Yesterday I went to a ball. Here in Cambridge, there are many occasions to dress up and/or party. During the last week of the school year in June, many colleges hold May Balls where you basically go to this big party and there is food, drinks, games, and other entertainment all night long. There are a couple of colleges that hold balls in the spring or winter, probably so that they don't have to compete with the rest of the colleges. Churchill college is one of them. I, along with many other MIT people, worked at the ball.
These balls costs around between $200 to $400 (USD) each so many of them provide opportunities for you to work and get a "half-on, half-off" deal (work half the ball and get to enjoy the rest) or work for a small amount of money and get a shorter break. I worked as a fire steward and basically sat around, making sure there weren't too many people in a room to keep with fire safety regulations for 6 hours, and then got about 2.5 hours off to enjoy the ball.
But more about the ball itself. These things usually have a theme and this one was American in the 1950s. Which really doesn't mean a whole lot other than they served hamburgers, hot dogs, cotton candy (they call them cotton floss), and had bumper cars (dodgems), among other things. There were also curly fries and chicken nuggets (which they called southern fried chicken). I was really impressed by the freshly made doughnuts though. They fried them right there and were really good. Entertainment wise I think there were performances, a disco room, a casino room, some arcade games, bumper cars, and messages. There were also plenty of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks along with energy drinks to keep you going. The whole thing lasted until 3am. May Balls, I hear, last until 6 or 7am. Some pictures available on facebook if anyone's interested.
It was a fun experience. Although it would've been more fun if it hadn't been freezing that night. Hopefully there will be better weather during the May Balls. But now I'm not so sure about going go a May Ball. Doesn't seem like I will be able to entertain myself for so long. Maybe I'll just opt to work at one again. At first I didn't think these half-on, half-off deals were so great since you don't get paid. But now I think they're pretty good deals since I don't think these balls are actually worth the price and I really think half the ball is enough time to do everything I want.
1 comment:
Hey,
Does this half deal mean that you don't pay or get paid? So there's no money transaction, but you work half of the ball and then get to enjoy half of the ball?
Seems pretty cool...Anya and I are getting together next week and sending an email to ask when we are going to be in Paris and when we are working and if we can live together, and NY training, because they still have not told us anything. Anyhow, it'd be cool if there was a May Ball with the balloon ride to Paris ;-) then we could end up in Paris...anyhow, we'll have to keep each other posted.
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