Bowling!

The age-old adage goes: a picture is worth a thousand words.  However, a photo wouldn't really do much to enhance any sort of cultural understanding about my experience going bowling last night with friends; it would essentially show may of the same things that I am culturally accustomed to in the United States.  Thus, a more descriptive sort of sharing will have to do (plus, I sort of forgot to take any photos of the bowling part of the facility. oops! :) In truth though, a photo wouldn't have shown anything much different than in the US)

The bowling adventure last night took us a couple kilometers outside Resistencia's official city limits to La Libertad, a small shopping complex consisting of a huge grocery store, an open area that was being used as a dance/reception hall while we were there, and a small bowling alley of about 8 lanes. Adjacent to the bowling lanes in the same building were also a variety of arcade games: air hockey, a foosball table, a couple video games and a few pool tables. With all seven lanes occupied (one seemed to be out of service) we ordered a pizza, played some games of foosball and air hockey, and chatted for a while to pass the time until there was a lane available. Up to this point in the evening's events, everything I experienced was obviously pretty similar to the cultural framework that I have for bowling in the United States. Bowling itself was certainly another story; a game with more than its share of new challenges for me in Argentina....

• Special bowling shoes are not required nor does there seem to be a standard for staying behind the line marking the head of the bowling lane. In my time spent at the alley, I saw various children walk halfway down the lane numerous times to make their throw. The lanes are still fairly slick which makes this walk fairly dangerous and potentially hilarious.
• The lanes are certainly not a smooth, level plane.  Thus, throwing the ball each frame becomes a rather interesting mental calculation, unique to each lane in which you might play. This part was particularly amusing for me.
• There seemed to be three weights of bowling balls: small, medium and large. None of these were marked so I really don't know how much any of them weighed.
• Yes, there are 10 pins and yes, they are initially arranged in a triangle formation. However, each of the 10 pins has its own string/cord attached to its top (i.e. when you knock a pin down in the first half of a frame, its cord just becomes a bit looser. The pin is drawn up above the lane for the second throw then all pins are replaced upright, obviously, for the next frame). This cord is the mechanism for resetting the pins at the end of each frame. I also think this aspect of the game made the pins generally harder to knock down as they can't take on a free course of falling/spinning to, in turn, knock down other pins (because they are instead tethered to the cord and a machine above).

I think the high score was 50-something for a full ten frame game, illustrating just how difficult bowling is with all the above factors in play.  Nonetheless we had a blast and I certainly didn't notice how late it was as the night progressed.  Our adventure started at midnight when we left the church from a birthday gathering (stories to come on birthday celebrations...) and I think it was probably close to 2:30 by the time we started bowling.  This put me home around, oh, 4 am...yep, totally normal in Argentina.

New friends at the bowling alley!