I lived in Kansas City for twelve formative years of young adult life. In retrospect I can attribute base attributes of my personality to that Midwestern culture within which I was raised: kindness, consideration for others, love of barbeque beef along with the desire to eat more food than is prudent. My mother and stepfather still live in Kansas City and my brother and his family do as well. I made a quick three day trip to visit, eat and see some of my old grade school friends after living internationally for 15 months.
I’ve been dreading experiences the comforts and accordance of state-sidelife back in the states. How can I return to 2nd and 3rd world adventures after driving to Whole Foods, eating home style comfort food and speaking English? Some initial reactions upon USA re-entry: air conditioning is uncomfortable. Kansas City is charming and completely underrated (especially by me). Americans aren’t so bad out here. I think I should look at the real estate market downtown these lofts look really cool. If I lived here I would be obese. I remember the sounds of the cicadas from when I was a kid.
I visited the Central Library, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, The Blue Room, Winstead’s as well as catching up with friends. On Monday I worked from Crow’s Coffee near UMKC. For the first time in a while KC feels like home and the unique, creative an artistic culture, relaxed lifestyle of the people who live here and genuine geniality of the city I feel able to appreciate and understand better in comparison to the places I have been living. So often it seems travel teaches me more about the places I have already been than anything else.
