The Summer Ball

Okay, it's been a while. For those who've been checking here fruitlessly for the last month, sorry. For those of you still checking- thanks, and enjoy the following. I am going to post a quick writeup of the Summer Ball today, and then I'll be back with much more about our family trip around Britain and France over the next few days.

A fun event right near the end of the year was the summer ball. Almost the entire Van Mildert College was there- around 750 of us in Tuxedos or ball gowns, depending of course, on sex. And many were also wearing ball masks, as the theme of the night was "Venetian Masquerade". It was a bit like a normal formal college dinner at first, with a 3 course fancy meal in the dining hall.

(Before the dinner, showing off nice masks)


(Me in my homemade sunglasses/mask)


(At the dinner)

Afterward, most of the party moved outside. It was a beautiful summer evening, and as was becoming common, it didn't get fully dark till well after midnight. With exams past, we finally had nothing left to stress or worry us, and the revelry continued until early in the morning. The two major highlights were the 'gondolas' on Mildert Lake and the large ferris wheel.

(Video of the lake, the boats, the fast moving ferris wheel, and my friend Chris)

(Some friends on the ferris wheel)

(At the top of the ferris wheel)

The fun shifted inside for the latter parts of the evening, with a performance by Be*Witched (an Irish girl band, pretty famous in the UK, basically like a poor man's Spice Girls. Not exactly my cup of tea) and then dancing for all hours of the night.

(Be*Witched on stage)

(In the crowd for Be*Witched)

(Dancing into the night)

(With friends in the dancing tent. The headphones are because it was a 'silent disco')

(Finally about to go to bed around 4:45AM, couldn't make it to the 'survivors breakfast')

Overall it was a really great night. I went with a large group of my friends, and it was really fun to have one last big night with all my friends, so close to the end of the year. The night really reminded me of how many friends I've made in Durham, and especially my college, Van Mildert, since I seemed to know almost everyone I ran into during the night. While I'm looking forward to going back to Santa Cruz next year, I'll definitely miss Durham at times next year.

As I said, I'll be back with a series of posts this week, showing photos and writeups of our big family trip, and my return back home.