It rained the whole day. They clouds covered the whole sky and gave the sun only enough space to peep through to light up everything. Although it is a Sunday, the school is filled with people; parents and students checking into their dormitory and preparing to settle for the start of the Spring semester.
Cathianne was alone in her room. She woke up at 9:00AM and thought of attending the 10:00 mass. She made preparations in order to walk downtown to the church. But before she could leave the building, the rain kept pouring hard. She didn’t have an umbrella. She’s stuck.
She opened her laptop and facebooked her family instead and updated herself with the notices. She was too lazy to go down to the convenience store to buy some breakfast or lunch and she wanted to keep herself from spending as much as possible. She remembered the bread and cake that was sent to her during her last dinner in her homeland. She opens and finally savours the taste of the chocolate cake her Tita Bing brought for her farewell dinner. And she’s full.
Waiting for a text message from her lab-mate or at least, for the rain to mellow down, she decides to lie down for a while. She decides to attend the evening or youth mass instead since it is half past two in the afternoon and the rain was still pouring hard. MJ texted and asked if she has already transferred to her new dormitory. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help her since he was also stuck in Seoul due to the bad weather.
After half an hour of waiting in vain, she decides to go down and ask the staff. She goes to GS25 and buys herself a folding umbrella for 12,000KRW. From there, she started walking towards her new dorm and confirms the reservation. She finally got her key! Upon opening her room, she discovers that she’ll be sharing the room with another schoolgirl. (Along comes the hope that this roommate will be nice and will help her learn Hangeul faster).
She went back to the guestroom and got her biggest maleta, the blue stroller bag. With all her might she pulls it up the rainy pathway while the left arm is holding the umbrella. She gets in her dormitory room and starts unpacking her things in order to keep it well arranged. She feels a bit troubled by the space she’s occupying because of the size of the bag and worried about how she’ll organize her clothes without the hangers! Anyway, she decides to go back for the other bag. Not for long, she has already checked out of the guestroom by half past four in the afternoon. She goes back to her room and fixes up all her things to where they should go trying not to invade her roommates seemed privacy.
It was Already half past six and she decides to start walking to the downtown to attend the 7:00 mass at the Jochiwon Catholic Church. She didn’t realize it would be that far, only then when she had to catch up with the time. She got to the church just in time! 7:00 sharp in her android. She goes in the church, dips her fingers in the holy water just behind the entrance door and goes to sit at the pew located at the left area; she chose to sit near the back of the church since she knows the mass will be said in the local language and she wouldn’t understand. Truly enough, the mass started and the first words spoken were in Hangeul. Cathianne beams at herself for attending her first authentic Korean Catholic mass!
There were some practices of the mass that she has observed that were slightly different from the Philippines. The church had a daycare center-like area where children can stay to keep them from disturbing the Eucharistic celebration but they can be seen from the inside of the church through a huge glass. The seats of the pews were covered with sort of carpets or rags and there were no kneeling pads or anything to kneel on. She followed how the mass was begun, with signs of the cross while following the rhythm of the song. It was not only one cross but two or three at least. Then everything was already familiar. The church had a band for a choir since it is normal for a youth mass. After a while, the priest spoke and it seemed that people where looking at one another. A nun started her direction at people who were probably familiar, most likely students, as they were asked to volunteer for some tasks to be done in the mass which Cathianne couldn’t obviously relate to at that moment. She was guessing it could be for the readings or the offertory.
A girl was seated in the pew in front of Cathianne and the former seemed uneasy at the sight of the latter. The girl kept texting and seemed to be waiting for someone to come (who didn’t come anyway, if that was really the case). Cathianne naturally answered in English what part of the mass she was familiar with and the girl seemed shocked at how different the responses obviously were as she kept looking behind her shoulders to see why. She probably couldn’t figure out as Cathianne seemed to look Asian, but definitely not a native because of the way she spoke.
During the offertory, only two women went to offer and eventually, people started standing! Almost horrified, she remains seated at the sight of them and finally realizes that they all stood in order to place their offering in the baskets in front. This is not the way it is practiced in her homeland but she follows, stands up with a thousand won in her hand and goes to the front to drop her offering. She smiles at the thought of a different culture seeping in her slowly. Then she waited for the part of the Eucharist where, in the Philippines, they were supposed to kneel to honor the Body and Blood of Christ. But this didn’t happen. The people simply stood and bowed a little for the gesture of reverence. Know she understands why there’s no kneeling pad.
During the giving of peace, Cathianne bows her head as she says “peace be with you” slowly instead in order not to unease the girl in front of her even more. Alas, the mass ends with the final blessing and the priest leaves into the side door near the altar. Another fond discovery is the fact that the people really waits for the final song to end before they leave. The correct practice, she thought.
It was exactly 8:00pm when she got out of the church and started timing her walk from there towards the laboratory in the campus. At 8:36pm in her android, she arrives the building. Knowing this, she knows now that she would need at least 40 minutes of her time to walk from the campus to the church. It was a very cold walk, a rainy cold walk and her cheeks turned red when she looked in the mirror after freshening up in the ladies comfort room. She takes off her coat for the first time and goes in the lab without it on her. Warmed up, MJ offers her the menu and orders Chinese food Korean style fried rice. She got a text from her mom that her family and relatives are celebrating their late grandfather’s birthday at their home and hoping that she could video call through skype so everyone can talk to her. She downloads skype from her lab computer and calls them. As MJ saw them on the screen, he fondly waves at them. Cathianne felt as if she was also just with them celebrating. A few minutes later, her Chinese dinner arrived. It definitely shocked her appetite as she used to eat only 40 pesos worth of meal in the Philippines. Here, when converted, a typical meal would cost 200 pesos and she could hardly finish them. The fried rice was tasteless if eaten alone but with the sauce, it tasted good. And because it is Korean style, there was kimchi, more sidings like the sweetened, yellow radish and onions with the black spice paste, and the spicy red soup. Cathianne eats and hoping that the more-than-half-an-hour walk will give her a big appetite. But no, she could only eat as much as half of the meal and only sip the soup and a couple of the sidings and the kimchi. That was a tummy booster! On the computer, her family teases her with the food they’re having, the leche flan and her mom’s specialty --- moist chocolate cake, both her favourites! But she was too full anyway to even be jealous of not being able to bite them. Haha! She enjoys her chats with her siblings, parents, aunts, cousins, grandmas, and everybody who were squeezing their faces into the monitor. At half past ten, she waves them goodbye in order to go back to the dorm and hopefully meet her roommate (if she’s there or is still awake).
Now in the dorm, Cathianne discovers a sleeping roommate and doesn’t want to bother anymore. So she unpacks slowly and sleeps for a good recharge for the following day’s adventure. c”,)
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