The Ball.

I was happy to make it on time to the ball last Saturday. The venue was an old bank building and it was really

The result of 30 minutes of preparing!

elegant and rich in atmosphere. Everybody was looking really nice with their evening dresses and dress coats. When you are in a place like that wearing your nice dress you start to feel like a real lady. My avec was making me feel comfortable by behaving like a gentleman. So nice of him. This proves that even Finnish guys can be gentlemen if you make them wear tails, go to an expencive restaurant and wear your best evening gown!

The evening started well with delicious dinner, singing and some speeches. After the meal it was finally time for the dances.  We were provided with dance cards where you could reserve your dancing partners for the four dances: Polonaise, Mignon, Cicapo and Lambeth Walk. These quite simple dances are being danced in the Senior Ball (Wanhojentanssit) in Finland when you are in the second year of high school (that is long ago for me!). According to the etiquette you should start the dances with your avec and continue to others sitting in your dinner table. Between every dance there is one Vienna waltz. The bookings for dances were made already in the beginning of the ball. We decided with my avec that we would dance the first and second dance

The dance card.

together. I danced the others with my table’s two freshmen. Actually I would have wanted to dance with one older student who was doing really well in the rehearsal (you could definitely see that he has been dancing before) but he was sitting in another table. Well, my dancing partners were not doing badly at all so I have nothing to complain about.

One thing I must complain about though, is that the dance floor was way too small for all of the people. It was formed by moving some of the tables aside so it could have been made bigger with only a small extra effort. Hitting each other and stepping on others feet was unavoidable and I got couple of nice strikes to my head. However, if you did not pay attention to the crush and instead let the music take you, the ambiance was brilliant. Everybody was having loads of fun trying to remember the steps. It is not often that you have an opportunity to dance the Senior Ball dances and, I guess, them bring back good memories from free-and-easy high school days. The dancing session was over before I realized and the short time made me want more. Well, maybe next year then!

Today we are skipping Monday’s dancing practice since Nic is not feeling well after yesterday. I took him to sillis (that is a “breakfast” after the ball) for the whole day which was absolutely perfect event with sunshine, food, drinks and good company. Okay, I have to admit that I am, too, quite tired after the weekend! Maybe I will still go to a zumba class to dance to some Latin music.

Me and my avec at the ball.

The venue.

My "ears".

Hanging out in sillis on Sunday.