09-30-2018

Drove back to Texas from Kansas City today. But before I left, I took some pictures of my Airbnb:

my room. had its own fridge! and TV, but I didn't use that.

Kitty! They actually had two cats, but only one was allowed outside.

sitting room/dining room (?)

Other side of the sitting room/dining room, leading into the living room

Kitchen

And my car parked on their driveway!

I think I left Kansas City around 6:30am, if not earlier. I thought about and was on track to stop at a park in Kansas, but I felt kind of tired and really just wanted to be home.

I did stop for lunch though - and of course I chose Braum's! Burger was decent, but not anything special, although my opinion may have been influenced by the default cheese and condiments that I did not ask for. Still, I think Whataburger is better :P I'm pretty sure I took a video of myself trying the Braum's burger, and was going to post it here, but I can't seem to find it :c

Finally, I made it home around 4:45pm! There was still some time left in the day before work on Monday. But I didn't do much because I was so tired. However, I am excited to try cooking the vegetables I bought from the farmer's market in Kansas City!

09-29-2018

Today I went to City Market, a local farmer's market. I was so excited when I saw vendors with Chinese eggplant (or Japanese? but I'm so used to calling it Chinese since I became acquainted with this kind of eggplant in China) and bitter melon (even though I said I didn't like it when I tried it, seeing it made me happy - and I kind of want to try it again!).

There was a Chinese grocery store nearby, so I also stopped in here before leaving the area. Actually, this was a necessary trip because I am terribly socially awkward. So yesterday night I bought Vietnamese food for dinner and had leftovers. My Airbnb purchase comes use of a fridge and the microwave if I need it, but the only container I had was my styrofoam take-out box. If I had asked, I'm sure I would have been guided to a paper plate or another plate I could use to reheat my leftovers, but I just...suck at asking for help. (You generally exchange contact information with your host so that you can ask questions if they come up, and I did have her phone number..) So while I was at this store I purchased a set of two microwavable containers, each decorated with a picture of Disney princesses. I bought them because they were cheap. I still have them, and they make me feel like a child when I use them. Despite that, I occasionally use them when packing my lunch for work.

Anyways, after visiting the farmer's market, Chinese store, and eating leftovers for lunch, my afternoon was open. After spending a little bit of time studying Chinese, I decided to drive around. I bought a hot chocolate in Kansas City, KS to say I've been to the Kansas side, as most of the Kansas City tourist attractions are on the Missouri side. Then, I continued to drive around Kansas. Specifically, I chose to drive to a certain park (the name escapes me now). While I was on the highway, I saw a sign which listed the upcoming exit for a historical site. Since there wasn't really a point for me to drive to the park in the first place, I thought, 'why not?' and decided to drive past said historical site. It's called Grinter Place, and from the research I've done on the web, it's basically an old house. I'm sure the museum has interesting information about who they were and what it was like to live during their time (maybe 150-200 years ago?), but I didn't stop to go in.

In the evening, I went to Hank Green's book tour event at the Unity Church. Now, let me back up a bit and explain why this event was so great.

I started planning this Kansas City trip in June - at least, that's when I reserved my Airbnb. It goes without saying that I'm subscribed to vlogbrothers on YouTube. In early September, Hank uploaded a video talking about a book tour for his first book An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (which is very good, please go read it). I saw the notification for this video on my phone and thought 'nah', and proceeded to do something else. But since I didn't completely swipe away the notification, it was still on my phone when I turned it on again, and I decided to give it a go. After watching this video, I investigated the tour dates, and I saw that none were in Texas (WHY?). But I noticed there was a date for Kansas City. And it just so happened that vlogbrothers was going to be in Kansas City while I was there. So I impulsively bought a ticket (which also came with an autographed copy of the book!) and I must say, this was the best impulse buy ever. The event was awesome - Hank and John Green were hilarious.

There is a dance venue in Kansas City for free salsa dancing that I was planning to go to afterwards, but the book tour event ran a little long. I also waited in line after the event ended to buy an autographed copy of Paper Towns (they also had autographed copies of The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Turtles All the Way Down, but Paper Towns was the only one of these that I have not read).

All in all, it was a fun day, and now I must mentally prepare myself for the 10 1/2 hour drive home.

09-28-2018

Today was the day I planned to hit the main point of my trip - the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art! Below is a picture facing outside from the museum (because I am smart and didn't think to take a picture OF the museum..)

As I previously read, the Asian exhibit was surprisingly large. More specifically, they divided Asian art into categories based on region, so there were rooms for Chinese art, Japanese art, Indian art, etc. Actually, the whole dang museum was surprisingly large. Granted, I'm the kind of person who likes to take my sweet time and read about every single item, but I was there for about four hours and feel like I didn't even make a DENT in all the items that they had.  

above: a book/manuscript displaying grass script (essentially, Chinese cursive). It's beautiful and fluid writing, but even native Chinese speakers have trouble reading it!

