When you think of trivia night what do you think of? Most likely you think of going to your local restaurant or bar with friends for a fun night. Well, that's what I did but with friends I had just met and in a foreign country (Boquete, Panama).
You may be thinking, "Wouldn't trivia be hard in a foreign country and language?" and you'd probably be right if that were the case but, Boquete has a lot of expats from the US and England so trivia night is actually in English. Mike's Global Grill is a nice restaurant in Bajo Boquete with great local food as well as international food. Mike's also offers an array of live music and events throughout the year (Super Bowl party, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas Party, etc.).
The sun is setting as we all cram into the truck for the short drive down 41 from our hostel in Alto Boquete to Mike's in Bajo Boquete. We walk in to find Mike's full of people from all over the world gathering to eat, socialize, have fun, and play trivia. The atmosphere was energetic and loud yet cozy and friendly. Trivia teams were to have about four people per team and there are about 10 of us in my group so we have to divide into teams. Myself, two other Americans, and the Dutch hostel manager form a team and in our opinion, we are the team to beat haha! Before the trivia begins everyone orders food and drinks and the organizer goes over the rules and informs us that the first, second, and third places team would receive prizes (money, food, drinks, etc.). Trivia has yet to begin and we already realize how seriously they take trivia here...we aren't allowed to even have our phones out or they assume you are cheating!
With our answer sheet in hand and everyone settled in, it's now time for the competition to begin. The organizer's voice comes over the speaker and the questions begin to flow. The questions vary from political to geographical and from science to pop culture. Because there's a mix of Americans and Brits, the questions are a mix of American and European trivia to make things fair. The questions continue with frequent breaks of team discussion, laughter, and smack-talk between teams. As the night winds down and the last question is read, my team is feeling pretty confident that we're towards the top of the pack. It's now time to find out the top three teams so we exchange answer sheets and the organizer goes over the answers (does this remind you of grading each other's papers in high school?). As with any "friendly" competition, some of the teams challenge some of the acceptable answers. After the answers are read aloud, the organizer comes around and gathers the answer sheets to tally the scores. He makes his way back to the microphone and announces the top three teams and...we came in 3rd place! Not too bad for it being our first time at the trivia night but, most importantly it's been a great night hanging out with friends and having fun!
