vienna ball faq

What kind of ball was it?

The International Atomic Energy Agency Ball.

Where was it held?

Imperial Palace:


How did you, she who only pretends to be fabulous, get invited?

Through my friend Dan’s IR master’s program that gets invited every year. Due to our current commonalty of a shared time zone (I actually haven’t spoken to Dan for years) we end up chatting a lot on gchat and he mentioned it. In attempts to invite myself I asked if people completely unrelated to the program whatsoever could go. Turns out they could.

What do you do at a ball, exactly?

Well you get really really dressed up and then spend the rest of the evening standing in heels that look great with your dress but makes you wish you had the good sense to surgically remove all your nerve endings beforehand. While you are standing you can watch things like African tribal dances or an Alba cover band.


You can also dance to music in designated rooms like the Reggae room or Scottish folk room.

There is also the time classic option of drinking and conversing. Girls complimented each other on dresses and commiserated on sore feet while sipping on champagne. Guys talked about how cool it would be if they all came to the ball with mustaches over a beer.

Since Dan’s master’s program is in international relations, a lot of the conversations revolved around subjects that begins with words like postmodern realist something or other.

I excused myself from those types of conversations and instead found a girl who, like me, is not part of the IR program (she works in video promo in L.A.) and together we discussed the intricacies of the fine line between a ball gown and homecoming dress (some people were not aware of this difference – I judged).

Oh and you can also stand in the ridiculous long line for wieners.

Did you do the waltz?

Depends on how you define “waltz”.

When perfectly executed the waltz is like the teacup ride at Disney land where people traverse a designated space spinning round and round in perfect synchronization (it is also just as fast). Unfortunately since I don’t really know how to waltz, and from what I could tell neither did most people on the dance floor, what I did was more like bumper cars.

So if you want to consider Dan leading me around the dance floor round and round in circles whilst I giggled and Dan concentrated on not hitting people until the music was over then yes. Yes, I did do the waltz.

The last and most frequently asked question: What did you, queen of running pants, wear to the ball?

Voila.

Je crois une 15 euro dress goes a long way.