My Very Own Cinderella Story

This is the story of how I went to a real live ball.  But first…

The weekend after St. Paddy’s I had another Dublin adventure.  This time I traveled with the NUIG Choral Society to Dublin to see a Beatles Musical!  Ok, this is going to seem blasphemous to a lot of people, but I’ve never really been a fan of The Beatles.  I’ve always kind of felt like they were over-hyped, and I didn’t understand the obsession.  But that all changed as the 10 of us danced in the aisles, grooving to “Hey Jude” and “Yellow Submarine.” I’ve been converted. 

Choral Society in Dublin!

We took the 3-hour bus from Galway to Dublin on that Friday afternoon and went to a fantastic restaurant called The Gourmet Burger Kitchen where I had a chorizo burger with sweet potato on it!  Absolutely scrumptious!  After our dinner we had to rush to the theater to see our show—we only had 10 minutes to get there!  Well we found it alright and as I said, the dancing in aisles commenced for the next two hours as we watched  a group of four guys essentially be a Beatles tribute band and have a few costume changes.  It was great.

After watching others sing for two whole hours, we all felt the urge to be little songbirds too.  I mean we ARE choir nerds!  So we did the only rational thing that a choral group can do which is go to the nearest karaoke bar.  Luckily we had spotted one earlier that day when we arrived to the city, so we high-tailed it over there!  We sang one group number rocking the socks off of the pub if I do say so myself, and then a bunch of us did individual numbers.  Now I LOVE singing.  Absolutely love it.  However, standing up with a microphone and a wordless karaoke recording in the background before a crowd of drunken pub-goers is intimidating, even to me who has been taking singing lessons for as long as I can remember.  But after a few of my friends rocked the mic, I couldn’t resist the call of the mic and I did my own rendition of “Wide Open Spaces” by the Dixie Chicks, a song that always reminds me of my mom.  I have a vivid memory of listening to this album in her car when we lived in Pasadena on my way home from tennis camp one summer.  It’s a gorgeous song and it was fun to just cut loose and not care what anyone thought!  Hell, I’m never going to see any of those people again!  If I cracked or truly stunk it up it really didn’t matter at all.

After karaoking our little hearts out until 2am we headed back to our hostel where we relaxed and talked for a while and then crashed.  We all got up early to hit the Dublin shops—not really what I wanted to do but I DID need a dress for the previously mentioned ball.  Don’t worry, I’m getting there.  Anyways the first store I looked in I found one!  It was a pretty green dress that made me feel like a glamorous 20’s flapper…always a cute look I think.  After spending the afternoon shopping up a storm we headed back home to Galway.

Now, continuing on towards the ball…

Early that next week Choral Society had another important milestone—our annual concert.  We teamed up with the Traditional Irish Music Society and put on a concert that raised money for the relief efforts in Japan after the devastating earthquake.  We sang some songs that you’ll recognize like: “With a Little Help from my Friends” and “Heartbreak Hotel” and then lesser knowns like “Wolf Song”—a traditional Swedish lullaby.  I even had a solo in “With a Little Help from my Friends,” and my friends Caitlin, Tara, and Kelsey came out to support me.  With this concert I actually reached an important milestone in every woman’s life—my first pair of red heels.  My Mom-mom (mother’s mom) always told me that every woman needed a pair of red shoes, well for years I had been searching for a cute pair.  I finally found them!  The Choral Society decided to wear all black with hints of red so one of my hints was a pair of sexy red heels…yay!

My Name in the Program

Anyways, as I’ve officially bored any male reading this I’ll keep going.  My Choral Society packed week was not complete yet!  The day after our successful concert that raised a few hundred euro for Japan (not even a drop in the bucket, but at least we tried!), we had the Society and Volunteer Awards that were presented to active students on campus.  I sat with my fellow committee members in the banquet hall for a  free lunch and received the Presidential Award for Volunteering for my work at the Scoil Bhride Homework club, and as the Vice-Secretary of the Choral Society.  It was a honor and definitely cool to experience another school’s incentive for student’s volunteering.  While USC has a lot of volunteer student groups, maybe something like this should exist?  People our age can do so much for our communities when we put our mind to it—we need to remember that.

Tara and I ready for the Ball

Anyways, as I’ve officially bored any male reading this I’ll keep going.  My Choral Society packed week was not complete yet!  The day after our successful concert that raised a few hundred euro for Japan (not even a drop in the bucket, but at least we tried!), we had the Society and Volunteer Awards that were presented to active students on campus.  I sat with my fellow committee members in the banquet hall for a  free lunch and received the Presidential Award for Volunteering for my work at the Scoil Bhride Homework club, and as the Vice-Secretary of the Choral Society.  It was a honor and definitely cool to experience another school’s incentive for student’s volunteering.  While USC has a lot of volunteer student groups, maybe something like this should exist?  People our age can do so much for our communities when we put our mind to it—we need to remember that.

At the Ball!

Gasp!  No no, not the kind of drive-by shooting we actually think about in South Central, a drive-by WATER GUN shooting.  Right smack dab on my face.  Some jerks were driving by and targeting anyone dressed up for the ball, let’s just say I was not amused.  Some water even got on my dress!  I rushed up to a nearby bathroom and literally stood under the hand dryer begging some higher being to turn the evening around.  God Bless Tara, she was trying so hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, knowing that if she laughed I could’ve just downward spiraled into pissy-ness.  But it all turned out ok, and my dress dried.

From there we went straight to the banquet hall unencumbered and unmolested.  And the rest of the evening was a FABULOUS night!  I ate way too much, and danced until my feet were so sore they wanted to fall off.  We had a great live band and once they stopped playing we danced to the tunes of the DJ.  

All in all it was one of the most memorable nights I had in Galway; I truly felt a part of not only Galway and Ireland, but also of NUIG.  That’s what I wanted to achieve here.  I didn’t just want to come to Ireland, only hang out with fellow American study abroaders, travel, and barely attend class. I wanted to leave Ireland with a sense that I became integrated into my new school.  The Socs Ball was the ultimate achievement of that. 

Not only was the Ball amazing though, my entire experience with the Choral Society was wonderful.  It was so great to become involved with group singing again in a noncompetitive, and non-catty environment.  Singing at both of my high schools was a highly competitive and drama-inducing experience; everyone wanted to be the soloist.  Everyone wanted the limelight.  And let’s face it, anyone who sings at USC mostly wants to be discovered…it IS Los Angeles, kind of comes with the territory.  This was purely about the sound, the group, and the experience.  It was incredible.

Just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm done!

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