Saturday, June 30, 2007

Viaje

As much as I love the comforts of home, the warm and familiar food my mom cooks, the sleek black CPU on my desktop and my own soft mattress on the wood floor, I like travelling a great deal as well. For that I'm extremely grateful to my dad, who leaves the house at 6:30 am and returns at 9 or 10 pm almost everyday to provide for my needs, luxuries and privileges such as many a nice little holiday overseas.

There are many great sights to be seen out there, from the Grand Canyon to sprawling glaciers, all awe-inspiring works of nature. Then you have man-made stuff; towering cathedrals, skyscrapers and the undescribable feeling you get at the discovery that you will be staying in a place where 80% of the food outlets are fast-food for a month.


As magnificient as the great sights are, they aren't necessarily the most interesting ones. There's something calming and satisfying about picking a nice bench in a little town, and just watching people go by. See them do their shopping, walking the dog, holding on to their hats as they rush to work after an alarm clock malfunction and again rushing home 11 hours later after working till too late.


One can learn a thing or two about the lives of people by just sitting still and observing them awhile. Walk around in a supermarket, pass by the meats section and see a teenager buying his contribution for a barbecue, pass by the chocolate shelves along with its retinue of eager kids. Some of whom will be disappointed, and some lucky ones. If you stay around long enough, the manager might come around and check on operations, and if you've been there too long or acting suspicious or if he's the paranoid or control freak sort, you get booted out promptly.


But that's ok, you have some time, and decide to continue wandering the town.


A different kind of sight is needed to see a different kind of sight.