Dinner with Friends?!

Being in Maputo and living in the hotel hasn't been as glamorous as I'd imagined. I miss having an apartment with multiple rooms so that, if I have to work late, I'm not keeping Dan up or looking like a 5 year old who wants read after she's been told it's bedtime... you know what I mean... she's holed up under the sheets to block out the light of her flashlight (or Kindle since it's 2015). Mostly, I miss having friends to meet for lunch or dinner, or just sit around and do nothing.

So last week when Dan told me we had been invited to dinner with some people, you would have sworn he had just blessed me with some magical gift card that I could go shopping with and never pay a cent. I was elated. Thursday of last week, we went to the Radisson Blu hotel for a sushi dinner. I know what you're thinking... a Radisson? In Maputo? Yes, and it's arguably the nicest hotel here. Dan and I are convinced that hotel chains are backwards in Africa. Some of the nicest business hotels in Accra are a Best Western and a Holiday Inn, which is the reverse of the case in the US.

So we arrived a bit early and the restaurant didn't open until 7 (which was the time of our reservation) so we went up to the hotel bar and had a glass of wine and waited for people to arrive. In total, there were 8 of us for dinner. Me and Dan (obviously American), Dan's coworker Driaan and his wife Carolina (South African), another married South African couple who as terrible as this is to say... neither of us got their names that night, and two girls who work at PwC with the guys who are from Portugal. Their names are Ana and Elsa and they currently live together in a corporate flat. No, this is not a blurb from Frozen, nor did we go to Disney World for dinner. Although they made the Frozen reference without it being pointed out by any of us so they must be used to it.

It was a flat rate, all you can eat thing. They had sushi and sashimi and Korean BBQ and dumplings and a dessert table. I had never had Korean BBQ before which frankly, sounds more daunting than it is. When I think Korean BBQ, I picture the scorched ducks that hang from the windows in Chinatown back in SF. Do I have to BBQ the duck? Is he already dead? Is he going to convince me to switch to Aflac before I roast him like chestnuts over an open fire? Thankfully, it's nothing like that. Basically, you select a bunch of ingredients (noodles, raw chicken or fish or pork, broccoli, onions, whatever else you want) and hand it to the guy who is behind a hibachi grill. Then he cooks it for you... voila! Korean BBQ. We got some wine for the table and chatted for a couple of hours.

It was really nice to get out and meet some new people. Elsa took some photos at dinner with her phone and sent them to us. So here's a little photo collage of our dinner.

From left to right: Driaan, Dan, me, Elsa, Ana, Carolina, and the South African couple whose names we don't know (Wow I feel terrible about that. Really need to rectify that if there's a next time)