West of Paris

Tonight was my training night at West of Paris. I work on my own tomorrow night, so I had to pay close attention tonight.

West of Paris is the nicest restaurant in Moscow, so I'm truly honored to have the opportunity to work there. The owners, the Foucachons, go to our church and are dear friends of ours (Daniel Foucachon married our boarder just three weeks ago or so, bringing the Foucachons even closer to my family). I've wanted to work there for years, so I'm so excited to finally get my wish. And tonight I saw that I wasn't wrong for wanting to work there. The atmosphere is amazing, the air smells so good, the people around you are so kind (and fellow Christians, so you don't have to worry about stress from other workers), and the work itself is very enjoyable. You know that what you're doing is to make the evening more enjoyable for the customers, and that in itself is rewarding. It makes you want to do your best for them. Its truly wonderful.

Basically what my job is, well, to be there to help David. I pick up his slack to make his job easier. He takes care of the big things, like taking orders and actually speaking with the customers. I do the little things for him like filling water glasses and keeping the bread baskets filled and making the coffee and bringing the salads from the kitchen to the servers' bench for him to take out and writing the checks. They're all little fast things, but in the end they add up and weigh him down when he needs to be able to switch tracks at a moment's notice. So I do it for him.

And the best part is that since West of Paris is a high class French restaurant, I have to dress in a black skirt and top and get to look all nice, even though I'm not an official waitress. The whole place has this air of beautiful, high class joyfulness to it, so even if I didn't have to dress up to work there, I would feel so out of place if I didn't.

Being there makes me happy. I've dined there myself three times, and each time I loved it. The food is amazing, the service is impeccable, the atmosphere is perfect. Now it's my turn to try to add to that, if at all possible. To make sure that others enjoy it as much as I do. And being a part of what goes into it is every bit as fun as simply experiencing it. Behind the screen between the servers' bench and the floor itself, David and I try not to make too much noise as we keep an eye on the customers. We clean out the wine glasses and joke quietly about things, never forgetting to watch for a needy customer. Usually we're really quiet, but I did knock over a wine bottle tonight, and that was fairly disruptive. Hehe. I was glad that I got it out of my system tonight, though, and not tomorrow night. Since tonight was my training, David said with a wink that he would let me off for it. But he won't if I do it again tomorrow night. Haha! What a gracious young man he is.

Anyhow, hopefully tomorrow all will go smoothly and I won't make any huge blunders (like charge the customers too much, or spill water on someone, or knock over any more wine bottles). I know that whatever happens, I will have a great time, and David and the Foucachons will be forgiving, but please do pray for me anyhow. I want to apply to work at West of Paris this fall if possible, so if I do well tomorrow maybe they'll accept me as a real assistant.

God bless you all, and good night.