had married a woman who was ignorant.
The biggest disappointment was that the beef tasted like sh**. I was expecting burgers and steaks to be REALLY good, since this was Dallas and there's all that cattle country out there, and we went out for burgers and they tasted like dog food. We mentioned this to our friend's mother, who was a native Texan, and she said, "Oh, you can get good beef at certain restaurants where it's very expensive, but mostly they sell the good stuff to Chicago and serve the lower-grade beef down here."
No, no, I would also. It's the idea that if the person ACCEPTS, they were wrong to do so. From what the other poster was saying, when someone offers you the last cookie or the best room or whatever what they are REALLY saying is that THEY want it, and you are supposed to know that and politely refuse the offer.
Nah, I don't play that game. If I offer, I am glad when the other person accepts. It's less calories for me that way.
I think anybody from rural New England would experience culture shock in a state that is highly urban and highly minority. So If you're from Vermont, you'd probably experience more culture shock in New York than you would in South Dakota.
Every time I visit SoFla, I'm always reminded of how different it is from everywhere else. And not just Miami, I'm talking West Palm and Fort Lauderdale also.
Every time I visit SoFla, I'm always reminded of how different it is from everywhere else. And not just Miami, I'm talking West Palm and Fort Lauderdale also.
S. Fl has one of if not the most unique/odd urban layouts of any major metro area in the country. Outside of Miami proper, which is on the very southern extension of the very large metro area.....it is all suburbia; but not sprawling suburbia...super dense suburbia. Super dense suburbia on a very narrow strip of land with no real downtown core to be "a suburb" of. I'd imagine S. Fl probably has just about the highest proportion of people who were born somewhere else of any major metro area.... maybe only edged out by Las Vegas. And also from such a limited geographical area (almost all from the northeast).
When I visited South Carolina I thought it was funny no one would walk across a street unless the little light walker guy turned green, no matter how far the next car was from you.
Also there was no horns blaring, and people drove slow.
Also at every store the clerk would talk to you, and it was awkward because there was nothing to talk about.
Having originally come from NH, I found GA to be quite the culture shock, the outer suburbs of Atlanta included. Very socially conservative and very religious.
I am still amazed that you can still pump your gas before paying down south. To me that is a shock,as well as all the flea markets, the painfully slow drivers and as well as all the church talk .
S. Fl has one of if not the most unique/odd urban layouts of any major metro area in the country. Outside of Miami proper, which is on the very southern extension of the very large metro area.....it is all suburbia; but not sprawling suburbia...super dense suburbia. Super dense suburbia on a very narrow strip of land with no real downtown core to be "a suburb" of. I'd imagine S. Fl probably has just about the highest proportion of people who were born somewhere else of any major metro area.... maybe only edged out by Las Vegas. And also from such a limited geographical area (almost all from the northeast).
But even with all the transplants, if you go to any predominantly African-American city/neighborhood in South Florida, the habitants of those neighborhoods are overwhelmingly native Floridians/Southerners. The vestiages of Southern culture are alive and well in the predominantly Black towns in South Florida. So it's diffierent in that sense.
And you're correct in the fact that there are alot of Suburban bedroom towns in South Florida with no real "Downtowns" to be found, just a super-dense clutter of plaza's, strip-malls, and LOTS and LOTS of appartment complexes(Lauderhill is a PRIME example of this). But then again, there are "independent" cities in South Florida that by urban logic would be considered "suburbs" of Miami that are in the above counties(Palm Beach County, and Broward County) BUT, the catch is, they have they're own LEGIT downtowns, vibrant neighborhoods, and bus/trolley transit, etc. And most of those towns are on the coast. These cities include West Palm, Fort Laderdale, etc.
Then there's the entirety of Miami-Dade County. A decent number of the in-land, surrounding bedroom communities in Dade County actually have their own downtowns, town-centers, etc. Dade County differs from the Counties North in that these vibrant towns are in-land rather than coastal like they would be in the Counties North of Dade County.
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If I offer, I am glad when the other person accepts. It's less calories for me that way. 
