Romanian Pre Olympics

Three of our Romanian colleagues invited three of our American team to an evening of Bowling.

You read that correctly. Bowling.

Glow in the Dark Bowling!

We immediately labeled this as the Romanian-USA Challenge. Pre-Olympic Challenge. And we had our secret weapon. It was also the day before the American Independence Day. So fate was on our side – or so we taunted them.

After a little bit of trash talking and a short taxi to the outskirts of town, we arrived at the Sky Club. This is a pool, spa, tennis, restaurant, and bowling alley/arcade club. A very family oriented kind of place. It was Wednesday, so not too many patrons were there and as you can imagine, a 4th of July party is not that high on the social calendar here.

I, of course, don’t bowl. If I were to score above a 100, I would consider it a miracle. I guess the only time I do go bowling would be the occasional adventure with family during New Year’s gatherings or maybe a Thanksgiving weekend activity. This isn’t going to be pretty, but it will be fun.

Team USA was me, Jerry, and Phil (or Pheel as it was entered on the scoreboard).
Team Romania was Catalin (cat-uh-lynn), Sorin, and Christi.



Sorin Performing the "Sorin Victory Dance"



My first roll (do you call it “my first bowl?”) was a strike! The Romanian team now figures they have a ringer in their midst and the trash talking goes up a level. Then they saw my next roll where I only hit one, and the hooting and jeering only intensifies. Christi can bowl fairly well. Catalin was normal like the rest of us.  Then there is Sorin.  Sorin can bowl with enormous force. Whatever he hit would splinter like match sticks. But he has no idea where the ball is going.  Mostly in the gutter. When he did have a good roll, he would perform the “Sorin Victory Dance” which involves pulling his shirt up and doing an imaginary hula-hoop type maneuver. Not a very pretty sight, so I was thankful for the small crowd.

As a side note, our barmaid was a tiny little girl named Simona (it seems that’s a common name around here) who said she was a singer, so I told her I was in Romania scouting for American Idol and asked her to sing for me but she said “I have no voice tonight.”  However, her speaking voice was strong enough to join in on the bantering with us foreigners and a fun waitress always makes for fun evenings.

So in and around harassing her and receiving some pretty good harassment back, the battle continued on the hardwood and when the dust settled … Americans ruled!

We took the team Gold by dominating two of three games and, surprisingly enough, I won the Individual Gold!

So fate was on our side after all and we Americans once again established our sporting dominance.



So while you guys celebrate the American Independence tomorrow, celebrate with the knowledge that we are here doing what we can to support you!




Team Gold and Individual Gold.  Oh, Yeah!!



This was NOT our taxi



Sorin, Catalin, and Yours Truly