New Orleans, LA The roads around New Orleans and southern Louisiana are intense! Because the city is below sea level, the roads are warped, making a car bounce up and down over the swells like riding large, gentle speed bumps. It doesn't seem to bother the locals, though; they float right over them, consistently going about five miles under the speed limit. Life absolutely moves slower in the south. It sounds like a terrible stereotype, but after being down here I can start to understand why it is that southerners consider northerners to be horribly cold and impersonal. I can see it in myself and in Laura, and find myself considering our social rules and lifestyle from a different perspective. We northerners are hospitable in our own way, and definitely make connections and feel emotion and camaraderie, but to an outsider, we must seem so formal and aloof.