Some people from big cities are accustomed to the big city lifestyle and adapting to smaller towns with large landscapes can be a new encounter for some.
Blending in to the atmosphere can save you allot of grief or can take away from your experience, depending if the locals take to new arrivals or exclude them, so inform yourself on the area you’re visiting.
Once you're informed about the local customs, make a friend from the local area to sho you the ropes and how to get around.
Once you know what activities you can do to be part or seem a part of the community, the easier you'll blend in.
Step by Step
Pick up the local customs. Smaller towns and villages have a custom of saying good morning, hello or good evening to strangers, unlike in big cities. Doing this is your first step to becoming a local of the area.
Pick a ‘spot’ in the community and make it your spot. It could be a bar or centre of some sort, if you get onto a first name basis relationship with the workers, this can make you more local as well as make you new friends form around the area.
Talk with your neighbor over the fence, this could reveal local secrets that you would otherwise never know. You could also be friendly and offer to give someone a a helping hand at their gardening and discuss about the local areas and people.
Walk around your neighborhood and get involved in free local activities like picnics, gatherings, this way you’ll be embraced as part of them quicker.
Buy into local businesses to support them and keep them running; take the opportunity to learn more about the owners who run it. also pick up litter whenever you see it and take care of the streets like they’re yours, this will appeal to many of the locals and create a good reputation for you.
Keep up with local vents by reading the local paper so you’re in the loop of all the goings on.
Tips
If you want to seem local but not get to close to the people in the area, just use local customs, dress similarly and act like you know where you are going, don’t look up at signs to often, don’t look lost. With modern technology remembering a route on a map is easier than ever.