Afterwards, I found a bubble tea shop cause I was craving bubble tea. No one was there, which was surprising. I studied a little bit of Chinese here - specifically, I was looking over the reading section from my first practice HSK 5 to look up words I didn't know. 

Since the boba place was nestled in a small shopping strip, I went into these shops and actually bought a couple gifts for friends! They were cute, little local boutique kind of shops. 

Then, I went to a book store (of course). That's kind of a new thing I've started doing - whenever I visit a place, I like to see if I can find a local bookstore to walk through. And to buy at least one book, of course. I love it when there are just books EVERYWHERE surrounding me, and this store did not disappoint.

I highly recommend the place! 

And of course I left with not one, but three books!! ._.

The finale of my night was attending a performance of West Side Story at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts. My Airbnb host told me that the building is fairly new, maybe about four years old. It was a cool place, and the play was awesome as well. I have never seen West Side Story, but I did sing a couple of songs from the show in my choir class at Southwestern. We also listened to 'Cool' in my Music Literature class. Ironically, 'Cool' was the song that made me cry because of how familiar it was.

pretty good view despite buying one of cheapest tickets! 

the inside of the building from one of the upper floors during intermission

people compare the exterior to that of the Sydney Opera House

09-27-2018

I have occasionally looked back at my blog posts with fondness and nostalgia. I am certainly glad I set up this system so that I can vividly recall small details of my China trip, which would otherwise have escaped me now. 

But sometimes I'm so focused on the good times of the past and the good times that I want to create in the future that the present seems so mundane and dreary, like the present is something I have to slowly trudge through until I -really- get to start my life.

I'm now thinking of this as my adventure blog. But really, life itself is an adventure. And each day that I spend in the muddled haze of wondering what it is I want to do is another day wasted thinking, and not doing.

So, for those of you who don't know, I recently did a thing - 

I completely set this up myself. And of course, the question I am most commonly asked is 'why Kansas City?'

The TL:DR answer is 'no reason'. The long answer is that I went through a phase earlier this year in which I was particularly interested in western China, which led me to explore books at my local library on the topic, which led me to read a book called Foreign Devils on the Silk Road (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149749.Foreign_Devils_on_the_Silk_Road), which mentioned the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City towards the end of the book as being a place with a relatively large Asian art collection. 

'Wouldn't it be fun to take a trip to this museum?' I asked myself as I pulled up the screenshot above which showed that it would take approximately 10 hours by car to reach Kansas City. And on that route, I saw an adventure. The longest trip I've ever done was 5 hours, and even then I had a companion. This would be 10 hours, completely alone, driving through good ol' 'Murica. 

But would I REALLY drive 10 hours just to go to a museum? 

Well, yes. But don't worry, I also found other things to do, which I shall talk about here!

The first day was mainly a lot of driving. Even though the trip was long, it was definitely engaging once I passed the Texas border, simply because I've never driven by myself through other states before. A few thoughts regarding the drive:

1. What in the world is the big deal about Braum's??

2. Why are there not gas stations at every mile, like there are in Texas? (yes, I know that's an over-exaggeration...but also '40 miles until the next service station'??? are you freaking kidding me?!)

3. Southern Oklahoma and Southeastern Kansas (east of Emporia) were the prettiest parts of the drive, in my opinion. The ugliest places were just north of the Kansas/OK border, and, of course, Texas.

4. I LOVED the signs in Oklahoma that say it is against state law to impede the left lane. And EVERYONE knew to get back in the right lane after passing! It was amazing. Texas drivers really need to get their crap together.

5. I was not expecting it to take so long to get through Oklahoma. That straight shot is so misleading. 

6. As I once read somewhere on the internet, I35 from Oklahoma City to San Antonio is terrible. (Not that I went to San Antonio during this trip, but I know enough about driving on I35 in/near SA.)

 I stopped in Oklahoma for lunch and to visit a friend in Stillwater (she's at OSU). So without further ado, a couple of Stillwater pictures!

 above: a cute restaurant in Stillwater, and my car in the background! I forgot the name, but they served waffles among other brunch goodies. My friend and I weren't sure where to go for lunch, and chanced upon this place a half hour before closing! They were kind enough to still take our order, and we decided to get take out so we wouldn't get in the way of closing. And we ate at...

below: Boomer Lake in Stillwater! Nice place with a lot of picnic tables. And geese. And yes, the water was quite still.

I left Temple at about 6:30am, and ended up getting to my Airbnb in Kansas City right before 9pm. I was pretty pooped, so I didn't do much before heading to bed.