Hello Toto!!

I'm home Toto! Well maybe not Kansas state, more like Kansas City in Missouri. But who really knew where Dorothy was from.

I've come here to do a bit work training for the new job, so Kansas City will be home until the end of February. I wasn't planning on writing a blog in the US, because frankly it can't be that much different to Australia. But surprisingly after being here a week I've accumulated enough things to warrant a blog i.e. thoughts to get off my chest!

So what is there to Kansas City? I know I certainly had to Wikipedia it to find out where the hell I was going. And yes, the only thing I knew about Kansas was it's mention in "The Wizard of Oz''. Apart from that, I couldn't have told you the sights to see, things to buy or the food to try here. In fact I still don't. But from the souvenir shop I learned Kansas is famous for BBQ marinades and is right up Tornado alley. It says so on the mug which is a sure winner. Because I'm sure most people want to be reminded of a horrific natural disaster that wantonly kills while they enjoy their morning cuppas......





The first thing that struck me when I arrived was ''where the hell is everyone?" On Sunday morning it seemed like the plague had rolled through town and the bodies removed. Suffice to say my Sunday morning leisurely stroll into the CBD turned into a hair-raising experience. The only people who were roaming the streets were either beggars, or joggers who were briskly running past beggars. I'll call them beggars, as I'm not sure if they were homeless or just looking to score change to go towards a pack of cigarettes.

Interestingly though, the behavior of these beggars and joggers exemplified two typical American traits:-

1) American's are extremely polite and courteous. I had a jogger say hello to me as she ran past me from behind. You might not find that out of the ordinary, but I jog myself and I've never tried to utter a clear and calm ''hello'' between my laboured panting as I lumber past pedestrians. The most you'll ever get from me is a nod, and that's only if I'm approaching someone from the front and that other person has been making eye contact with me for the last hundred meters with a warm smile on their face. Otherwise, you ain't getting anything from me.

2) American's are go-getters. I had a  random guy come up to me in a pharmacy and say hello. A minute later he asked me for loose change saying he needed ''bus money''. The beggars don't camp out and wait for you to come to them, they come to you.    Upon rejection he profusely appologised for troubling me, again displaying those American manners. I wasn't really expecting him to appologise to me. I was just happy he didn't stab me.

Apart from the empty roads, the other thing you'll notice from the pictures are the large parking lots. It feels like the Kansas City CBD is just one big carpark. It seems car parks outnumber the populance of Kansas City, because I can't see all these things being filled even on a weekday. Perhaps though, all the space is required for the many Pickup trucks driven by Americans. And when I say there's a lot of pickup trucks, I mean ''there's a lot of pickup trucks''. I can't figure out if everyone's a tradie in Kansas City, it's just a fad, or they actually need them to transport ''stuff''. Maybe if they didn't have such luxurious parking lots and gasoline was as much as it costs in Australia, they'd consider trading in their pickup trucks for Mazda 2s.