I live in Rochester, NY. When I moved to Washington DC, two friends who grew up just outside of DC always said I was a "New Yawker" in a NY City accent. With DC being 4 hours from NYC, I said then they must be as well because since I grew up 7 hours drive from the city and they grew up only 4 hours drive from the city.

Western NY, where I am from, is in the Finger Lakes region. It is full of rolling hills and long lakes. There are several cities here but many, many more pastoral small towns, much like New England. The "tall" part of NYS is home to Adirondacks region which is full of east coast sized mountains and small rustic towns, plus lots of wilderness areas. Adirondack park could actually fit Glacier, Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon Nationals parks all inside its borders. (Although that is a bit of a misnomer--there are towns, roads, businesses and homes technically inside the park's boundaries. Some of those parks listed have nothing but parkland inside of them.)

I should say that between Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, I snobbishly say that I always refer to Rochester as nowhere near as boring as Syracuse or as depressing as Buffalo.

I never even went to NYC until I was 26 and by then I had been to England several times, 8 or 9 US states and 6 or 7 other major US cities.

Editorials time: I don't like NYC. Many of the people are extremely egotistical about their city, it's loud but not in a good way, crowded, dirty as hell and there are lots of shady areas. Granted it has a lot to offer but I feel the good/bad ratio is much worse than other cities. Washington DC for example is damn near as powerful and culturally rich yet isn't anywhere as bad to look at or dangerous.

Also, don't worry, plenty of people here in Rochester think Canada is pretty much Toronto and tundra, with some weird area near New England that wants to be France again. They technically know Canada goes all the way to the west coast, but but they don't really think about it.