[ghc]

For reference: I lived in Midtown and went to Georgia Tech.

1. Highly visible poverty in the city, and frequent crime.

2. Frequent casual racism, even among students at GaTech.

3. Frequent extremest christian advertising, like preachers outside sporting events and aborted fetuses on billboards

4. Religion being a daily part of life for most people I met

There's a lot more that shocked me over the 5 years of living there and dating southern girls, but I still had fun...I just couldn't adjust. I'd never even seen an overt act of racism except on TV when I was growing up.

Also, keep in mind that when I moved to Atlanta, at 18, I'd seen a lot less of the world than I have now. Living in the South changed my perceptions a lot, and I'm now permanently more aware of my surroundings.