"Tu normalidad es privilegio," is graffitied over an entire wall along the Nueva Providencia Avenue in downtown Santiago. After six weeks of nearly continuous street protests and a growing tally of the dead and wounded, the debate over "a return to normalcy" has taken center stage here in Chile.

"Ta-ta, ta, ta, ta." That's the beat of protest, heard at random on the streets. It grows louder as one approaches the center, and reverberates off apartment buildings in the evenings following the start of a curfew. A simple banging of a spoon on a pot: the symbol of a peaceful protest.

We're living in a different country from that of last Thursday. No one saw this coming. The media, colleagues and friends — everyone is trying to come to terms with what happened, what it means and where the country goes from here.