

if you visit Minneapolis or St Paul (“the twin cities”… in Minnesota) let me know. I can give you some good recommendations on places to go. (if you want to be outside, dress accordingly. I like camping at the Zumbro Bottoms, there’s also Itasca State park, which is the headwaters for the Mississippi.) (the cherry on a spoon is a must see, though maybe not in winter.)
So others have already addressed most of your concerns, so, I’ll just leave it at that.
but, eh, I do want to point out that it’s surprising to me that EU people frequently seem to assume we’re all just one big sameness. Like you would look at me weird if I suggested French and Spanish cultures were the same, right? In terms of population size and landmass both, the US is more comparable to the EU as a whole, and we have a lot of diverse sub cultures here.
Some of that is divided along racial lines- do remember that roughly half of the 340 million people in the US aren’t white, and even if we were, most of our states have their own cultural quirks (and that includes variations in accents and dialects.) Which really shouldn’t be that surprising, considering at 85 million, Germany has subtle variations of culture too. y’all don’t all speak Standard German (which is funny because we tend to think of the stereotypical German as being Bavarian. complete with the lederhosen. I blame Oktoberfest.)
hell, some of your dialects may in fact be different languages than Standard German (Low Saxon, for example.)
Suffice it to say, we’ve got a lot of variation here, and the culture that you experience will largely depend on where you go. and since you’ve mentioned Nashville… definitely need to try the BBQ there. it’s delicious.