Blog 3: Plank to Chaturanga

So I realized that i'm still writing about stuff that happened earlier this week! >.< I think i'll start labeling the days so ya'll dont get confused xD Hopefully i'll be able to catchup to present day before I forget everything that's happened!!

Monday (09/22/11): Today was my first day of solitude. I woke up sore and groggy from the wooden plank they call my mattress! Rubi texted me saying since she was in the neighborhood (she lives about 15 minutes away in Duren) and that we should hang out. We decided to meet up at Jester City Limits, basically UT's version of Sbisa, and have breakfast. We still had money on our orientation cards so we decided to have a feast of a breakfast! Eggs, Hashbrowns, Sausage, Biscuit, the whole shebang! :D



After scarfing down breakfast and snatching a few utensils for our dorm (kleptomania ftw!! lol) we headed to the co-op to grab some stuff for Rubi's room. Walking along Guadalupe, i realized "woah, Austin sure does have alot of hobos!" lol. Outside the co-op was a huge group of raggedy looking people, walking in a circle chanting "Who da rat?! 4RC!!!!" or something along those lines.  Once we got out of the groups hearing range we started turning their chant into an awesome song and rapped and gangster walked our way into the co op! Hahaha.

After Rubi got her stuff from the co op, we dropped off it off at my dorm while she went to her first FIG meeting. William's friend Jin was also in the room and they were on their way to doing some P90X. They asked if I wanted to join them and though I would usually decline saying i'm as physically active as a potato, I just finished eating a greasy hamburger from city limits and thought what the hell, might as well burn it off!

So the three of us went on to Gregory Gym which is conveniently right across the street from Jester. I was somewhat the odd one out since I just wore regular tennis shoes and William and Jin wore Vibrams, those freaky shoes which pretty much show your toes!

Now, not just limited to divers!

Whenever I see those shoes, I think of Andy from Parks and Recreation trying them on and saying he feels like a monkey lol.

When we got to Gregory, we met up with 3 of Williams friends. First was "Win", a really tall thai guy who's an aerospace engineer major. His real name is one of those reeeealy long thai names so we call him Win hahaha. He's pretty reserved but he was real cool. He's actually from Thailand so the guys would always crack transvestite jokes! Hahaha the first time they cracked one i busted out laughing so hard I felt bad! xD He didnt mind though and would actually laugh at them too lol. Next was Daniel, another aerospace engineer. He's very dry and stoic, which makes his comments even more hilarious, and a proud Spanish person (he takes offense to people calling him Mexican so of course everyone tossed around "beaner jokes" lol) Last was Jacklyn, a double Biology and Nutrition major. She was the only girl in the group and was really chill and strangely tolerant of all the testosterone and stupid jokes going on. Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, the guys convinced me that she was a transvestite...

My thoughts exactly Marky Mark

Hahahaha, how did this come about you may ask? Before she came, William and Jin were asking each other where the tranny was? As I always do, I laughed more than I should've and asked where the origin of the nickname the tranny came from. Their faces turned serious and told me that she was actually a real life tranny and that I shouldnt call her that in front of her face. I started laughing, expecting them to laugh as well but they still had those serious looks on their faces. Then, with perfect timing Jacklyn comes in and starts introducing herself! I knew deep down that she wasnt a tranny but still, the way the guys reacted kept me thinking hahaha. She found this out at the end of the night and confirmed my suspicion she was in no way a transvestite. Hahaha, this brought out a few laughs but man was she mad at the guys xD

Anywho, back to the working out, since classes hadn't started yet it seemed like everyone decided to hit up the gym. Though we planned on using the weight room since it had a matted area, the entire gym was packed with very swole and intimidating looking guys. We decided to move out the the end of the hallway by the emergency exit, just enough to be out of immediate sight but still in view of people using the water fountain or walking to the emergency exit thinking it was a useable door. I wish we were able to get a private room or something because I know I was making a fool out of myself! xD Since I was with five guys and a girl who was doing way better that I was, I sucked it up and tried to keep myself composed. Though the workout was only designed to be about an hour and a half, with our constant goofing off, we finished the program in about two and a half hours. We headed back to me and Williams dorm, William busted out with his HUMONGOUS vat of Muscle Milk Powder, and we had ourselves a little protein shake party!

Mmmm, viscousss. Cheers everyone!

Rubi had finished her meeting and came back to pick up her stuff just in time for our party! She took a few sips of mine and said it tasted pretty good, though not in the most convincing tone lol. It wasnt too bad in my opinion. It was by no means a Wendys milkshake but tasted pretty good for being a protein shake. Afterwards our group decided to get some real food and headed to Kinsolvings all you can eat buffet!!!

