Minnesota Nice vs. Southern Hospitality

The other day we went to lunch with a family that Jessica goes to church with and the wife mentioned how nice people were up here; they call it "Minnesota Nice." She is also from Alabama, although she hasn't lived there for a while, and so she knows about southern hospitality. She went on to talk about how nice people are up here and how they go above and beyond whenever you ask them a favor. Now, don't get me wrong, the people up here are extremely nice, but I had to ask a southerner or a minnesotian (if it's a word) a favor, I'd choose the southerner any day.

The thing would be people in Minnesota will do anything for you, but you almost have to know them before you could even ask. In the south, if anyone even thought you needed anything, they'd do it before you could even ask. Take for example someone dropping papers: in Georgia the first person to see you would stop what they were doing to help you pick them up; in Minnesota, maybe the fifth person might stop or the first person that knew you. The other day I was walking from the bus to work and passed about 20 people and maybe one person looked me in the eye to say good morning; at home I would have said good morning at least 15 times. It is a rare occurrence when someone holds the door open for me. So even though people up here in Minnesota are nice, they've got nothing on a southerner.

* side note: a few of the people I work with have to ask me to repeat myself two or three times because they have trouble understanding my "slight accent"