The Progressive Dinner

This week was consumed by work. It was a busy week at school with double after school classes and too many parent conferences. One student asked me how I was doing on Friday and when I replied, "Tired" he said, "Miss, you always say that." I guess it is true. I am always tired though! I have also decided that it is an American habit to respond to greetings negatively, like saying "I'm tired..." and "Can't wait until Friday..." It seems to me like people are more positive here… or maybe just less honest… but probably more positive because they do seem open to speaking their minds.

By the time Friday came, I was very much ready for the weekend. A couple of us made plans to have a "progressive dinner." We would get drinks at one place, then entrees at another, and dessert at another. We started out at Mokambo, a favorite of many of the expats. I'm not sure about the food, but the wine was good and it had a great ambiance.

Our next stop was a cute little place called Antigua. We didn't make reservations which turned out to be a bad idea. I can see why, but the wait was too long so we decided to move up our dessert stop. After walking fifteen minutes in the wrong direction, we walked into another restaurant called Barriott that looked promising. It was super fancy. My definition of super fancy: A restaurant in which all the waiters wear suits. As we were browsing the menu, some people made comments that it was quite expensive. Sure the prices were higher than we usually pay, but with the exchange rate it was still about $4-10 an entrée… I was pretty embarrassed when we changed our minds about eating there and walked out. You know it's bad when the gringos are leaving. Although, my meal at our final destination ended up being the same price, so I'm still annoyed we had to leave. I was getting hangry.

The view from the table where we were seated 

(I stole this picture off the internet because we 

left too quickly that I never got a picture 

of the heaven that was there)

We ended up finding Veranda, the place we were planning to have dessert at around 9:45. It was also a really cute little place and the food was great so I was happy. And now I have a few other restaurants to add to my list of places to visit. 

Afterwards, some of us went out dancing at Pestana, the nice rooftop lounge. It was an entertaining night. And even though I was exhausted, I was not passing up the chance to get out and have some fun.

However, I was so tired the next day that I cancelled my plans to go exploring the art district and instead I watched netflix. It was a much needed rest day and now I am ready for another week. Hopefully it won't be as crazy and I will be ready for more adventuring next weekend.