Guus Bosman

Yesterday I enjoyed a "Southern afternoon".

First off, the weather is amazing this weekend. Temperatures are in the mid-80's which is almost 30 degrees Celcius. In the Netherlands that's about as warm as it gets when it's a good summer day, and it's only March.

Since we moved to Durham I've been exploring the various local radio stations here. Lately I've been listening to two country music stations; 99.9 Genuine Country and 94.7 QDR. The latter has nice Americana music on Sunday evening, but most of the time these stations broadcast mainstream country music. It took me some time to get used to it but I enjoy listening to it.

I drove to Chapel Hill with the front seat windows of the car open, listening to songs such as "Sweet Country Music", "Tennessee River" and "Anyway" by Martina McBride.

I was on my way to a store in Chapel Hill that, appropriately, is called A Southern Season. I took an exit too early in Chapel Hill and on a parking lot I asked a friendly elderly lady for directions. She was very nice and told me that the store has a great reputation. She then asked me where I was from and said "Welcome to America!".

In the store I spent some time in the aisle with Indonesian condiments and an middle aged Southern lady asked me if I was "finding anything good". She said: "I like to hear you talking".