Boulebar

Monica Nilsson was the person in charge of our travel policy at work. She had worked at ESS for something like 7 years. Her husband recently took a job in Bangkok, so this was her last week at work. As a going away party the girls upstairs organized a night out at the Boulebar. Boule is a game, better known to me as bocce ball. It's a pretty big past time here.

 

The Boulebar is a cool place. They have food and drinks in the middle section, and on either side there are boule lanes. There are few different packages you can buy, or you can just rent out a lane, like in bowling, and pay by the hour. Our package consisted of an instructor, one and a half hours of playing and a charcuterie plate.

This is Jack. He was our instructor. He was a great teacher and a lot of fun!

This was our charcuterie plate. Mmmmmm!

 

To start the game, you throw the red ball down the lane. It should land somewhere equidistant from each side, and if it doesn't just move it to the middle. Then, standing in the ring, toss the silver balls as close to the red ball as possible. There are some finer points, but that's the gist.

 

Each lane has it's own box with smooth balls, designed balls, a red ball (which coincidentally is also called a Jack) and a score board. We had three lanes and were split into teams of three. Two teams played each other at a time.

 

 

It was a lot of fun! It was easy to play and easy to learn. The games could be quite close.

 

We played two games and the two teams that had won with the highest overage threw one round to determine the overall winner. It was Team Michelle who won!! We got gold medals and a card to come back for a free game!

 

The two ladies to my right were my team members.

 

 

It was such a fun night out. I will most definitely go back again!

 

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Vacation in the US

Aside from being sick most of the time we were back home, it was really good to be back in the USA. It was good to drive, and know where to get things you need, and to enjoy some of our favorite things. Except for family and friends, we miss food the most, and boy did we do it up!

We had brunch at Millie's in Richmond, and dinner at Mamma Zu's

We ate Chinese and American and Italian and whatever else we could. In Knoxville we went to Ruth's Chris, Cru, Sunspot, Wasabi, Barley's, Flats and Taps, Holly's Corner, Soccer Taco, The Other One, Lunch House, Altruda's and I'm sure there's some I'm missing. We love food so much, and going out to eat. We don't get to do it here since it's so expensive, so we got as much out to eat in as we could.

 

 

Of course there was also homemade biscuits and gravy from my momma!! The best in the world for sure.

 

 

As a result we each gained over 10 lbs and both exercised more than once this last week.

Of course we had a great Christmas and loved all the time we got to spend with our friends and family. We thank everyone for staying up late on school nights and clearing schedules. It's hard when everyone wants a piece of your time, and when you are as lucky as we are to have so many good friends as we do, the schedule fills up fast! Huge thanks to all the hosting and time spending. It made it super hard to leave, but reminded us of why we miss home so much.

 

 

 

 

I failed at taking any pictures at mom and dad's house, but know that we were so happy to see them and so happy to spend as much time as we did with them. Our last day there was a sad, sad day, but it was time to get back to Europe. On the way to the airport I couldn't take my eyes of the mountains, and I can't wait to see them (and family and friends of course) again, but in the spring next time!!

 

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