Prom Night June 4, 2011

So first I'm going to talk about my decisions before Senior Prom.

During junior-senior summer, the truth is, my parents didn't really say that I could only choose between Senior prom and senior all night party - but I wanted to save their money. So the thing was that I'd RATHER go to prom than all-night party. Both events probably cost the same because I bought another dress for prom, so yeah.

But I was extremely sure that I would not go to the all night party. For one thing, I could never stay up that long. And doing so would be extremely bad for my health. A lot of my friends are going, but there are also some friends that are not so I'm just hanging out with them. And another thing is that I'm not going to pay like $100 to spend another night at school. Seriously.

As senior prom started getting closer and closer, I began to have second thoughts about it. I didn't want to go anymore. I was happy for all my friends that had dates and were all going. I admit I was a bit disappointed that I didn't have a date, but then the more I thought about it, there wasn't anyone I'd be willing to "go with" anyways. My friends asked me to stag with them and so I thought about it, but my answer was no for a while (hehe I'm listening to a Tangled song and right when I typed "no", Rapunzel said 'No!'... okay I'm done). Then one day while talking to some friend (I don't remember who), she was talking about her adult family friends regretting how they didn't go to their high school's senior prom. And so, for the sake of not regretting a once in a lifetime experience, I very reluctantly bought senior prom tickets while they were still cheap ($75.00).

Finding a prom dress was very difficult. I waited until the last weekend before prom buy one. A friend recommended the Jessica McClintock outlet which had fabulous dresses for cheap prices. So I went all the way to San Francisco to the outlet, only to find out that the outlet closed a few hours earlier. Thus, my mom decided to take me to the inner city of San Francisco and we were shocked at how cheap the dresses were. We thought that San Francisco, a highly urbanized and industrialzed city, might have high prices for things like prom dresses. But these were the same dresses I saw in the Macy's at Valley Fair, and they were much cheaper - plus there was a lot more variety! So yeah I got a pretty good dress for $60 ish.

Okay so onto the actual prom day (yesterday).

I got to a friend's house around 3:00 after having worn my dress and done a little bit of (fail) make-up. These other friends tried curling my hair but I guess it didn't work so they put my hair in a bun for a while. Oh yeah and I got to watch parts of Megamind while getting my hair curled hehe.

And then off to school we went! My mom let me bring her ginormous trench coat - ish thing which I admit was a bit weird, but I didn't complain of the weather. I didn't want to take any pictures at school yet, so I just waited in the gym with the rest of the hundreds of people going to prom. They had good food for us while we waited to load the buses haha. A lot of people were worried because it rained the day before, and it was kind of misty while heading to San Francisco.

There were 11 "Royal Tour" buses, and my group of friends and I were on bus 9. I actually had another group of friends on bus 11 heh but I got to meet up with them once we reached San Francisco. On the way there, there actually wasn't any rain. The clouds were dark, but not a heavy kind of dark so being on the road was actually the last time we saw rain for the night. I remember praying on the bus PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't let it rain it would horrible if it did. And I guess God answered my prayer (I bet I wasn't the only person who prayed for such a thing haha). So thank you, God!, for giving us another reason for prom to be amazing! And I also didn't really get carsick while on the bus! So thank you again God for that! :)

The buses dropped us off at some port, and it actually wasn't as cold as we thought it'd be. Bus 9 came off the bus and joined the rest of the blob near this huge boat named the "San Francisco Belle". Apparently, it is the biggest boat in San Francisco (excluding industrial boats, I assume). Then this rumor started going around that Monta Vista would be sharing the boat with another school - which we didn't mind, but.. still. I wish we'd known that earlier. But when we boarded the little boat I realized we were the only ones on the boat, haha, so thank goodness.

Sooo the front part of the boat was where we entered in from, and there was this huge chandelier on the top swaying back and forth. Which, of course, was very comforting to see. There were two floors to eat but my group of friends only knew of the second floor to eat so that's where we went. The first floor was mostly empty because it was reserved for taking pictures.

A mini buffet was provide for us - bread, salad, pasta, rice, meat... the usual simple stuff. The pasta was really good that I got seconds. And when we were done, Melanie, Marina and I went to the third floor to see what was up there. We found out it was also a dance/eating area like the second floor, but instead of rectangle tables there were circular tables. And the second floor already had desserts out! Their chocolate chip cookies tasted bad.

