Captain Super Crusader strutted down the trash stewn street looking over his shoulder now and then towards the well-heeled side of town as though he had not a care in the world. He was, after all, Captain Super Crusader, and he was one badass mofo.

"Superman and Green Lantern ain't got nothin' on me. I can make like a turtle and dive for your pearls in the sea...". He sang it loud and proud and ignored the hoots of derision emanating from doorways and the odd drunk stumbling past.

He cut a dashing figure, he reckoned, in his blue lame' body suit, silver cape and mercury-winged red mask. Would any ne'er-do-well not tremble at the very sight of him? It remained to be seen. He was not fooled by the bravdo of those he passed, his keen senses cut through all facades to the matter at hand. He was Captain Super Crusader, the epitome of righteousness!

This avenue of broken dreams and destroyed lives did not touch him. Crime was the disease, and he, Captain Super Crusader was the cure!

As he moved into the sleazier part of the neighborhood the hooting and laughter continued, but now it was mixed with sneers and name calling of a most unseemly sort. His countenance was hard and he unconsciously flexed his fists.

He marched past battered cans of rubbish spilling out to soil the sidewalk and his nostrils were assaulted with rotting vegetation and the maggot infested remains of half eaten take out meals . A junkie vomited at the curb and passed out drunks snored in many of the doorways.

Squealing tires in the street added to the cacophony that was ringing in his ears. Yelling, wretched music spilling out of seedy gin joints, the hookers standing about laughed shrilly at their own jokes. It all washed over him in endless waves. His resolve grew firmer and he squared his shoulders and did his best to rise above it all.

As he rounded a corner he heard a scream, followed closely by angry words. This sounded like a job for Captain Super Crusader! He broke into a trot and as he passed into the darkened space beneath an overpass he could just make out two hulking thugs standing over a woman with a ripped blouse huddled on the ground covering her face with her hands. They stood over her with clenched fists and one of them made to strike her.

"Halt, felons!", He shouted. They turned in unison with meanacing looks which quickly turned to shock, followed by hearty laughter.

"Get a load of this dickwad!" the larger of the two said to his cohort.

The other couldn't seem to stop laughing and merely pointed at their would be nemesis with one hand while holding his stomach with the other.

"Hey, Super Sap, goin' to a costume party?" the larger one inquired with a smirk.

Captain Super Crusader planted his feet and raised his left hand and pointed. "You will cease and desist immediately or you will face my wrath!" he proclaimed.

The woman on the ground took the opportunity to jump up and flee, and they thought about going after her, but decided they'd rather deal to the bozo first.

"You know what, asshole, i'm gonna cut you from belly to balls for that." He pulled out a switchblade and waved it around in front of him with an air of menace.

"Drop your weapon, this is your last warning!"

As they advanced, Captain Super Crusader reached under his cape and pulled out his silver plated double barreled .45 automatic and let each of them have one, leaving gaping holes in each of their guts as they dropped heavily to the ground.

He blew the smoke from the barrels and returned his gun to beneath his cape. Who said this vigilante business had to be dull, he thought to himself as he strode purposefully back onto the street and away into the night.

Having lived in a country other than the one of my birth for the last eleven years has been more than interesting. I can think of several adjectives that apply. There's exhilarating, enlightening, empowering, exciting, and those are just the ones starting with the letter E, though I have no idea why I started with that letter.

Being an expatriot is to be between two worlds, whether that was one's intention or not. I suppose I had imagined that once I had been here a few years I would simply be one "them" and that would be that. That's not how it works.

The reason for that is a simple one. It's your accent. If you move to another country as an adult, you never learn to speak as the natives do where you've chosen to live. The minute you open your mouth you are identified in the minds of the locals as, in my case, an American.

In New Zealand, the place I now call home, they are aware that there are different American accents, but they're familar with all of them, this being a prime tourist destination, and it matters not whether you sound like a New Yawker or a Southerner or a Heartlander or a West Coaster, you are an American. They will almost always enquire as to how long you've been a Kiwi, but you are, and will always be (insert country of birth) first and foremost.

The reasons for this are, at this point, a mystery to me. I've enquired tactfully a few times, but i've never gotten anthing even remotely like an answer. It's just the way it is. Not that it's a problem, it's a good conversation starter, and it's always interesting to try to gauge their feelings about the place you're from and what they think of you being in their midst.

Generally speaking, i've found that Kiwis like Americans, though i've been told by other Americans that they've encountered hostility directed at them based on their accents, but i've yet to have that happen to me.

The process of settling in to a new country is an ongoing one, i've found. There is a constant adaptation that I suppose I thought would have been over by now, but no. One thing i've noticed in myself is a tendency to compare life here unfavorably with my former life when i'm stressed about something peculiar to here. That's not a good thing, and i'm constantly working to rid myself of that.

It's all a bit like the picture above, one can feel as though one is on an escalator that goes nowhere, but the antidote to that, i've found, is to continually bear in mind that it's the journey, not the destination that matters. Amen.