Blog 1: What Starts Here Changes the World

Not gonna lie, my last blog was pretty pitiful, full of odd rambling stories and many unfinished drafts on my experiences in Korea. With the new school and new city I decided why not start a new blog!


So the "moo-ve in" process started bright and early Saturday morning. I woke up at around 5:15 and had my parents greet me before they left for work. To my surprise they kept it together during our goodbye, though the following day my mom called me and told me that she cried when she thought about the onion oil i made for her lol! Afterwards, Jo and Ha helped my pack up the rest of the car, we picked up Van, and we were on our way to Austin. For the first half of the trip I pulled a "Ha" (sleeping in the car and not keeping the driver entertained lol) and I woke up to Van and Ha gossiping about tv shows, work, other drama. After about another hour and a half we reached Austin and got ready to check me in. The check in process when actually really short since we checked in in the morning. I got my room key, checked in in just a few minutes and we went onto Jester to get my stuff situated.

Many sympathies to whoever lives on the 14th floor! lol

To my luck my roommate was already checked in and volunteered to help bring in my stuff. This was a real godsend as he carried the TV while I carried my box of tshirts hahaha. Since we had a dolly it only took up two trips to get everything up and while William and I returned the dolly, Van and Ha took out the majority of my stuff and organized it for me. It was nice having everything so neatly organized but it was hard figuring out where alot of my things were without them xD After an exhausting move in we decided to head onto Pluckers and invited William along since he helped us out alot.

Disclaimer: I didnt take this photo. Its not as pretty from my phone hahaha

Pluckers was delicious as always. We had fifty teriyaki, lemon pepper, spicy mandarin, and hot wings. As their motto states, they are some pluckin' good wings. It was nice having William there since we all got to know him. We learned that he's a wing stop lover yet a health nut, an avid Ultimate Frizbee player, a physics AND aerospace engineer major, and that he deems himself as socially awkward hahaha. Van and Ha approved of my roommate and i'm happy that  i didn't get a creeper as a roommate! After that we made a trip to HEB to get some more snacks and other knick knacks for my room. The store was packed with warm bodies and the mounting aisles placed so closely together were just adding to the feeling of claustrophobia. Our cart was filled with neon green plastic bowls, plates, and cups, bags of Zapps chips (mmmm!!), and eight jars of habanero salsa for the parents! After checking out, we dropped off the groceries at the dorm and headed on to the hotel.

Brb, Drooling rn :P

Once we got settled in into the hotel, Ha and I knocked out on the beds while Van got to meet up with Cyril. Since everyone and their grandmother was moving in that afternoon, we decided to steer away from St. Austins and tried to find a church by our hotel. Our Google search brought up a church by the name of Our Lady's Maronite Church located close to the hotel. Catholic: Check. Four Minutes away: Check. Saturday Mass: Check. It seemed like the perfect church to us but we could not have been more wrong!

The name of the church and the dome should've given it away...

So we walk into this tiny chapel and right off the bat, its as if we walked into the twilight zone! The people are all dressed a little funny (old jean dresses and such) and we were the ONLY minorities. The guy next to me brought us the readings and the books and asked if we were from here and were Catholics. When I told him we were Catholics from Dallas he then revealed to me that their church was based on a small branch of the catholic church and that there were only a few differences. "No biggie" I thought, maybe the changes will be a little interesting. Then I opened up the book he handed me and this is what I saw...

WUTTTTTTTT?!?!?!

The entire mass was like watching one of those freaky circus shows! The preacher was dancing around a cross that had a pink ribbon attached, this guy was swirling around this can of incense, and the congregation was chanting prayers likes "I shall be humble and fear you with my entire heart oh mighty lord!"

Our exact reactions

The readings were even obscure and they were from people i've never even heard of. Then came the flamboyant creeper priest. Van and Ha thought he was one of those priests that liked to molest little children lol!!! After the homily and more chanting, came the time where we shake hands. Finally, something familiar! But, as was the rest of the mass, this was abnormal as well. After shaking hands with each other we looked around and found the rest of the congregation doing something else and giving us strange looks.

HOW BLASPHEMOUS!!!

The people held their hands together and the person at the end of the row would pass it down one by one to each person. Since I was the only one next to a congregation member I was fumbling while they were trying to do it to me and I could tell he was really annoyed and frustrated. After, you guessed it, even more chanting, we grabbed the communion and ran the hell out of there!! Mass felt excruciatingly long even thought we were there for only forty five minutes and when we got in the car all of us were hysterical and couldn't get the hell out of the fast enough!!

A bit exaggerated but close enough lol

Upon inspection of their website, we learned that they really are a tiny branch of the Catholic Church and that there are only 38 of those churches in the entire country!! What are the odds!! xD To get all the craziness off our minds we went to Cheesecake Factory for some feel good food! We shared sliders, fries, and this huge chicken plate that came with heaps of mashed potatoes, asparagus, and this delicious mushroom sauce and Van and Ha got margaritas and cokes to help ease their worries. After that we headed back to the hotel for a night of Rummy and Food Network before we headed back to sleep.

Well thats all for now folks! Gonna grab a bite now and have a night planned of fun before school starts. Until then, hasta pasta :)