Mmm so I guess after we were done eating a whole bunch of us went outside to look around (after taking pictures on the first floor and all) and it was breathtaking! The view of the sky and ocean together it was just so ahhh asl;kdfjaslkd Melanie and I wished we were mermaids, haha. AND THEN Melanie and I saw a seal!! Or an otter or something. Like it definitely wasn't a fish. But I didn't get to get a photograph it.

Hmmm. So after a tour around the outside of the boat, we decided to see what was going on inside. On the second floor, everyone had already stopped eating, and very few people were dancing. The second floor had likee strange 80's music playing.. with occasional familiar songs. And it seemed kind of awkward. So then my friends and I went to the third floor which was the other opposite extreme - hip hop/techno/trance/pop music with people basically dry humping each other. So my friends and I were like uh.... /continue touring the boat. And then we took some photobooth pictures which were free of charge (but I guess were actually already included in our bid payments and all). Soo we all decided to dance on the second floor - the more regular kind of dancing compared to the third floor... One of my friends and her date went up to the third floor once in a while. And whenever I went up there occasionally to find her and stuff, I would see the windows of the side of the room all fogged up. It was disgusting. And just stepping into that room - the stench and the heat was extremely gross.

It was told that we would be going under the Golden Gate Bridge at 10:00. So a little bit before then, I went up with my friend Megan up to the terrace of the ship to see the spectacular viewing. The bridge actually wasn't very lit up so that was kind of disappointing but we did get to see it. And while we were waiting, I saw the silhouette of the captain in his little "office" so I decided to take a photograph of him, haha. Then he came out! And said hi to Megan and I. And we thanked him for being a good ship steer-er and I asked him if we were going to steer under the bridge. He said he would try his best to, but the waters under the bridge are very shallow so it would be very difficult. So he went back to steering the ship, and Megan and I waited.

We got very, very close to the famous bridge, but ended up turning back. While turning back, the bridge was rocking back and forth very strongly, so people thought we were going under the bridge and lots of people came on to the terrace. The rocking was so strong that everyone had to hold on to a railing or some sort on the terrace haha. And there was water on these gutters on the very top of the ship where the captain was from the rain I guess. So there was water splashing all over the place which was kind of cool. But yeah, we didn't get to go under the Golden Gate bridge. Ooh and I forgot to mention that though I did feel the boat's rocking, I did not feel the least bit seasick. Thank God :)

Soo then we all went back in and basically danced until like 11:30 ish or until whenever the dance stopped, haha. We stayed at the dance floor with moral standards, of course. I requested a few songs and ahh my friends and I were so happy when they played them! But we were all really tired so we didn't have as much energy as we thought we would when we heard the songs play, haha.

But yeah, I guess that was it. Oh yeah and the chocolate chip cookies on the second floor tasted a lot better than the third floor's. And this embarassing thing that I did during before we ate was ask for eating utensils and water. I went up to the "bar counter" basically, and asked for eating utensils and they were like "they're already at the tables". So I was like oh okay thanks. And then I asked "do you guys have water"? And then again they were like "they're already at the tables". So after that I was just like aaaaaaaalrighty then..........

We started heading back to Cupertino around midnight, and I was shocked at how many cars were still on the road this late at night. But as we were heading back, it slowly started to hit me that we are all graduating! After graduation, we are never going to see each other again. It won't matter who was popular or who was the smartest. We're all basically starting off a new slate to make a footprint in the WORLD - not just a school.

And then when I came home I first went on like tumblr and stuff cause my laptop hadn't been working and I was so internet-deprived, haha.

But I'm definitely glad I went. I would have regretted it, and after what happened in February, I definitely am extremely happy that I went and lived this end of high school with no regrets. And I am also very glad that I brought my camera on board! It was recommended that people not bring their cameras on board because of certain past issues of theft, so I just carried my camera with me the ENTIRE time. And I took some pretty spectacular photographs! It was also told that there would be student photographers but I honestly didn't see any. And these student photographers would only take pictures of people while I wanted pictures of scenery - which was why I decided to bring my camera.

It was definitely a very lovely & memorable once-in-lifetime experience :)
I just wish time wouldn't fly so fast.