By this time, it was dinner and the dining hall was stuffed to capacity with loud, hungry students. The cost of admission was less than 5 dollars but the food choices were limitless!! Pasta, chicken, veggies, pizza, desserts, the whole shebang! I filled my plate with mostly with healthy options since I just finished working out and I was eating with a bunch of health junkies but I couldn't resist the call of the chicken tenders. The tables were arranged in reallllly long rows which probably sat 30 people a row. We sat at a table with alot of Jacklyn and Williams friends and honestly, Daniel, Rubi, and I were the only non chinese people at the table! hahaha. It was pretty fun though, we talked about the most random stuff and Daniel and I got into a "spanish fight" lol. The food was pretty decent for being buffet food but that protein shake had kicked in and got me full before I could finish all my chicken tenders! :-/ I cant wait to go again someday so I can really pig out!! :D

After dinner we all went off on our separate ways and called it a night.

Tuesday (09/23/11): I honestly cant remember what I did Tuesday morning. Hahaha, I probably just chilled in my room and watched alot of TV. This last year I barely touched the TV and mostly went online but now, I got sucked back into the television world and find myself watching alot of TBS shows like Everyone Love Raymond, Friends, and Family Guy and a whoooole lot of Law and Order on USA.

Thought the morning was pretty uneventful, I had a night jam packed of activities. At 5 we were set to have our first wing meeting, at 6:30 a huge gathering of the Natural Science students which led into the big Gone to Texas event at 8, all before our first day of school! The wing meeting wasn't anything radically different. We just learned about some of Jesters rules (No guests after a certain time, No drinking or drugs in the dorms, No spraying pepper spray into the ventilation system causing everyone to feel the effects of it and think there's a terrorist attack occurring on campus. You know, the usual).

Gone to Natural Science was up next and was and outdoor event right next to the Student Activity Center. There were tons of tables lined up with various Natural Science organizations promoting their clubs and giving away the free Gone to Texas shirts. After perusing some of the tables and writing down my old contact information for those really aggressive clubs, I grabbed my Pizza and proceeded to find a seat. Again, I felt awkward knowing no one at the event and walking around cluelessly to find a seat. After a few minutes, I spotted an available seat on the steps and asked if I could take it. The girls said yes and scooted over a bit to provide some more room for my black girl booty. The girls were Ashley and Linh from Sugarland and I was happy that we struck up a conversation and eventually hung out the rest of the night.

Nearby, were two guys, Dakota and Austin who the girls had met at orientation. A huge coincidence was that Austin, who was an active member in Skills USA, asked what school I was from and when he heard Townview, he started naming off students from the Law Magnet, like Janie, Jaime, and Gabby, which I surprisingly knew. We then walked and talked a bit more before we headed onto the grand Gone to Texas event.

The three of us with our signature poses. Austin with his mouth open, Ashley being awkward, and me cheesing hard lol

We all marched in wearing our blue Natural Science shirts into our special seats on the South Mall facing the UT Tower. As we waited for the show to start, the UT steel drum ensemble performed for us an array of song which were performed really well but would also be found on 103.7 Lite FM!

Selections include "I Can See Clearly Now" and "Dont Stop Believing" lol

After a few more song selections, the lights were dimmed and the festivities had begun. We heard alot of speeches from the student body president, the dean, and other prestigious people at UT. Every now and then they would play a little commercial for UT which would always end with "What Starts Here Changes the World!". By the end of the night that mantra was engraved in our heads and we would always repeat it when we knew it was coming up! They also had a Gone to Texas video contest where students would create a video stating why they came to UT. I hope they post up these videos soon because some of the are just too lulzy, like a girl speaking viet and fob while the pokemon music is playing in the background -_____-

They also gave some more speeches on the culture of UT and the origin of of Bevo and the famous hand sign. An immature but hilarious moment was when they played an interview of the guy who created the Longhorn hand signal and he stated "You can really tell alot about a person by what they do with their hands!" The whole audience was trying to hush their chuckles and laughs but with everyone doing it at the same time, it was very noticeable. Worst thing was that guy was actually in the audience that night hahaha!!

The grande finale had the congregation sing "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You" and "Texas Fight" as the Texas flag was unraveled over our clock tower. It was supposed to be a really grand and moving moment for all of us but the fraternity in charge of lowering the flag didnt do such a stellar job. When they let go the flag, a section of the middle part got scrunched up on a wire so the ends of the flag were unraveled but the middle was still scrunched up pretty high. For the next few minutes the group was frantically waving the flag trying to get it untangled! I would've loved to have been up there at that moment to hear everyone freaking out and yelling at each other to get the flag unraveled correctly. Finally after a few minutes, the flag was straightened out, the tower had been lit, and we gave a booming round of applause for their great efforts.

Once the music had stopped and the lights had come back on, everyone shuffled on back to their dorms and headed to bed for their first day of school. Thanks for reading and hope to update real soon :)