Birthday Bowling

Wednesday night was a colleague's birthday. We ate at CF chicken where the barbeque was amazing. The chicken here is good but smaller, and Koreans eat it with two forks. Having used nothing but chopsticks for over two months, two forks completely overwhelmed me. Perhaps not being able to use my fingers was the real problem, but man did I struggle. Fortunately, Cass (a Korean beer that actually wakes me up) is only 2000 Won.

At dinner we decided to go bowling. I told my friends I had just unpacked my bowling ball a few days earlier (unpacking has not gone swiftly). The look of complete and utter disbelief on the Koreans faces was priceless. "Ok, we will divide into two teams. Losers pay."

I was surprised by where the bowling alley was. I had been there before having eaten in the restaurant on the second floor. The bowling alley was on the fourth floor. Who puts a bowling alley on the fourth floor? Anyway, there were only eight lanes. Thankfully, one lane was free, and so it was on.

I used to believe that I understood the metric system. There are 100 centimeters in a meter. One cubic centimeter is a milliliter which weighs a gram. Water boils at 100 C. Those facts are meaningless. What I need to know is how many centimeters around is my waist to figure out which pants to try on, or how many centimeters long my feet are to get bowling shoes that fit. I am still trying to figure those out.

To my family back home, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news - my first frame in Korea was a strike. The bad news - that was it. I was reminded of a comment my father made many years ago on the way to the bowling alley. It was somewhat of a tradition to go bowling on Thanksgiving. My dad was asking people what they were hoping to score. My ex-wife said she would like to get a 100. "A hundred? I can bowl that with my left hand!" which was a good thing since my father bowled an 83 with his right. Well, I wasn't that bad, but I was close. I bowled a 113 followed by a 129. Absolutely awful but it was still great fun.

It's hard not to have fun with the Koreans. No matter what happens on the bowling alley, they applaud. It is a little strange, but it also makes you smile. You roll a three on your first ball; everyone applauds. You roll a gutter on your next ball; everyone applauds. It is as if just getting the ball down the alley deserves praise. Wait, I don't think that is true. Another colleague was bowling for the first time. Twice she threw the ball behind her. I think they applauded that as well (sarcasm is alive and well here in Korea). Fortunately, I was there with a helpful suggestion. "The pins are that way."

Spotted!