Soda or Pop?

Travel a lot?  Worried about walking into that convenience store in East Nowhere, Wayoutsville, ordering the wrong thing, and having the clerk look at you as though you were a space alien? Fear no more. 

To set the stage, a brief true story (The kind that in the military started with "No sh&t, this really happened" and were therefore called "No sh&tters".)  I moved to California after my first year of college.  Just needed a change and my aunt and uncle were kind enough to offer me a place to stay for a while.  First week there, walk into a little convenience store and ask where they keep the pop.  The guy has no idea what I'm talking about.  Seriously.  None whatsoever.  I don't know what to do.  Where does this conversation even go next since I have no way to make it more clear what I am looking for?  Finally I settle on "Coke" as the stand in word.  Ahah.  "Soda" is kept in the cooler at the back of the store.  Wow.

So to keep you from having the same traumatizing cross-cultural experience that I had, here is a link to a map that will tell you what to call soft drinks.  No more embarrassment, no more standing out as "the tourist", and no chance of not getting that Coke that you desperately need for your mid morning caffeine fix.

Oh, by the way, in much of the south if you ask for a Coke they will ask what flavor.  It's all Coke down there.