Family

Being from one place and living in another you sometimes see things that you never knew existed or were possible. Generally you end up mentioning it, in a very astounded manner, to someone who thinks you're completely dense because they've known it all along since they have either grown up in the area or an area where it's common place.
This seems to happen to me a lot considering we are military and are originally from Northern Michigan. Something that shocks the heck out of me might have been something you grew up with somewhere else in the world.

When we lived in North Carolina it was the kamikazee beatles. I am still unaware of their actual name. We call them kamikazee beatles because they literally fly directly into your house, car, yourself etc. And not lightly either. These are HUGE bugs and when they would thud against the house in the summer time you could definately hear it. Also the Banana Spiders there were out of control. When I found one on my air conditioner I about had a heart attack until I found out it was completely harmless. It certainly didn't look like it was when I considered it's size and flashy colors. Generally those two things together in my mind scream blood sucking killer. :)

Now that I'm in Virginia it's the catapillers. Of course I grew up knowing what catapillers were and seeing them, even playing with them when I was a child.
Although I only ever saw a few catapillers all year and never in the same spot.
Here, apparently, it's commonplace for hundreds of catapillers to be on the same tree. And not a large tree either, a baby tree! Here are the photos from ONE tree across the street from my house. Mind you we have about 20 trees on our street and they all look the same way. Covered in tons of catapillers. I guess it's one huge catapiller family reuinion. I think my neighbors thought I was nuts when they saw me photographing them. :)