Hey there!
Here is a new post about how my life is going. My life has found new meaning. I am happy and feel enthused about the work that I am doing. It all started on Sunday. I’ll give you a couple topics to digest:
1.) 1.) Austin, my love
2.)2.) Halloween as a pirate Barbie
3.) 3.) Lost Maples
4.) 4.) There’s a gang protecting our house. No, seriously.
5.) 5.) Wendy’s with Brother
1.) Austin, my love
So I went to Austin back in October (the 22, 23, and 24) right after I published my last blog. It was amazing. I went to visit a friend of mine from Loyola University, Anna and we had a blast! We know each other because we studied abroad in Chile together and she is now studying Public Relations at the University of Texas in Austin.
I stayed with her in a home that she shares with six other people and she showed me the downtown area. Austin is such a young person’s town compared to San Antonio and I appreciated that quite a bit. Everyone downtown was between the ages of 18 and 26 and the bars were hopping. We checked out some undergraduate bars but they smelled like vomit so we drifted instead to the more “sophisticated” bars playing house music. We also ate from one of the numerous trailers on the streets of downtown Austin. The trailer was called “Kabobalicious” and served falafel/hummus wraps that were quite tasty. Austin has an impressive culinary selection and I ate very well there.
I spent the night at Anna’s house and the next day we met up with two of the Jesuit Volunteers serving in Austin- Rachel and Joel. We walked around taking in the sights of the city and enjoying the perfect weather. We strolled by the river and took in a spontaneous drum concert and dance performance. Obviously with it’s “Austin City Limits” and “South by Southwest” concert events, Austin is a hot spot for music. But I didn’t realize that there was so much local and unprofessional music performed all over the city every day. We also attended a Day of the Dead festival that involved live music and a spooky parade!! We only stayed long enough to see the Chihuahua portion of the parade but those little doggies were quite adorable so I was happy.
Austin is neat because its mantra is “Keep Austin Weird.” It also is quite environmentally conscious (well, compared to San Antonio…which might not be saying anything at all) and socially conscious. The city has made an effort to keep chain restaurants and department stores out of its territory. You won’t find McDonald’s or Walmart. It’s strange because one might say that Austin is more “liberal” because there are so many college students in the town. However, San Antonio has quite a few universities within its limits as well and it isn’t as liberal. I’m not sure what to make of it but I appreciated being in a much more familiar atmosphere.
That night we went to a concert and the style was described as “glam punk” or something to that effect. The band reminded me of “Of Montreal” and I couldn’t help cocking my head in bewilderment as the keyboard player with a foot-long beard hopped around like a monkey and stood on top of his keyboard. The main singer climbed the rafters of the stage and the rest of the band mates whipped their heads around in wild circles to the beat. I liked it even though it was strange. After the concert, we went out on the town and ended up at a bar called “Beauty Bar.” I felt like I was on the set of Grease during the “Beauty School Dropout” song. There were hair dryer seats along the walls and discos balls. I enjoyed dancing…until I was asked by a highly intoxicated Luigi to dance. He was in costume (although he was a week early) and accompanied by an even more inebriated Mario. He left at one point to get a drink and another random guy came up to dance with me. I tried to back away from him to return to where Anna was dancing but Luigi saw me before I could slip away and he was clearly jealous. He said, “I go away for one minute and you’re already dancing with someone else??!!” That’s when I decided it was time to leave.
Anyway, I think I’d like to move to Austin some day! It’s got everything I look for in a city. It’s more than accommodating to bicyclists, vegetarians, liberal-minded people, environmentally conscious people, people who like to dance, young people, musicians, poets, and other cool kinds of people. So that’s why…
2.) Halloween as a pirate Barbie
…I decided to return to Austin the next weekend!! Four of my roommates, a friend of my roommate’s and I piled into two cars and headed out to the state capital on the Friday before Halloween. We arrived at the Jesuit Volunteer house there and got ready. The Austin JVs were more than accommodating and two of them (there are five total) joined us out on the town. We went to 6th Street which is supposed to be the craziest place in Austin on Halloween (or any given weekend). The bar that we chose to go to had a line out the door but we knew it was worth the wait. As we were waiting to get in, two men were violently thrown out of the bar and onto the street (the entire street was blocked off because it was the weekend). One of them was wearing a bright pink polo shirt and was horribly intoxicated or drugged. He kept taking swings at the other man who was thrown out of the bar and people were trying to restrain him. At one point, he found himself in the gutter and a man was kneeling on his ribcage to subdue him. It was frightening. When the police arrived, they put him in handcuffs and dragged him away. However, one confused Pooh Bear came over to help the man in the pink shirt and was forcefully shoved away by the police. Poor guy.
