You are learning past perfect continuous: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (past perfect continuous (had been + -ing)), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Jean-Georges, Columbus Circle, winter evening
We had been planning this dinner for months. My mother had been talking about Jean-Georges since she first visited New York in the 1990s. She had been dreaming of coming back ever since.
When we arrived, the hostess apologized — our table wasn't ready. We had been waiting at the bar for about twenty minutes when she finally came back. During that time, the bartender had been making us cocktails with fresh ginger and yuzu. Not a bad wait.
The dining room was understated — cream walls, soft lighting. I could tell the chef had been refining every detail for decades. The signature dish arrived: an egg with caviar and cream in a fragile eggshell. My mother's eyes lit up. She had been imagining this moment for thirty years.
By the time we finished, we had been sitting at that table for nearly three hours. We had been talking, eating, laughing — losing track of time completely. My mother squeezed my hand. 'I had been waiting so long for this,' she said. 'It was worth every year.'