Ueda-sensei & Yui

Ueda-sensei, the school nurse, and I worked together for two years at Nyuzen Elementary school. Her desk was across from mine and because she enjoyed English we often had mini-eikaiwas! And she always brought me lots and lots of treats!! Unfortunately, she got moved to another school in April. I was so sad to see her go because I always enjoyed our conversations! So, for the first time since she left, we met for lunch. Her high school age daughter just returned from a year in the UK, so we met to talk about her year and catch-up. It was a fun lunch complete with good French food and presents! Ueda-sensei made me a little quilt, the size of place mat. But it is made from old kimonos and traditional style Japanese cloth. It is beautiful! I'm lucky to have had her company at school for as long as I did! Thank you!

Ueda-sensei and I

Yui and I

Yuuki-chan

I started teaching Yuuki-chan privately when I first arrived, when she was in 4th grade. She had already been studying English one-one for 2-3 years. Now she is in the 1st grade of JHS and was one of my students at school for one semester. Her family has taken very very good care of me over the last three years. They have feed me, paid me well, and even invited me to Christmas dinner the year I didn't go home. Yuuki and I have studied about 130 hours of English together in the last three years. I used to go to her house every Thursday after school for an hour. And once a month she would come to Colare and we would eat dinner together. We went swimming together once after she completed a writing practice book. And we had a Halloween party at my apartment in my 2nd year with the other two elementary school students I privately tutored. For our last lesson, she came over to my apartment and we made cookies. We exchanged presents and ate a lot of cookie dough.

Tonight her family took me out to dinner at Nyuzen's French restaurant--a very nice place! It was a little strange cause I've never sat with her entire family before--grandparents, parents and us. They threw a lot of questions at me in Japanese and I struggled through. And then Yuuki and I would take a break and I would try to talk to her in English about school or summer vacation. And she got to show off a little in front of her family. Next year she will finally be old enough for the Forest Grove Sister City exchange trip, but this year they just drew names out of a hat...so who knows what her chances are. I suggested she come and homestay with me next August. And so during dessert we talked about her getting a passport, getting to Narita and flying on her own. I asked her if she would be ok doing it on her own and she said, "YES, it's a challenge." Her mom and I were both shocked!!! This is coming from a girl who ducked and hid behind the car as three boys from her grade cycled by as we walked into the restaurant. It was exciting to see her get excited about it! So, we will see if it happens, but it would be great! She reminds me of me--kinda quiet, shy, self-conscious, but there is so much potential there. And with the right experiences, I think she will really blossom!

They drove me home and I hadn't really thought about the good-bye moment. I hugged her and we both started crying! I told her I would see her next year and she said "yes" through her tears! Let's hope so! At dinner her grandpa said that this dinner was my 'sayonara party.' And I corrected him, it is my 'mata ne party.' It's always see you next time...and I hope we can see each other again!

Making cookies!

Taste-testing cookies!

Kimoto-sensei, her grandmother, and I!

Her family and I at dinner!

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.