Some memorable costumes were the Teletubbies, Flintstones, and the cast of Sesame Street. I saw one of the Teletubbies smoking and told him that he couldn't smoke because he was a children's television character to which he replied, "Well, I'm the Teletubby who doesn't give a [expletive] about life." My favorite costume was Wilson from the TV show "Home Improvement." He had attached wooden boards to his shirt to form a fence across the bottom half of his face and was wearing the same hat that Wilson always wears on the show. I thought it was incredibly creative because it was obvious who he was right away but it's not a costume that many people would ever think to don. I love Halloween. It was the one night of the year where I could say that I danced with Fred Flintstone, a cow, and Big Bird without causing much concern.
Halloween continued the next night when my roommates and I returned to San Antonio and partied downtown San Antonio at Howl at the Moon. It's a dueling piano bar that plays live music- all requests from the audience. It was fun singing along and dancing. I can really appreciate live music because I know how difficult it is to perform and these people were playing all sorts of songs without having prepared them ahead of time. After Howl at the Moon, a few of us headed to a nearby McDonald's. There we were asked by two Spanish fellows to take their picture. This started up a conversation and before I knew it, I had spent five hours with the Spaniards walking the streets of San Antonio, dancing, and visiting the central park of the city. It was a real test of my Spanish though because people from Spain speak in a much different manner than those from Latin America. I struggled quite a bit and vowed later that night to intensify the amount of Spanish in my life. I'm not sure if that means reading more Spanish or listening to more Spanish radio but I've got to polish the skills I once had!!
3.) Lost Maples
Ah, yes. Lost Maples. Located along the Sabinal River in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, 2,208-acre Lost Maples State Natural Area is an inspiring mixture of sheer limestone cliffs, deep canyons, dense woodlands, and numerous clear streams. Designated as a National Natural Landmark, Lost Maples State Natural Area contains the state's largest stand of bigtooth maples east of the Guadalupe Mountains. When conditions are right, the maple leaves put on a dazzling show of fall colors, attracting thousands of visitors to the park. Peak fall foliage viewing is during the last two weeks of October through the first two weeks of November.
I went to church this past Sunday to sing in the choir at the 11am mass and after mass, one of the women I sing with, Joanne, was telling me that she and her family were going to Lost Maples. I didn't know much about it other than the fact that one of the priests at our parish was planning on taking a group there in December, but Joanne then got the idea that I should accompany her and her family to the park. I didn't know if she was serious but when she started telling me the time and place that she would be picking me up and what kind of hiking gear I should bring, I realized that she meant business! Joanne is married and has three kids. I didn't know her children very well, other than that they attend mass almost every Sunday and sit up front in the pew closest to the choir. Her oldest son is 26, one of her daughters is 24 and the other daughter is 12 so I figured that this trip to a national park would be just the parents and the youngest child. When Joanne showed up at my house to pick me up, I got in the car and realized it was only her and her husband. I thought, "Oh good. It probably would have been awkward if the kids came because I'm friends with their mother and I know a lot about them, but not because I've spoken to them, only because their mother has told me all about them." However, Joanne quickly gestured to a car in front of her and said, "I told the kids to take the other car because they're bringing the dog and I won't drive with a dog in the car." Hoo boy.
