31-10 Morning came and we went to yoga, for me it was a bit too enhanced, but they tolerated me and helped me all the same. Lots of stretching and balancing, so I realy felt like I had done a good job. Diane, though she might not agree, had a good session according to me and we spoke to some of the other students as well (especially on “Fault in our Stars” and the connection to the Netherlands. The farmer’s market gave me a good idea that the Americans are also worried about the food problems that we encounter in the Netherlands. Afterwards we decided to go and see the house that Thomas Hart Benton lived in, in Kansas City (although he was originally from Missouri) and we made a good choice there: I loved the early work he did as an art student and the house was a real example of the period. I loved the home and we had good guides, who were very knowledgeable about everything we asked. But, all things end eventually, so when we got home I packed my bags, took a shower, had a last lunch at Diane’s and then she took me to the airport. We met Elsbeth and her hosts there and after lots of hugging, crying and promising to see each other next year, we were checked in and had a very good trip home to the Netherlands, where Elsbeth and I parted and I was met by the grandkids, their parents and my hubby. 

30-10 The day that there was a general meeting for the workers of RPDC (Regional Professional Development Centre) of the Kansas Missouri University; goals for the next period had to be determined and of course, anything that was going well had to be stabilised. We had a very relevant presentation about making sure that the quality of the work is anchored into the everyday activities, but even more important: that the quality is measurable and therefore can be monitored. I was able to have a good view of the tools that can be used to make sure that a group of co-workers set their goals and make sure they are attainable and properly chosen.

After the pot-luck lunch (lovely!) and a session where everybody talked about the book they had chosen to read and the wrapping up of the session, we went to celebrate one of Diane’s colleagues birthday and then: the rest of the day was open to us again (half past four, by then). We had a very nice piece of bread and lovely coffee at Diane’s favourite bakery and we chatted about everything we had done in the past ánd the past weeks. We decided to go and see another movie in our favourite movie theater, but helas, they were not showing the movie we wanted to see. We raced across town to get to the next cinema and there we saw the movie “Meet the Patels”, a comedy about finding a spouse for a brother, one of a very large Patel family from Ghujarat, really nice and relaxing. Coming home we were not very hungry so we just shared some bread and tea, and took to bed, deciding that yoga was first in the morning. 

29-10 was the day that we had to give our presentation to the administrators and teachers of JCCC, but before that I had a relatively easy time because I could get up the moment I wanted and do anything I wanted to, untill 11 o’clock. Diane went to coach a teacher in the ESL-trajectory from 6:30 to 10:00 and came by the house to pick me up. I filled my time blogging, resizing pictures and generally being lazy for a bit. When it was time to go, I was ready to tackle anything again. The culinary department prepared lunch for Elsbeth, Dr. Tom Patterson, Diane and me, and we went there in high spirits! The food was nice, but being a chef Diane had some comments to make, which she did only later in the day, so as not to make people feel uncomfortable. During lunch we talked about a lot of different things. The most prominent one was that Dr. Patterson asked us if we feel that American kids should be made more aware of the rest of the world, at least more than they are now. In general, the school children are being taught about American history, where at many moments in time a link to abroad is clearly visible. Yet the feeling is mostly that the outsiders are important when they come to the States and not when they stay in their own country. As Dr. Patterson has travelled extensively around the world, he regards knowledge from abroad as highly important, and we agreed. Although, seeing the size of the States and the miles that  Americans have to travel going from one state to another, you might understand that they don’t need “abroad”.

The presentation was planned in a large room, and it was filled to the max, because many students from the international department came to see and talk to us. The talk went well, but of course I could have used more time (sic). Elsbeth’ talk went well too, and the listeners had many questions to ask. It was not dfficult to extend our stay for some time, therefore! We had a quiet talk with Janice, Diane, Elsbeth and me, and after that we were free to do as we pleased.

Diane had some ideas in mind about places that she wanted to show me during the weekend, when they actually swept us off to the prairie. So now we were finally free, we went to Lidya’s, the nicest place in town to have a Cosmopolitan (the drinks in “Sex in the City”), which I never had before, but I actually liked it. Lidya’s is one of the three restaurants of chef Lidya, and she loves art; in this restaurant there are three chandeliers made by Dale Chihuly! Handblown glass balloons with a type of tail, that was attached to the structure. Very many colours from the glass, a nice building, very neatly displayed bottles of wine, a fire place, good food and good company make a very nice end to the official part of the visit indeed!

Then the next surprise was revealed: the silent movie Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, from 1920, was shown. The venue was the Kaufman Opera House and what a venue that is! Picture don’t match the grandeur of the place. Three years old, everybody is reminded of the Sydney Opera House when they get to see it, it is a splendid addition to Kansas City, especially since it is on the hilltop, there is a magnificent view of the city. The organist Dorothy Papadakos played the music live, while we viewed the movie. What a surprise and what a very good way of showing old movies to the audience! I loved it, and so did Diane. In general, the complete audience loved the movie. Because of Halloween, some people in the audience were dressed accordingly, and through the noise of the clapping a couple was chosen to become winners and receive a ticket for one of the next concerts. 

