Bowling in Brasil

This past weekend Nathan and I went to Rio to visit his family and celebrate his brother’s 18^th birthday.  For his birthday, Jonathan planned the whole day for us, the highlight of which was going bowling at the local mall.  Now you have to understand that before we went, Nathan and his family had been telling me stories about what bowling was like in Brasil.  According to them, the biggest difference is that each of the pins is held up and in place by strings, and that the strings can sometimes affect the way the pins fall down or knock into each other.  So, in my mind I was picturing some kind of elaborate puppet-show with all the pins jerking around on these strings.  I was actually really looking forward to seeing how it all worked- you know, another funny story to tell back home.  You can imagine my disappointment then when we got to the bowling alley and everything was exactly the same as it was in the States.  Well, not everything.  There are strings attached to the pins, but I was halfway through the first game before I even saw one of them.  And I could never tell a difference in the way the pins fell or anything else for that matter.  I was actually hoping for a big difference because then I could have used that as my excuse for doing so poorly (bowling has never been my strongest sport).  Instead I simply found another way that being here is like being home- I am bad at bowling in both places.

Nathan at the Bowling Alley