Last night, my department hosted a bowling and dinner event in honor of my addition to the group and one of my colleague's departure. Fortunately, and generously, Collin was also invited to attend.
The night started at 17.00 with an hour of bowling at the Grøndal Centret just 2 miles from our apartment. Bowling was pretty much identical to what you get in the US, outside New England and their inferior candlepin bowling, of course. The balls were the same neon colors, the shoes were the same ugly grey and blue...even uglier if possible as they were all velcro enclosures. Although here you walk in and they just have piles of shoes sorted by size and you help yourself...I guess they are not worried about people walking off with them. Even the music was the same -- blaring Maroon 5, Rihanna, and other top 40 hits. (I still can't get "shine bright like a die-mon" out of my head)
After figuring out our European shoe sizes, we hit the lanes. Collin and I paired up with another newbie to my group -- in fact, he doesn't even start until March so he's technically newer than me, but has been at Novo for 7 years and is Danish which gives him a bit of a head start. I am proud to say in our first game I had three strikes which is some sort of career record I believe, ending with a respectable (for me anyway) 92. In fact, all three of us on our lane ended with a 92. That was a bit odd! I've come a long way from bowling in my own lane against the wall in high school gym class. Sadly in my next game, which we didn't have time to finish, I was on my way to maybe a 40, which is much more in line with my typical bowling prowess. but since the game was cut short, we will never know!
After an hour of bowling we headed over to a nearby Greek restaurant. We had a room reserved just for the 20 of us, and food and wine was just brought out to us. It was pretty similar to Greek-American restaurants...tzatziki, calamari, fried shrimp, seafood salad and greek salad to start. Meatballs, souvlaki, lamb, rice, greek potatoes, french fries and skordalia as entrees. It wasn't the best Greek food I have had, but wasn't the worst either. The meatballs, fried shrimp and greek potatoes were especially good. I did get a little sick of Zorba the Greek which I think I heard a minimum of 5 times throughout the night.
The night was a lot of fun overall. It was great for Collin to meet my colleagues whom he has heard so much about. And maybe he will even get some job possibilities out of it as many people seemed to have ideas of where he should apply.
Skål!
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