28-10

Another early morning getting to Kansas East High for coaching of one of the teachers. Again kids came in and had to do their work, but this time the girls’ running team had won the cross-country run the day before. This was announced during class time and everybody started clapping! After this, even the principal came in and gave his congratulations. It was his birthday too and then everybody clapped again. That was nice! We talked to the teacher for a bit during the break, but then we had to rush to the JCCC campus because I was going to have lunch and a visit in Indepence, MO, with Elsbeth and Janette from the International Education.

This is a small town not far from Kansas City, MO, and we started by visiting the Court House, that did not function as such anymore. The tourist office was there, were we got to know that Lees Summit, a small town in between Kansas City and Independence wasn’t named after General Lee from the Confederates, but after a citizen who lived there and was killed during the period that Kansas and Missouri were in a bloody feud about the choice for a slave state or a free state. We had a lovely lunch at Ophelia’s, a luxureous restaurant in Independence, after which we went to visit the Truman Library. This was an impressive building, on a hill, from local lime stone, quite surpringly built in a tucked away part of a park. When we stepped into the hall, there was another surprise: a Thomas Hart Benton, from one wall to the other, as high as the ceiling! It appears he was commissioned to do this work in his later years, but it was strong and powerfull nonetheless. The exhibition was really interesting, covering the last two years of WW2 until now. We learned more about the Greek and Turkish position during and after WW2, and became more knowledgeable on the topic of the Cold War in the USA. I knew the country went through a difficult period then, but I started to understand it better. It was interesting to see the difference between the States and Europe in development, and we saw the working of the Marshallplan too. To our and Janette’s surprise, Truman wanted to change the health care system, but this was voted away by his opponents. There was even more that he wanted to reform, but here the opponents were stronger too. The exhibition ended whith many people quoting what he once had said. That was interesting. We had no time left to walk in the park, so we were in time at the ESL classes and I went to work with Diane. I was tired, though, and so I was glad the day was over. 

23-10-2015

Another day out! We went to see a Roastery, a place where they roast, blend and taste coffee, to be shipped anywhere across the world. We had a tour around the fairly small factory. They roast their coffee beans using hot air, which makes it a more even and more gradual roasting, resulting in a very nice taste of the coffee. Because this process cannot be done in large amounts, it is difficult for big companies to do this, so the smaller companies have can do this more easily. That way, they can cater to small amounts of specially ordered coffee too. Another thing that needs to be done for Americans, is to add flavour to your coffee. For the best results, this should be done immediately after roasting, and they do this by spraying the flavour on the still warm beansm, the pores are still open then and the flavour is infused into the beans. Of course, other people just like their coffee roasted. We could not picture the actual process of roasting and blending due to the secrecy of the process, but we certainly tried the coffee after the tour. It was indeed lovely coffee, and they taught us the difference between filtering coffee and pressing it through a sieve. The airplane at the top of the building is a symbol of the hot air roasting, but also of the fast delivery of the coffee: roasted today, put on transport the same day, reaching destination not later than 24 hours later.

Then, to make things nice for us, we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant and had lovely quessadillas, enchilladas and so on. Everything served five minutes after ordering, which is amazing. Everything here is in Haloween mood, so here there were some frightening witches too.

Another treat is to go to the chocolate factory, where the handmade bonbons are on display, some as shiny as a car that is polished extremely well. For the Haloween occasion there were “scary” bonbons and for the Royals there were white and blue ones. The price was abominable, though: 2 dollars per piece. Luckily you could try the ones that had gone wrong, which actually were fine but didn’t look too nice. Taste was fine, though, so no problem there!

And then: the brewery! We had a tour around the brewery, were a lot of beer is made with very diferent tastes and strongness. Regarded as a small brewery, they had to join a bigger company and did not like to join the very big ones, so to our surprise we discovered that they were taken over by the Belgium brewery Duvel (pronounced as doe’vél). There are actually Belgian employees working their, to get the American Duvel to taste exactly like the Belgian one. After the tour we were taken to the balcony, where we had a lovely view of Downtown Kansas City. The best part was the tasting of the beers: we were with four people and could sample 8 beers, and so we did! Luckily the glasses were made to size, so we did not get drunk!

We went to see the only WW1 museum in the States, which was impressive. We didn’t go in, so I have to go there another time. After this, it was back to business because we sat in at a training for teachers that are already teaching. They had a training to make them aware of the differences in culture between American kids and immigrant-, regugee- and migrant children. They were also made aware of the tests these kids have to take, how they are placed in the English Learner Program and the problems that kids can have just doing their homework. Very impressive to see how Diane and her colleague Sarah had put up the information and had planned the whole three hours.

After that, it was more than enough and we went home, had a spagetthi squash evening meal and went to get some deserved rest. 

