It was told to me that anything north of NYC is considered upstate. Syracuse is considred "central ny" roch and buffalo are considred, "western ny"

Oh, and yes, Bignahmton, is "the southern tier" Watertown is "the north country"

Just one last thing....when people ask me where I'm from, I say NY and they ALWAYS assume I mean NYC. But I correct them and tell them that NY is SO much more than NYC.

mrsd2fan, if it makes you feel any better, the same is true of Illinois. I grew up in southern Illinois (300 miles south of Chicago). We lived in various parts of the eastern US for nine years. Whenever we were asked where we were from and responded "Illinois", someone would always say, "Oh, Chicago?". It got to the point where I just wanted to shout, "If I were from Chicago, I'd say Chicago!!"

On a similar note....we've been living in the Chicago suburbs for over 22 years now. Our kids were born and raised here. Our daughter goes to school in western Massachusetts. Her new pet peeve is other kids from the 'burbs (either ones who go to school where she does or high school friends who also go out of state) who insist on telling people they're from Chicago. She's noticed that many of these kids are barely even familiar with the city ( one friend who's an offender has never even ridden the el!).

Apparently, it bothers Chicago kids too. My daughter ran across a group somewhere with a title something like "Chicago Students Against Suburbanites Claiming To Be From Chicago!"

One other similarity between Illinois and New York state. Residents of Chicago and it's suburbs tend to see all the rest of Illinois (and belive me, there's much, much more of it than most of them realize) as "downstate". Even those parts that are just as far north. And many of them think that anything south of I 80 is "Southern Illinois". Even though that's about 9/10s of the state!

I now live in the south, having always wanted to live here..never in a million years thought I'd miss Central NY...don't get me wrong I DO NOT miss the winters, but I miss the old familiar haunts and restaurants, and the festivals they'd have in Syracuse every weekend during the summer (and winterfest in the winter).
Anyway, my point is that you should be proud of wherever it is you come from. I am.