supranormal

The internet cafe I'm in today, one of the more professional and established places around (the staff has shirts and it's still in business after 10 months) is still located in the downstairs of someone's house. There is just a little partition between the computers and their living room, where they are currently watching Superman Returns. I've never seen it, and I can't see the TV, but it's pretty obvious from the audio track which movie it is. ("If you ask me, Lois is still in love with you-know-who...")

No not Voldemort.

I went hiking to a waterfall last sunday with some friends and acquaintances. It was beautiful. I know what you're all thinking... "wow how exotic and exciting!" But really, it kind of reminded me of the old US of A. Sure the trees were different, and the dirt was a bit of different color, and it was rather more lush in general, but it didn't feel alien. It barely felt exotic. It felt like some hills with some plants on them, that happened to have a georgious waterfall hidden away in a valley. I wasn't striding awestruck through uncharted lands, just crossing the creek and following the path. Mostly I was thinking about where to put my feet without slipping in the mud and whether the girls were getting too far behind. (You know girls... they hike slow.)

Every once and a while I will still feel like I'm somewhere exotic. Riding down the highway at night with the diesel exhaust submerging the world in a haze. Watching chicken intestine barbequing on the sidewalk vendors carts. Walking by families bathing their children in the open gutters of Manila. Trying to understand why on earth this person is acting this way.

But mostly, life is normalcy; newness and the exotic are quickly assimilated. Except for that last example. That one still gets me all the time.