Bowling in China

We went bowling at the International Convention Center last Sunday afternoon with three other families - our neighbors at Sunshine Mediterranean. It was pretty fun, though I bowled a whopping 87 (to my credit, the computer ate at least 4 of my points and stole half of one of my turns, so it is *possible* that I could have broken 100...!). Alex bowled something like 106. And Lucia bowled 4. Well, for the turn we gave her, she knocked down 4 pins, at least (does that mean Alex only bowled 102?).

The post mortem learnings though, were that we should have determined the exact price per game up front. I thought it was 15 RMB (about $2.25) per game, since that is what I remember them telling us when we scoped the place the weekend before. And we should have asked on the price of drinks before ordering them (20 RMB - $3 per beer, and $2.25 for a normal can size of soda, which was ridiculous). Finally, we should have decided how many games we'd play up front - or at least tel them we'd play and pay up front for one round at a time. Their computer system claimed that 3 of us playing one game each actually played 4.2 games, and they charged us accordingly. And they charged at 25 RMB per game, which is $3.75 per game. So instead of paying 15 RMB for 27 games among all the folks (there were 8 adults and 8 kids playing), we paid 25 RMB for 35 games minus two "Free" games. This ultimately amounted to 150 RMB or $22.50 more than we should have paid. Not a huge amount spread across four families, but it's really the principle of the whole thing. Ah well, spend time in China and learn.

After bowling, we ordered take out pizza and hamburgers from Susan's Pizza, the local "western" restaurant, and ate it at our home with all the families. Magdalena went to bed willingly at 7 pm, but Lucia stayed up till 9 with everyone - late for her no matter what, and especially for a "school night" when we try to get her to bed by 7:30! But it was a fun time with the gang.

Here are some commemorative photos and a video of Lucia bowling. Who knows if/when we'll do it again!


The Fam:

From Blog All Two

This is the best group shot we could manage:

From Blog All Two

Nothing like a little Sippy Cup and Beer:

From Blog All Two

Daddy teaching Lucia the basics of bowling:

From Blog All Two

Lucia's first time bowling!