Sioux Falls, South Dakota
11-06-2015, 05:43 AM
Pack cowboy boots in 'yer pickup truck, and wear a cowboy hat! Well, not really - that's the Western half of South Dakota (and the center) that's real ranching style. Sioux Falls is in the eastern half, and has more in common with the farms and farm living of Iowa, Western Minnesota, and NE Nebraska!
Still, Sioux Falls IS the Big [enough] City for locals.
People marry young here. If you go out on the weekend or get lucky in bars, then count on meeting the separated or divorced. (Think of any number of old country songs!)
This time of year, the weather can change rapidly from cold to warm and the reverse. Weather is always an interesting topic for opening with anyone. Segue to being a visitor and being interested in seeing or doing something sociable or notable.
I actually like SoDak.
A long-time GF from Minneapolis used to visit there because her ex-BF was a radio DJ in Sioux Falls; we even passed through there, while traveling together. Another brief GF did medical school there, at the University of South Dakota.
I would go there, the USD campus and wander nearby, if not on campus itself, and look for social opps. Find any sociable crowds, from the food court or the campus bookstore, asking visitor-type questions. It's a public university of 200-ish acres. Find amenities close to campus, or else towards downtown, about two miles away, and enjoy the fall colors of the Big Sioux River valley, which is even closer.
I've spent a night in Sioux Falls (or nearby) many times while crossing the 'Big Empty' (as geographers label it - "U" or "V" shaped region of lowest population density in the US and Canada, with a line drawn from Denver to Omaha forming its base).
Now, you are well-travelled, more interesting, and have a classic, darker, more "ethnic look:" people may well find you and your stories more interesting than their own. YOU will likely liven up things for them just by being yourself!
Literacy and education is valued here, despite relative isolation. And travel - and you are exceptionally well-travelled! Let drop some place-names and hold forth, as you like.
(To the South and the West is Lincoln, Nebraska - which is actually a similarly sized town to Sioux Falls, but with a significantly larger university - and a lot more fun! I attended a summer session there to audition a PhD mentor. I loved the people and place! [Well, not the mentor.] One of my new friends was a native born and PhD educated New Yorker, as well as an English prof at the University of Arkansas, taking her first sabbatical. She fell in love with the cultural and social stimulation of Lincoln and "UNL," going all-out and buying ALL of the University of Nebraska booster wear! OK - Off topic, I know - but I want to tout the highest potentials of the Big Empty, and Lincoln is that place. Sioux Falls is maybe two steps down. Because if a New Yorker finds it FUN there....it must be outsized and exceptional!)
People work hard and go to bed early. Even on weekends. THIS is classic flyover country - the locals feel more inferior than they should.
There is a uniformity of ethnic, northern European backgrounds. You will strike the curious as...SPICY and appealing! Because, in this realm, different is good - and exotic, more exciting.
THINK simple, THINK middle class tastes, and THINK rural - the locals will be open and friendly! If you try 'n FEEL a little country (fake it, if you must) - and you might enjoy visiting SoDak, too.
“There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship. We pledge allegiance to one flag, and that flag is the American flag!” -DJT