Change Is In the Air

Who knew bowling could be such a physical sport?

Friday was a free day for us. Thursday was a holiday here so the school cancelled classes on Friday as well.

A while ago some of us were talking about bowling and I mentioned how much I liked it, though I hadn’t been in quite some time. It worked out for everyone, so on Friday Chris and I joined Ieva, Agnese, Peteris & Andis at the bowling lanes in Talsi. I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Of course, if someone says, “Hey, let’s go bowling” and we’re in the US, then sure, I know what it will basically be like, but I’ve learned that kind of logic doesn’t carry over to other countries. In fact, I learned this when we lived in Czech and we went bowling. Turned out it was quite different, with 9 pins in a diamond shape rather than 10 in a triangle. The balls were also more like shot-put balls that you held in your palm and rolled. Quite different.

I was told it was American style bowling in Talsi, but I was still hesitant. Well, we all met up at the sports center and Andis took us downstairs (and alley in the basement?). I walked in a laughed in delight! It was so American! It was an American alley, albeit there were only 2 lanes. We were the only ones there save the few that worked there.

Andis, Chris and I were the only ones who had gone bowling before. Peteris said something about going once in the woods… yet he turned out to be the bowling king! His frame, he got a spare. This was not looking good for any of the rest of us. It turned out he won the first game with something like a 115. Hmmm….

It was fun trying to show “Princess” Agnese how to lay the ball down and not drop it. I became her “confidence” and had to be standing on the back of the lane with her when it was her turn.

Poor Ieva was sick, but just didn’t want to stay home and miss out, so she came anyway. She such a good sport!

Chris didn’t have the best game… by his own admission, he was trying to hard. When he finally gave up, he did pretty well!

The second game got a bit competitive between Peteris, Andis and me. We were really close until the 10th frame and Andis got his first strike… and a spare… and ended up winning at 130 or so.

The only sad part was that my camera batteries died with the first picture. Grrr!

We all had so much fun. It was so great to just hang out and be real. I was so refreshed, not having to be “something”, like “the teacher” or “the missionary” or even “the responsible adult” or whatever. I was just me, and having fun with friends.

Oh yeah, and the physical part… it took me a while to figure out why I was sore but it has to be from bowling… gotta find a lighter ball.