22-10-2015

You cannot go to Kansas and avoid having a look at the cows and the sheep and the Homestead Farms, so we were happy that one of our hosts lives on a “working” farm and she was willing to show this all to us (a working farm is in opposition to a “luxury” farm, where people only live to enjoy the outdoors for pleasure). Susan and her husband live on a farm and the house is partly original from the time the first homesteads were built. This was a process where you staked a claim on one of the 160 acre lots that were appointed, and then you had to build a house of at least 3 by 4 meters. After you farmed this lot and had the farm house for five years, you would own your lot. This all happened in 1862, and there are still families living on these farms that were started by their descendants. Although Susan and Greg bought their farm, they are still very proud about it. The farmhouse is extended during the years, but still is fairly modest in size and decoration; just like a normal family. The cows are lovely, as are the sheep, who are just for fun. They showed us all the nice partst of the farm, told us about the Homestead Act and clarified that most would-be-farmers did not have to run to their property, contrary to the many times that we seem to come across this one time event in the Netherlands.

John Brown had a headquarter close to Osawatomie, a place where a battle took place because he was against slavery (abolitionist) and others were in favour of it. These rivals were trying to get the vote on being a Free State (no slavery allowed) or being a Slave State towards their own point of view, no matter what it took to get there. Things were violent and ugly at that time. In Osawatomie a battle took place between both factions, and the town was ruined. This battlefield is preserved and this headquarters is preserved within a new structure and can be visited by the public. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and we would have stayed there far longer, if the schedule had permitted this. But we went to see Gregs other cows in another field and visited a cooperative farm store, where we bought lots of stuff! Then we went to the Barn Sale, a place open on Friday for lunch. Not for tourist, mainly, but for the farmers that are going to sell cattle in today’s auction. We had some lovely home-made food and went in to see the auction, which to us was very interesting to see. It is indeed a grave business to sell or buy cattle, because the sustainability of your farm depends on it. Very characteristic faces to be seen! The Barn Sale was clearly meant for people doing business, so we left them at it to do the fun stuff: wine tasting! In a place like Kansas there was not too much wine growing, but in the last ten years some people took up this challenge; they did a good job, because the wines were tasty, heady, colourful, dry or sweet, but generally enjoyable to taste. We had some cheese to go with it (American Gouda is very different to the Dutch variety; say Goeda, btw) and we loved the experience. We drank 12 types of wine and had some cider as well, so you can imagine the effect they had!

Back to the JCCC, to be taken by our hosts to dinner. Except, Diane and I went to a very small cinema to watch the movie Grandma. After this very enjoyable experience we went to see the KC Royals, wo this time did a lot better, which made it necessary to light fireworks! We had a nice slice of a pizza that was as large as a wagon wheel; we saw no reason though to join other people celebrating the win of the Royals, because we were tired and just went to bed!

I was brought to the local museum, the Nelson, to have lunch with a staff member of JCCC International Education, Faral, and with my fellow-traveller. We had a very nice lunch, with an arry of bright colours that stimulated the palate very pleasingly and then went to see the exhibition of Thomas Hart Benton’s work, a painter who started painting backgrounds for the silent Hollywood movies, but progressed to painting about and against social events that happened. For instance I found the paintings done during the Second World War very powerful and impressive. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, so here is a picture of one of the paintings that hung amongst the “regularly exhibited” pieces. After the ’46 lynching sprees this was painted to show that life would continue, even though it was made even harder because of the killings. We had a very nice time in the museum, but it was way too short to see everything. We chose to go to the Asian and Native-American part, which both held very nice specimens of these peoples. I loved a cloth on which figures were drawn that represented the arrest and killing of Sitting Bull, a name we all know in the Netherlands. It was also very much “in your face” so to speak, because the way the Native-Americans were treated is regarded as very unfair and unlawful. People are really aware of this, although it is not easy to make amends, or to change things for the Native-Americans of today. It was therefore a very poignant piece of art too.

After that Faral dropped me at the JCCC school were Englis lessons were to take place. Diane was getting ready to prepare the evening lesson of the day: adult learners of English. Luckily I was able to help her out with doing small jobs. I enjoyed this 3-hour lesson, partly because I was able to participate as an assistant teacher and I saw good examples of working together in the classroom to enhance the knowledge about the topic at hand. It is very interesting to say the least, to see that Diane, my host, prepares her lessons very well, but still is in the classroom two hours before the actual lesson. She prepares the room meticulously and knows exactly where materials should be placed and what she wants to achieve with the methods she uses. This is “awesome” for me to witness, not only because the students are willing to learn, but also because you as a teacher know your goal and you work towards it (you might recognise the difference with the style  that I sometimes use!)

Then, when it was time to go home, we went to watch a part of the match between the Kansas City Royals and the Toronto V-Jays. To our dismay, things went very wrong that evening, so we left the bar after having a fried pickle and a beer. Time to sleep, then.