Our First Marine Ball

I have been meaning to post these pics for a while, but I just got around to it now.  In November, Todd and I attended our first marine ball.  I was really excited and while I wasn't disappointed, there were parts that were truly reminiscent of an adult prom with the exception that everyone was allowed to drink.

So what happens at a marine ball do you wonder?  I was asking myself the same question too.  Well, the evening started with us getting our pictures taken in front of the American and Marine Corps flag. We came in with a couple friends in our building Emily and Lee and got a pic with them too.  After that,  we mingled for a bit and found our table.  We sat with some good friends of ours from AIT and after some nice speeches and recognitions, we had an amazing steak dinner.  Well, I had steak, Todd had some sort of fish, which he said was good, but it couldn't have been as yummy as my steak!  GOOD steak is definitely a rarity in Taiwan. 

Jen and Brandon, our new game and movie buddies!

Susan Li, my friend and sponsor when we got here.

Mingling with friends.  In the left pic, are my good friends in our area in Da Zhi (where we live in Taipei).  From left to right, Monika and Sara live in my building, and Gaby lives in a building 1 minute from my apartment building.  Gaby also goes to my church so that is super great!

 

Our church friends, Tami and Jeremy, knew that red was the best color to where that night :) and Jeremy did a great job as master of ceremonies.  Even though Jeremy is air force, there is only one marine here in Taiwan (thus the marine ball to honor him), and so Jeremy got to MC.  Oftentimes, marine balls will have more than one marine, but even if there is only one, they still put on a ball.

So as alluded to earlier, in some ways this was like an adult prom.  The part like the prom was at the end, and to be honest, Todd and I were a little taken back at first.  Grown adults were really dancing it up at this thing and not the swing or old timey type dancing, but awkward highschool moves and even riske, semi inappropriate moves danced to fast-paced hip hop/techno music.  But people weren't shy about laying it all out there.  Surprisingly, everybody was dancing including the AIT director and his wife.  Inhibitions seemed to not be an issue and I am pretty sure that the free flowing alcohol had everything to do with that.  It was rather comical but soon Todd and I just decided to embrace it and dance along, our own way of course.  It was hard to actually dance to the music that was being played but we enjoyed watching some less sober people really get into their moves.  

We also did end up hearing a couple songs that we could really dance to, our kind of dancing.  I completely enjoyed every minute of those songs since it has been a while since Todd and I have been able to dance like that.  And I have to say, my hubby looked dang good with his great dancing moves!

All in all, it was a great night.  Not exactly what I expected, but still really fun. Its just fun to dress up sometimes and feel like you have somewhere important to be.  It helps that I get to do that with my best friend who is so hot and such a great dancer!