So last Friday my hall had its Welcome Ball. Balls are a big part of St. Andrews culture. Almost every society has a ball sometime during the year. Some of the bigger ones include the Kate Kennedy Ball (Kate Kennedy is apparently a snobby, expensive, exclusive all male society that nobody likes), May Ball (not really sure what this is...I think it's an end-of-the-year thing), and I think a Christmas Ball (so, like, the Yule Ball?).
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| my hair! |
I know "ball" sounds very formal, but our Welcome Ball was more semi-formal (though I think there are some legit formal balls). Nonetheless, I have a friend (Darya) who is really into balls, and she decided that she was going to do our group's hair. We were all finished with classes by lunch on Friday, so we spent most of the afternoon in one room getting our hair done. Let's just say Darya is super talented when it comes to doing hair. Somehow my hair managed to stay curled the whole night!
So Welcome Ball started with a pre-party in Hall (of course it did...) At least this was a classier pre-party than anything we had during Fresher's Week. I mean, they still served the usual beer and cider, but they also served rosé wine, champagne, and some cocktails. The actual event was at a hotel a few blocks away. Just walking to the hotel was one of my favorite parts of the evening. There is a guy in Hall who plays the bagpipes, so the Hall committee got him to dress up in a kilt and lead everyone to the hotel while playing the bagpipes. It was such a stereotypical Scottish sight: a large group of people dressed up (several guys in kilts) walking through the streets with a bagpipe playing leader. And a high percentage of people were already drunk. I think we were creating quite a scene.
The Ball itself was really fun. There was a chocolate fountain!!!!!!!!!!! And a bar, but I went for the chocolate fountain! The only unfortunate part was that a majority of people left pretty early. And the music didn't get really good until the end when this one guy started requesting better songs. So by the end of it all, there were about 6 of us on the dance floor in a deserted room rocking out to "Don't Stop Believing" and "Living on a Prayer." Then we decided to go back to Hall and have a cereal party.
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| Race2 Prague buddy! |
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| Cereal party |
So Welcome Ball started with a pre-party in Hall (of course it did...) At least this was a classier pre-party than anything we had during Fresher's Week. I mean, they still served the usual beer and cider, but they also served rosé wine, champagne, and some cocktails. The actual event was at a hotel a few blocks away. Just walking to the hotel was one of my favorite parts of the evening. There is a guy in Hall who plays the bagpipes, so the Hall committee got him to dress up in a kilt and lead everyone to the hotel while playing the bagpipes. It was such a stereotypical Scottish sight: a large group of people dressed up (several guys in kilts) walking through the streets with a bagpipe playing leader. And a high percentage of people were already drunk. I think we were creating quite a scene.
