Ballin' (continued...)

Saturday night: Girls High Ball with Mikaela

This ball was a lot bigger occasion. Boys High and Girls High each have a formal ball for the year 13's (seniors), and its a huge deal. (I've had people tell me that for a lot of girls it the only reason they stay in school for the last year.) Usually one goes to the two balls with the same person, but Mikaela's boyfriend who took her to the Boy's High ball was out of town with the varsity rugby squad, so she asked me instead :) This was really fun for me, because otherwise I wouldn't have been allowed to go because I'm still a year 12.

This ball was a lot more formal. I bought a corsage, and wore a real tux, and they took waaayyy more pictures. We started with a "preball" at a friends house, where not only the girls and their dates, but also our parents were invited. I'm pretty sure my parents were more excited for this than I was... :D

 

The preball was actually almost my favorite part of this ball, because although people were drinking, no one was drunk yet, and I met lots of new people in a good environment.

 We left the preball in a limo, which was just plain awesome, even though we had to hop out and push to help it get over the lip of the the driveway :D

 

At the ball itself we ate a really good dinner, then went in and watched the head girl and deputy head girls do a dance with their partners, and then just danced for 3 hours.

The official ball ended at midnight, then I drove a group of us to the after party. I got changed and stayed for a little while, but everyone was drinking, and Mikaela's boyfriend had just got home and was coming over, so I went home :D

So in conclusion, both balls were really fun, and I met a lot of new and great people as well as getting to know both of my lovely dates a lot better, but there were also some major differences from Utah dances:

• I was asked to both dances over text
• We ate dinner at the dance
• neither dance even had as many people as a regular stake dance
• obviously, none of the dresses were "For the Strength of the Youth" approved
• it was assumed that you would drink alcohol in order to loosen up and be able to have fun. One girl actually said to Mikaela and I, "Can you imagine trying to do this without having anything to drink?" We both busted up laughing, because neither of us drink, and so that's exactly what we were doing.
• You weren't really expected to stay with your date. I didn't even get to meet some of my friends' dates because it seemed like they were barely ever together. And at the after parties especially, a lot of dates didn't even go to the same ones.
• There were certain choreographed dances that we had practiced at special dance practices in the weeks before, and then did with everybody on the night.