It depends. Eventually, that stubbornness will become obnoxious. Calling her “piggy” is not the only thing he’s going to be willing to die on a hill for and something so simple already shows a casual disregard for her feelings. Let’s see how they handle the splitting of domestic duties once they live together and finances.

Arkansas will be a transition for sure and do either of them have a skill set that could translate to moving to a more diverse area?

I think if both can learn to work around the cultural quirks, they’ll be fine but it’s likely going to take time and a lot of tears/arguments. Despite my husband and I both coming from “Western” cultures- the differences have sometimes been wild and we’ve had to work through them- communication styles, ways of showing emotion, gendered/familial expectations, alla-dat.

The experience has been similar in other cross-cultural relationships/friendships I’ve been in so I think that’s just the motion of the ocean across the board. I hope they’ve already started having these discussions though, like most things in life, some things are better just…experienced.