I've been busy the last couple days. I hope you
find this.

When I was in Australia I found the populace,
on the whole, to be very friendly, open, and laid
back. I began thinking "Man, Americans are
uptight". I seriously considered moving there
for a while, I liked it so much.

Reading this thread (this bit of it in particular),
however, has made me wonder if this
uptightness isn't actually more of a New
England characteristic, and I should spend
some time travelling about the U.S. before I
discard it for faraway continents.

That said, I'm glad Sam posted about the
differences in demeanor within New England.
He seems to be far more sensitive to such
subtleties than I.

A related fun fact: recently I watched a video on
dialects and accents within the U.S. (which
spoke about a lot of the stereotypes we have
about each other within our own country). Did
you know there are something like a dozen
distinct "American" accents in the Boston area
alone? That number might have been higher .
. . I can't recall, but it was phenomenal for
such a small area.

Best,
Dagmar