formal – L'ensemble du jour

Completing a six hour-long midterm exam counts as a “good time,” right?

It took me a while this semester before I starting having much of a good time. That’s not to say I wasn’t still enjoying myself and beginning to get acquainted with people and getting a lot educationally out of my internship — I was — but there weren’t a lot of moments I could really categorize as “fun” either. Everything I did was either work or school. I like my work and I (mostly) like my school, so no complaints there, but for a semester spent away form campus in a brand new city, I felt like I was still missing something.

I think this is the case of any short term program where you move to a new place and have to meet a whole new group of people, but it takes a long time to establish a friend group. This semester especially, I feel like it took longer than usual to figure out what I was supposed to do on weekends other than sit in my apartment and study. I got lucky my freshman year at Notre Dame in that I made friends so quickly, and I had very little of that awkward “getting to know people” phase before I had at least focused in on the people who were most worth getting to know.

It reminds me a lot of my time in Rome. In Rome, I didn’t really make my group of ND friends until about the midway point of my time there (and in the case of my friends from the Lay Centre, until literally a week before I left). It just takes so long sometimes to get settled and get acquainted with people sometimes that by the time you’re both settled and acquainted, your time’s up.

My point in discussing all of this is simply because these photos were taken on my first weekend outing I think in almost the whole semester, a celebratory dinner after the six hour midterm was over. This was the day after I took that midterm — so that just goes to show how long it took before I started doing fun stuff. I think before, I had been out with my roommates one night and then to a little alumni get-together and a movie afterwards, but otherwise, I kept mostly to myself. That was my own choice, of course. There was a group chat where people would propose plans or invite people to do things there in the beginning, so there were opportunities for me to have been more involved in a social life earlier on, but it slowly fizzled out as people established their friend groups.

But even if it took me a long time, I eventually got around to doing fun stuff. Hopefully, you’ll get to see pictures of some of that stuff in the upcoming weeks’ blogs. Stay tuned.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this semester in Washington, DC. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Coat: Vintage (thrifted, Ecseri Bazaar in Budapest)

Sweater: Forever21

Skirt: Vintage (thrifted, Street Scene Vintage)

My parents said I wouldn’t have to deal with formals after my high school prom — they were wrong.

Granted, my dorm formal wasn’t nearly the level of formality my high school prom was — for that, I had a big ball gown, and a corsage, and did all of the regular cheesy high school prom stuff. For my dorm formal, I just took a shower and did nicer makeup than usual, which, come to think of it, was probably all I needed to have done for my high school prom in order to have a good time and would have left me significantly less stressed.

I was kind of concerned about how my dorm formal was going to go, as I’m not much of a partier to begin with and a lot of my friends were bringing dates while I was not, but it turned out pretty fun. It really was basically just like a high school dance, except there were no teachers to pat you down for alcohol when you first came in.

The theme was technically masquerade, but I don’t really know of anyone who kept up with that beyond taking a few cute pictures with masks beforehand. I mean, that’s what I did. I definitely did not keep the mask that’s perched atop my head in some of these photos on all night — in fact I think I left it on a table somewhere and lost it. Oops.

In the end, I’m definitely glad I paid the $5 and went. I had been considering staying in, since, like I said, I don’t usually party and I was concerned my more party-enthused friends would find me boring to be around, but I managed to have fun, even though it wasn’t really an environment I typically hang out in. Whether or not I was boring to be around isn’t something I can really speak to, but I think I made for a good fake extrovert, at least for the night.

Plus, I got an excuse to wear this gorgeous vintage dress I got from a flea market over winter break for $8! It’s not really something I can just wear out and about, so I was waiting for the perfect occasion to wear it — and I think this was it. I looked very nice among the gold balloon decorations of the ballroom, if I do say so myself.

Honestly, wearing the pretty dress made all of the socializing-in-a-public-place woes worth it for me. If any of my friends or family is reading this, keep that in mind: if ever you need to coax me out of the house, promise me that you’ll take pictures of me in pretty clothes against a pretty background and I’ll probably crawl out of my cave.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Dress: Vintage (thrifted)