Let's say I'm in the US and I create a Foucault pendulum. Why does its direction change if its axis is not parallel to the rotation axis of the earth? I can understand why it changes if it's at the North or South pole, but Im having trouble picturing it in my head when the pendulum is between the equator and the north/south pole. I can also understand why it doesn't change direction when it's at the equator, its axis is perpendicular to Earth's axis there.

What confuses me is that when I read explanations of why the direction of the pendulum changes, they always say it's because the Earth is rotating beneath the pendulum, but that isn't exactly true right? If I'm between the equator and the north/South pole, the axis isn't parallel to the axis of Earth's rotation.

Btw I'm not a flat earther, I'm just having a hard time picturing this in my head and it's really bugging me. Its making me feel stupid, especially since I'm majoring in physics.

Edit: I think I understand why it changes direction do to the Coriolis effect if I start the pendulum off by pushing it in the direction of the north or south poles (the speed of Earth's rotation is slower moving up towards the north pole and gets faster moving down towards the equator), but what if I start the pendulum by pushing it east or west? The speed of Earth's rotation doesn't change in those directions. Maybe it's just impossible to push it perfectly in the east/west direction and so it will always have components in the north/south directions? 

2nd edit: But wait, if the change in direction is due to the Coriolis effect, then shouldn't the direction still change if I'm at the equator and start the pendulum off by pushing it in the north/south direction?