Being Away

It's odd. Being away and all.

I mean, I've moved away before and have traveled but the way I'm thinking about it seems different this go-around.

A few weeks ago shortly after we joined the local gym, in the middle of a workout something struck me. (No, not literally.)

Practically everything I was doing while working out was identical to what I did at the gyms back home - be it the UW IMA, or more recently the local 24 Hour Fitness. Moreover, I was wearing pretty much what I'd wear back home and was also listening to exactly the same workout music on my iPod. Sure, my body was physically transposed to another part of the world, but everything seemed the same - and oh so similar.


Moving on - just today, Miriam and I went to the Zoo with our relatives the Manns. That's the Jerusalem Zoo which is basically on the outskirts of the city. At one point, while everyone else aptly looked on at penguins behind a glass window in an exhibit, I couldn't help but think about the whole experience. Warning - you may not like or agree with my thoughts of the experience, described below.

While I tried peering through the dirty glass to see what the penguins were up actually up to, I wondered why I wasn't just in front of a high def television set or plunked down a foot or so away from my laptop looking at better quality pictures and videos of penguins. Being at the zoo seemed so backwards - I mean, who knows if you'd actually see what you want to after you paying your admission. What if you visit on an off day and none of the animals really put on a show? In all seriousness, you may get more of a kick out of March of the Penguins. Or learn more from the Wikipedia page on penguins.

I can't really put my finger on it but I'm sure the way I'm thinking about things - both at the gym and the zoo - is completely unusual. The fact that you can log onto the same internet and the same webpages anywhere you are in the world has probably contributed in shaping how I think about things. With the gym, it's pretty much the same experience anywhere (given some baseline). And the Zoo? I suppose every animal there has figurative hyperlinks to some webpages, video clips, images, and whatever else on the internet.