Aside from daunting classes, UT also haunts students through strange occurrences on campus.

From escaping ginormous cockroaches to encountering nude bicyclists on Guadalupe Street, The Daily Texan gathered alarming UT experiences to set the mood for the Halloween season.

Guad Nudists

Sitting in a car on Guadalupe Street, aerospace engineering freshman Alexis Cabrales heard screams coming from his friends and honking from nearby cars. Not wearing his glasses or contacts, Cabrales said he felt scared, not able to see what caused the screams.

“I was like, ‘What’s happening?,’” Cabrales said. “I couldn’t really see what was happening, so I took out my phone. I just saw bikers and didn’t think much of it. Then I started zooming in, and I saw all their parts. It was crazy.”

Still in his first semester on campus and adjusting to Austin college life, Cabrales said seeing naked bicyclists on Guadalupe Street shocked him and his friends.

“Some (bicyclists) were covered, but not all of them,” Cabrales said. “(My friends and I) were talking about it for a good 10 minutes. I was like, ‘I guess this is Austin.’”

Catfished by Food

Excited to finally eat authentic Mexican food since moving from border town Brownsville, nutrition junior Amanda Parra headed to Juan in a Million during her freshman year of college. After hearing great reviews from other students, Parra eagerly ordered a bacon and egg breakfast taco.

“I expected queso fresco and they came back with yellow regular cheese,” Parra said. “It was not as great as what they hyped it up to be, (not) super authentic … I never went back after that.”

Parra said she escapes the inaccurate advertising of authentic Mexican restaurants in Austin to go to Brownsville whenever possible.

“I still look for (restaurants) because I obviously crave it,” Parra said. “But the places (recommended) so far have not yet met my expectations.”

Roach Roommates

During her first semester at UT, journalism senior Tara Phipps encountered unwanted roommates in her Kinsolving Residence Hall: cockroaches. For two weeks straight, Phipps said one or two roaches would stray to her room from her shared bathroom. She would stay up late in fear of the inevitable new roach awaiting her.

“I would lay in my dorm (thinking), ‘I’m not sleeping tonight,’” Phipps said. “I was afraid I was gonna wake up with (a roach) on my face.”

After calling maintenance for pest control, Phipps said the roach problem stayed the same. Fed up, Phipps ignored advice from maintenance staff to not place roach spray down the drain, causing at least 10 roaches to immediately scurry out of the drain and toward her.

“They were big full adult sized roaches,” Phipp said. “I’m pretty sure I started crying because I just do not do roaches. It was terrifying. After a few minutes, I went back to my dorm and they were limping for dear life and dying … Needless to say, I moved out of the dorms after that year.”