The recent lack of updates is by no means due to a lack of things to write about, for recently I have been exceedingly busy. So perhaps, instead of the confusing blabber that would ensue were I to try tell everything at once, I will start chronoillogically, that is, in no particular order whatsoever. As far as chronological goes, I disappeared after our testweek to England to see my old pals, making use of my time off school and their half term. I returned late Wednesday evening, nervous about Thursday's dance.

Thursday was quite the day, at 1600 hours, we rendezvoused at the hall for individual and group photographs. The atmosphere was quite excited, with people milling about and getting themselves ready. I had been lucky in that my mum had managed to acquire a dress coat to borrow from one of her colleagues. Apparently it had been used by nine boys in their dances, and much more besides, or so the stylishly frayed edges and missing buttons would have you think. My partner was wearing a beautiful, homemade dress quite unique from the others there, most of which were the sparkling princess type thing. Hers was made in, should I remember correctly, 18th century style, and received many a sincere compliment. Sodfoot had also decided to brave the barrage of inevitable underwear jokes and wore his kilt, justified conveniently by his distant Scottish heritage.

The dance went fairly well, or as well as is to be expected after a week of no practices, and was incredibly enjoyable. It ended with a several rounds of waltz and jenkka, a fast paced Finnish dance, with the audience. With the dance over, I changed into my suit and headed with my partner to a fine restaurant in Helsinki, where folk were gathering to celebrate the evening over good food and with good company.  Its interesting to  note that while  most of the restaurant was full of well dressed and well mannered youths, behind us was a table  full of rowdy, piss ass drunk Swedes. God knows what they were doing in such a civilised establishment.

Friday began in the morning with the dance performance for our own lukio, as well as a few other local schools, including a kindergarten, who appeared to most appreciate the show. After the performance, we had to endure the nuisance of waiting hours until the grand practice at the Esport Arena, at 14:30. Upon arrival I was quite awed by the magnitude of what we were doing, and with 1500 students from around Espoo converging on the arena, I finally realised what an awesome thing I was to take part in.  At the practice we had to endure the nuisance of a nagging woman who tried to drill us into shape by treating us like twelve year olds and handing out sarcastic compliments whenever we accomplished anything. These were usually met by an ironic cheer, as well as an outburst of conversations around the hall contemplating how an ridiculously annoying woman she was. In one instance the orchestra didn't play a flourish in the middle of song, and the nagging woman asked us if we were able to do the "incredibly difficult thing" of skipping the moves we had practiced for the flourish. This would have been incredibly easy, but we weren't exactly intent on pleasing her, and instead cheered a defiant no. After a moment of moping she managed to get the orchestra to  play the flourish.

The main cause for practice was entering the arena. At one end we had to form a long line of partners holding hands, then walk to our designated spot in the arena so that we lined up with all the other rows and columns. Easier said than done, especially keeping the line straight while moving. Surprisingly, despite having the time, we only did this once, after which the annoying woman nagged at us for a bit and expected us to do it perfectly for the real thing, which obviously didn't happen. Another problem was the bows at the end of our turn. The idea was that once the sound of the shuffling of our feet had died down, we would wait a heartbeat, then bow. Problem was that in the real thing, the sound of our feet shuffling, surprisingly loud with 750 people, was nevertheless drowned out by clapping. A dodgy ripple effect ensued.

The whole shebang was hosted by two of Finlands mediocre TV celebrities, who's egos we were only too happy to feed with our cheers however rubbish the jokes they threw at us. They were also warming up their celebrity voices at the practice, so we got to hear some of the lines that didn't quite make the final show for obvious reasons, such as: "Hey Lore, you realise we're in a room completely full of seventeen and eighteen year old chicks?"

After the practice we watched the other half of the Espoo lukio's practice their turn. I hadn't realised how cool it actually looked seeing a mass of people performing the same dance. I have some video, but youtube doesn't seem to be co-operating at the moment.  After  another few hours  of waiting the tension in the air had got  a bit old, and our desperate hunger prompted us to eat at one of the arena's burger bars. Funny that the one occasion I stoop so low is when I'm wearing dress coat.

Finally our time to dance came, or so we thought. Instead we listened to time-slowing speech from some Espoo official. Then, it was time to dance. It was just as exhilarating as you would imagine walking into an arena packed completely full of people flashing their cameras at you. Adrenaline boost aside, it was ridiculously fun, and over far too soon.  After our turn we went back to our seats to watch the others dance, and while it was fun to watch for a change, I did wish I was dancing myself.