file under N.G. (No Good)(thanks donna's dad): revising conference abstracts for an article i now HATE. here's an exchange that took place yesterday with my friend margaux who is doing the same thing.
i know, i know, paris to most folks equals romantic strolls along the seine or wandering up the eiffel tower while eating baguettes (soaked in wine and raw meat with crème fraiche).
thomas, however, without a doubt, won the bowling style award. apart from his habitual grandstanding, we got to make fun of his odd bowling approach style, which invloved an overhand throw and short swings before letting go of the ball. after an hour of fun-making (quick vocab break: foutage de gueule), we noticed actually, that other folks in neighboring lanes were doing the same thing. and so we came to understand that french folks bowl as if they are playing boules (also know as pétanque), which is like lawn bowling or bocce ball.
pictures of the 3 pétanque techniques (for visual reference):
while looking for these pictures, i found a video on bowling basics, the highlight of which is this quote:
"this is the nitty gritty, bob: you gotta learn to walk before you can bowl."
a few days later, now thirsting for a rousing game of boules, margaux and i trotted on down to the jardin de luxembourg with the grumpy pappies to play. more on that later, promise... for now, i have been reprimanded for my rampant procrastination.
pony: this article is ridiculous. i think i've taken on way too much for one article. but then again, it'll be easier to use it for a dissertation chapter. of course that means 4 more years of staring at this goddam thing.
margaux: well, look on the bright side...at least you already hate it. you're ahead of the game.file under fun: bowling in paris.
i know, i know, paris to most folks equals romantic strolls along the seine or wandering up the eiffel tower while eating baguettes (soaked in wine and raw meat with crème fraiche).
a quick side note: i have a french friend here who says that american food makes her anorexic, but the other night thomas and i went to a restaurant with his aunt. we ordered something that we had ordered before at that restaurant, but this time we ended up eating not just meat by accident, but rather all kinds of meat by accident: chicken, shrimpy bits, and fucking beef. and i thought southerners were sneaky about slipping me meat (and i don't mean that meat. no, really, stop giggling.)that aside, the ideal of a lovely summer evening in paris does not for most americans involve going to a bowling alley and hooting and hollering "strike, strike, motherfucker!", but recently, me, thomas, margaux, and joey (a pal of margaux's who's visiting) trotted ourselves down to montparnasse to the arcade-slash-pool hall-slash-bowling alley. we strapped on our shoes (which make the germophobe in me have nightmares about working at the shoe station in a bowling alley), and margaux certainly won the hot-look contest with her evening dress and knee-high fishnet stockings with the bowling shoes. at one point she got up to answer her cell phone and a girl actually laughed at her to her face. such is the price of mixing an excellent femme fashion sense with bowling shoes.
thomas, however, without a doubt, won the bowling style award. apart from his habitual grandstanding, we got to make fun of his odd bowling approach style, which invloved an overhand throw and short swings before letting go of the ball. after an hour of fun-making (quick vocab break: foutage de gueule), we noticed actually, that other folks in neighboring lanes were doing the same thing. and so we came to understand that french folks bowl as if they are playing boules (also know as pétanque), which is like lawn bowling or bocce ball.
pictures of the 3 pétanque techniques (for visual reference):
while looking for these pictures, i found a video on bowling basics, the highlight of which is this quote:
"this is the nitty gritty, bob: you gotta learn to walk before you can bowl."
a few days later, now thirsting for a rousing game of boules, margaux and i trotted on down to the jardin de luxembourg with the grumpy pappies to play. more on that later, promise... for now, i have been reprimanded for my rampant procrastination.
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