Dinner at Yuli's place... with a chef

Last night Yuli invited the whole section (and more) to a dinner at her place. She had booked a chef and basically he cooked for us. We all left the office around 6pm and drove to her place in as few car as possible. Once we were all there Yuli's husband served us tea. He did the full tea ceremony which is always impressive to watch (although don't go down that road if you are thirsty as it will take easily 20min before you can get a sip).
Then dinner started. Menu was the following:
- pumpkin soup (excellent, reminded me of Erna's)
- Chicken cordon bleu
- Lamb with sauce
- Salmon with lemon sauce (excellent, I wish I knew what was in the sauce)
- Carrots
- Baked potatoes (so long didn't have potatoes... Asia is more about rice than potatoes as you may know)
- Chocolate mousse (mmmh... who does not like chocolate mousse?)
Food was great, company fantastic, dinner was a success.
After dinner, we all sat in Yuli's leaving room for more tea and then I received a gift.
This dinner was also my farewell dinner. I had to improvise a speech and after that everybody shared stories about me. It was really funny as we remembered all these stories. We laughed a lot (especially when Andy said I was one of the most important women in his life). I realized how much I would miss the team.
My gift is a red Chinese Cinnabar plate: absolutely beautiful.
We then had a photo session where me and my plate were posing with everyone.
Andy handing me the gift over (very official style :))
Me struggling with the wrapping paper
The plate!!!
with Vivian and Amalia
with Perry, Abby and Yuli
with Olivia and Joanna
with Andy and Conan
with Kun and Linda
with Abby
with Olivia and Raina
My team serious
My team not so serious
The whole section
The whole section this time smiling

As I mentioned before I will really miss this team. Despite how much work, effort, challenges we've faced in one year, we've always done it with a smile and positive attitude. I had never worked so much before in an assignment but at the same time I never had so much fun.