Decision Made

To celebrate the day of decisions, the Nyuzen crew dated at a NEW French restaurant in Nyuzen. JP picked us up limo style (he opened the door for us) in his new Vietnamese made 3-piece suit and winter jacket. Linea was sporting a classic black dress with a beautiful pearl necklace. I (not owning a dress) wore a satin skirt, my cowgirl boots and a black shirt with my new very grounded tree of life necklace (thanks Ing!). We made the 5 minute drive through the dark and narrow streets of sleepy Nyuzen and there it was....a white sparkling new building with spotlights shining on it and with its big windows you can see inside to the open bright room with a bar, 4 tables, and a small kitchen. It's like a single star in the middle of a cloudy night sky!

I had made reservations (unnecessarily) and they had our table ready and waiting for us. There were two other women in there finishing up their meal. We shouldn't have been surprised, but after seating ourselves, hanging up our jackets, and starting to decipher the katakana-french menu, one of the women approached us. It turns out, she was at the big 4-hour tea ceremony we had the weekend before! Small town! Can't go ANYWHERE without meeting SOMEONE!!

After about 5-10 minutes of staring at the menu and asking each other if anyone knew what it was, the only waitress came over and in a very clear accent said, "Can I help you?"


Ahh!!

Yikes, we've been here 3+ years and we still can't read a menu?? That's embarrassing! But to our credit, trying to read French through Japanese isn't easy! She helped us figure out the menu, we ordered and were delighted when our beautiful teas came! We had to take a picture. Next we got our first course. JP got a pate like thing and Linea and I got smoked salmon salad.

Next came the bread, a pasta, and finally our main course!! I ordered beef marinated in red wine, Linea got duck and JP got a lamb pastry. We all traded bites and each was delicious!

After savoring each bite of the main course we had the terrible misfortune of having to decide on dessert! Yikes, that was almost a harder decision than the one we'd all made early that day. In the end we all selected different things and again got to sample each. And again, not a single one was bad! In fact, I'd go so far as to say, they were all incredible!

We sat there for almost three hours, just the three of us; chatting about the weather, the amazing food, life as an ALT, our best lessons of the week, where we should go boarding tomorrow and what are plans are for next year....to stay or to leave! Three friends, three neighbors, and three partners in crime for three years....but each of us has a very different life path. I can honestly say, I feel fortunate that our three paths crossed for these three years!

And so the decisions have been made, the papers have been signed, and supervisors have been notified. And that's all I feel like saying for now.