An Irish Prom

On Tuesday January 27th UCC had their Languages Ball. Since UCC is such a large university they cannot have everyone attend the same ball, so what they do is split it up according to your major. Anyone can attend any ball they want but it is typical for people to go with those they spend the most time with, which is usually those that are in their major.

The Languages Ball was made up of students who are majoring in any language, and so that includes the majority of the international students so that is the one we chose to go to.

The ball was very close to what prom was like, except for college students. However, what UCC does is smart; they split the tickets up into two categories: fulls and afters.  If you buy a full ticket you go for the entire night, and this includes dinner and a few drinks.  The afters ticket is less expensive (which is important for those who are going to multiple balls) but you are not allowed entry until after 9pm.  Since this was the only ball we were going to go to we decided to do the entire experience and got full tickets.

The Ball was held at the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork and since it is about 15 minutes away from the city centre the school arranged a bus to bring everyone from campus to the Hotel.  The bus left UCC at 6pm.

Upon arrival there was a cocktail hour in the lobby including Prosecco and Ferrero Rocher chocolate, excellent combination! This was definitely the biggest difference between my high school prom and the Irish ball, but I love how classy it was.

Caitlin and Me during the Reception

Me enjoying my champagne and chocolate

Our group: Caitlin, Me, Chelsea and Nicole 

Nicole, Me and Caitlin sitting down to give our feet a break from our heels

At around 7:15 we were let inside the great room where there were about twenty tables surrounding the room.  Each table held ten people so our group was joined by three more Americans from Minnesota, and three German girls. We had a fun time meeting new people, and getting served a fancy three course meal.

The theme of the night was Heaven or Hell so each table was decorated in either red or white, and had props that included wings or horns.  We sat at the Devil's table so we had a lot of fun playing around with our horned headbands.

Me and Chelsea sporting our horns 

Nicole, Me, Caitlin, Chelsea and Francie (a fellow Holy Cross girl who we saw there later) 

After dinner the room quickly started to fill up with students who had bought afters tickets and the band came on shortly after. They were good, and the dance floor was packed all night. Definitely better than the DJ's that were at either of my proms. 

We lasted for awhile but at 1am we decided that we just couldn't wait for the shuttle back to campus, which wasn't leaving until 2am.  We grabbed a cab, and had nothing but great things to say about the night during the ride back back.