Breaking Out of Amber: Kansas

I know it sounds corny, but that really was the tag line for Kansas tourism back in the 80's, and there really is a lot to be said about this Midwest state.

I'm back to visit the family for the last time before I head to Europe in two months, and it is really hitting me how much I have to do and that this trip is really happening. The nervous meter jumped a couple of notches, but then so did the excitement meter. I know I'm going to miss my family, but with all the wonders of the age, communication will be a fairly simple matter. I keep telling myself that it's not like I'm going to some distant planet. I'll have e-mail and Skype. However, there is the small matter of being 8 hours ahead in another time zone.

Then I land in Kansas City, and I am really struck by the similarities between the landscape in Eastern Kansas and what I've seen in the many blogs and photos of Moldova:

Lots of small towns and villages - check.
Heavily agricultural - check.
Rolling hills, rivers and creeks - check, check, check.
Small farm houses - check.

Even on a social level (outside of the bigger towns in Kansas) there seems to be fairly defined gender roles, a strong work ethic, lots of church going folk, lots of drinking on the weekends, friendly hospitable folk who are deeply proud of their towns, counties, local schools, newspapers, etc. I'll have to see how the two cultures compare, but I'm thinking at this point that they are very similar.

At any rate, I spent the entire week in Kansas looking at the NE corner of the state from how a citizen of a small Eastern European country might see it. Then it hit me... many of the people living in NE Kansas are descendants from small Eastern European countries. There are pockets of Austral/Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slavs and many more. Their cultures have all created the backbone of the modern Kansas ethos.

So, I spent the week playing Federick the Mouse (great children's book), and absorbing images and smells, the feel of sunlight and sounds so that I can share them with the kids in the cold Moldovan Winter.