Russian Bowling

Wednesday Lyuda, Alla, Slava, Andrei, Andrey and I had another shashlik, but this time homemade. Irina also came, even though she had just come back from the States that day. We went to a park by a lake outside of the city. Andrei has a whole setup with folding chairs and table and grill, and the resulting barbeque was delicious. The bowling took place on Thursday. It was part of the celebration for Slava's birthday that started with a happy hour after work. Then we went to the bowling alley, and this was the first time most of the Ukrainians had bowled. I started bowling 30 years ago at the alley in the small town where my grandparents lived in socks (because they didn't have shoes small enough) and barely able to push the ball down the lane. So I should've been able to beat everybody, right? Wrong! After 2 games, we decided to have a championship of the four best bowlers so far -- Andrei, Irina, Vadim and me. Well, the boys soundly beat the girls. At least I made it to the top four. Everyone did really well for not having bowled before. Sadly, that was my last night in Ukraine, and it was very hard to leave.