My Gatsby Ball
Door: Ana Laura
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Ana Laura
29 Juni 2014 | Nieuw Zeeland, Rotorua
Saturday morning I had to get up early because I was one of the volunteers who were going to help to set the ball up at 9AM. I had no clue what I was going to do that day so I just decided to take all my stuff with me. At 9 I, and some other girls, arrived at the Events Centre where the ball was going to be. We entered the building and there was this huge door (maybe 10m high) with the Gatsby sign on it, in front of it there was a really antique car and on each side of the big door there were 2 little doors. We walked through one of the doors and got to the room where the ball was going to be and it wasn’t nowhere near ready but it already looked amazing. From the ceiling there were maybe 100 round lanterns hanging and that just looked so cool! Other than that there were around 40 round tables spread around the room with 10 seats each. Our job was to decorate them. So We had to put black chair covers on every chair and after that put like a silver or gold ribbon around it. Other girls put these little chandelier thingy’s on the tables or big feathers. After 2 hours the room looked so different already! But there was more to do but we would see that, that night. The rest of the afternoon I accompanied friend, Ella, to her appointments for hair and make up. So we went to the hairdressers where she got her hair done. While waiting I wondered what I wanted to do with my hair and thought the only thing I could sorta manage was a plait haha. So I asked the lady how much it would cost to do a plait. I had already checked in the folder and ball hair was $70. Luckily she said that a plait wouldn’t be too expensive. I didn’t think I would be able to get my hair done because people book their hair months before but the lady said she would be able to ‘squeeze me in’. Haha typical that I get my hair sorted the same day. She curled my hair a bit and made a plait and I was good to go, didn’t like it too much but better than nothing! We then went out for lunch in town and after that I went home back to the Gimbletts because that was where the Pre-ball was going to be. One of their family friends and my oldest host sister Sophie helped me with my make-up. The pre-ball started at 17.00. Slowly people started walking in all dressed up in their gorgeous dresses. Of course we took a lot of pictures. There were some snacks and drinks and we were just talking and enjoying. The room was filled within the first 20 minutes. For our year, which are 120 students, there were 3 pre-balls but I think our one was the biggest. My current host parents (Nicky and Henry) came to say hello as well. So usually your partner brings you a corsage and I go this beautiful one made out of real white roses. So pretty! After hour and a half we all walked outside to our rides. So you have to organise a car (or something else) to take you to the ball. It was already pitch black outside (it gets dark after 5) and raining, of course. There were all kinds of different cars. Limousines, hippie busses, really old school cars, fire trucks, school busses, cars made out of cardboard everything! My ride was just a normal car. We drove off to the Events Centre and the city was filled with all these cool cars. We had to wait in line to get off. Once we got to the red carpet my partner opened my door and we got out. I started walking off and of course I forgot to shut the door so I had to walk back a bit and shut the door, typical… Then we had to walk 10 meters more on the red carpet and the sides were packed with people taking photos. We had to give our ticket and got in. We all had to wait in this big hallway right before the room where the ball was. We were all waiting in front of this big Gatsby door. This was going to be the biggest ball in the schools history with 410 people attending! I decided to go to the toilet but by the time I got back I missed the opening and everybody was inside. Haha nice. I walked into the room and it just looked magical! The room was dark but with all the lanterns hanging from the ceiling and some back lights the room got lit up. At the other side of the room there was a big stage with a dancing floor in front of it. We looked for our assigned tables and sat down. We danced for the first hour to the band that was playing. “The Monroes” apparently they played with Katy Perry and other artists so quite big! They played some golden oldies but also some sing-alongs. After our dance off we sat down to have dinner. Every table got called up and brought to the hallway where we had to wait earlier. There was a big buffet with delicious food! Roast, meat, pasta everything! On my way back to my table I saw the dessert table but unfortunately I had to wait. During dinner they had a playlist with soundtracks of the movie “The Great Gatsby”. After a while we could go and have dessert. I dove in the chocolate sauce and filled my plate with it, also with some cheesecake hmm! After dessert we had still 3 hours left so we danced danced and danced. Sometimes I needed a break so I went to the hallway, which was always full of people, and decided to take some pictures. So every ball has 1 wall or décor where there’s a photographer all night long and you can take as many pictures as you wanted. We had some see through white curtains with fairylights in the background. It was really a warfield to get your photo taken. I mean 410 people and 1 photographer haha. So the second the photo was taken 10 people ran to the wall to get their photo taken and you just had to be lucky you were one of them! Another thing that we had were photobooths! Also they were really old school so they had little red curtains on both sides and the screen looked like an old tv with big lights on the side. Next to the photobooth there was a table full of Gatsby decorations like feather scarfs, headbands and funky glasses. You could choose to have black and white or colour photos by pressing a button on the screen and seconds later your polaroid picture would fall out of the machine! As you can imagine that hallway was busy the whole night! So switching between dancing and taking pictures we also had our King and Queen of the ball. During dinner everybody got a ticket where you could anonymously vote for King and Queen of Year 13, Prince and Princess of year 12, Best dressed and Cutest Couple. So after the votes being counted we all got told to sit down and they got announced, my host sister Hannah got queen! We then had a slow dance and we kept on dancing.
Close to midnight we got picked up and driven to one of the girls houses. We all got changed and drove to a car park where the after ball was going to start! When we got there it was all so well organised. You had to get your ticket crossed of, your name checked and then you got a green wristband. After you got your wristband there were 2 big busses and 13 other vans ready to take us to one girl’s house. She lived half an hour from the car park (it’s normal here if you take 30/45 min to get to school) so on the way to her house we had our own little party in the car with very loud music and singing. When we got to her house we walked to her shed. She lived on a farm and she hosted the party in a big shed next to it. There were lights hanging, toilets outside, a bbq and a lot of speakers. We partied there till 3.30 in the morning and then got driven back to the carpark. I then had to call my poor host mum to pick me up at 4 in the morning and by the time I got to bed it was 5! A very very very good night I had and it was my first ever ball and I enjoyed it to bits!
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30 Juni 2014 - 01:54
Abuelita :
Que gran alegria me ha producido, el saber el gozo y emocion que te ha prodigado esta nueva y es perada experiencia. Sin duda, este baile ha sido y sera, un recuerdo inolvidable en tu vida. Besos
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30 Juni 2014 - 03:41
Mummin:
¡Viva la vida y el baile! ¡Qué bien que has tenido el baile con el que habías soñado. Tantas horas de música, baile, carcajadas y locuras. Eres joven y afortunada al haber podido vivir estos momentos. Gracias a los organizadores, tus familias anfitrionas y a tí misma por estar dispuesta a gozar y pasártela bien.
Solamente eres joven una vez... Mummin. :)
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