Well, I ended up having the time of my life. The drive to the park was about two hours and I enjoyed talking to Joanne and her husband, Mark because they're both good listeners, filled with interesting stories, humorous, and caring. When we arrived at the park, we decided to take the shorter hiking trail so that we wouldn't have to hike in the dark (the sun sets at around 6pm or 6:30pm now). Marco, the son, was our guide and we enjoyed meandering along trails and taking in the beautiful natural sights. I spoke to the kids and was happy to find out that they were just as awesome as their parents. I really felt like they were my host family because they took such good care of me. I was in all of the family photos that they took on the trail, they made sure I was sufficiently hydrated, and they were comfortable bickering with each other in front of me. I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a lasting friendship. I really appreciate spending time with a family that values family as much as I do. I mean, if you think about it, it's unusual for 26 and 24 year olds to take hiking trips with their parents on the weekend, isn't it? It's also unusual for them to attend mass with their family every week and call their parents every day. That's what I found so great about the Sanchez's. They haven't let the individualistic culture of the U.S. dismantle their familial bonds.
4.) There’s a gang protecting our house. No, seriously.
So I spoke to Carlos, one of the church employees at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (my home parish here) a few days ago about an assortment of things. One of them being the fact that the home in which I live is protected by the Mexican Mafia. As I may have mentioned before, I live across the street from a plaza where drug deals and prostitution are a daily occurrence. It is part of Mexican Mafia (the "M", pronounced "eh-may") territory and the gang members take their duty very seriously to protect their area from other gangs. When a man came into our front yard, sat on our porch, and then made threatening gestures to one of my roommates when she told him to leave, Carlos went over to talk to members of the M. He asked them if it was one of their guys who had sat on our porch. They assured him that it wasn't...and if they found out that it WAS one of their members, they would "punish" him for having bothered us. So basically, the M has a code that if any one of their members bothers us or the church, they will be severely reprimanded (in the form of a solid beating). This provides incentive for the members NOT to mess with us. They also have a code that if someone from outside of the community comes in and causes us trouble, they will be severely "taken care of" as well... so much so that they will never want to enter Avenida Guadalupe (our neighborhood) again.
I suppose this is comforting. Thank God that the members of the M are Catholic and really respect the Catholic Church. I didn't realize it, but our neighborhood is under strong surveillance by the M and they all know who my housemates and I are.
5.) Wendy's with Brother
No, Wendy is not with Brother. I went to the fast-food restaurant, Wendy's with a religious brother from the parish named Brother Gus. He took Kait and I out to eat on Wednesday night because the Jesuit Volunteers are his best friends every year. He is a lonely old man (about 71 yrs. old but in horrible health) who lives in the church rectory and invites himself over for dinner quite often. However, he does return the favor by taking us out (individually, in small groups, or as a household) to restaurants and day trips through Hill Country. This week it was my turn to go out and I was pleased that he remembered my name! He's pretty bad with names and tends to call us whatever he feels like calling us. Here are some memorable things that we have been referred to as:
Owen = Owens
Kelsey = Kelly, Kathleen
Christina = Christa, Katie
Laura = Kait... and he once asked me "How do you pronounce your name again?" because he clearly had forgotten what my name was altogether
Janine = Cindy, Seeya (???), Celia... this is the name he can NEVER remember
Megan = That one (when referring to her, not to her face)
Kait = I think he just never called her anything until he realized one day that SHE was Kait, not me
He is adorable because he's just got such a different perspective on life and he's random and he's got a thick southern accent and a HUGE belly and an intense sweet tooth for ice cream. At Wendy's he told us stories about his youth. Apparently he once worked in a food pantry and a little boy came and was having a tantrum. Brother Gus decided that he TOO would throw a tantrum and it caused the little boy to end his tantrum immediately. He told us that a man who used to work at the church was a drunkard and they found him dead in one of the church's public restrooms. Yuck. He told us that when he was in training for the brotherhood, he was forced to practice self-flagellation (yes, he whipped himself with ropes that had metal hooks on the ends). He told us that he had never finished school...meaning grade school. He once heard himself on a taperecording as a child and couldn't understand a word he was saying because he had such a bad speech impediment. Needless to say, it was an interesting dinner.
Well, I've got to go finish up my work here at Catholic Charities. I mean, it's Friday so work is slow, but I still probably shouldn't be typing my blog while on the clock! ;)
Hasta later!
Laura
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