Bon appétit... damn right!

Gosh... it did not feel like 20 days. Tomorrow marks the end of the class, and the fact that we're gonna be back in 10 days just totally dawned me. Anyhow, tonight Chris, Gus, Lain, Yunghan, and I went to Les Fêtes Galantes, a restaurant that John tried by accident and then highly recommended it for its traditional French cuisine in a reasonable price. Priscilla and José were there too! :) The restaurant itself is rather small and nothing extremely fancy, but it feels very homey and welcoming. We all ordered something different from the menu set so that we can try each other's dishes.

I decided on the higher priced end of the menu and ordered the meal set of onion soup (appetizer), duck confit topped with honey and almonds (main dish), and home made apple tart with calvados (dessert). And my God...... it's the best meal I've had on the whole trip (and this is a mutual statement among us all). The names of the dishes and any words I say here canNOT do justice to describe how delicious they were. All I can say is, "Now THIS is true French cuisine." Here are the pics of my meal set (courtesy of Lain because my camera died before the dishes came...):


Authentic French onion soup with a piece of lamb meat.

This dish was GODLY....the skin crisped just right and the meat cooked so tenderly and flavored with the right amount of saltiness and sweetness. This itself was well worth the 25 Euros (the price for the whole set).

Warm and sweet. Topped with a unique flavored ice cream and fruits. WOW. Such a grand way to end the meal with.


We even left a footprint of Shrunkenheadmen in the restaurant buwahaha!

Last Day

Yesterday was our last official day of the class and I think we are all a little bit sad that it's over. Last night, we had a chocolate tasting in the Luxomberg Gardens. I didn't think it was possible, but I think I am off chocolate for a little while now. Some of the chocolate was very tasty, but some of it tasted like the devil. If you have never had 100% dark chocolate-DON'T. For awhile I thought I was going blind.

We still have another 9 or 10 days left in France, but now we can go do our own thing. I am excited to see what else is in store for our adventures and I am trying not to think about how it is almost over.

The Assignments

This trip is a class may I remind you. While we have had plenty of time to relax, eat and play, we are also learning and experiencing new things every day. Creativity is not any easy subject to teach and throughout the 3 weeks of the class, King Clapp has given us assignments to further enhance our understanding of creativity and how to apply it to our artwork. They usually invovled intriguing exercises that I think many other students could do themselves back home to spark new ideas and ways of thinking about their own artwork.

While I am not allowed to go into much detail about the actual assignments, I will say that they eached played a strong role towards the class subject and goal. In each student's sketchbook, you can see the evolution of interest and personal thought that went into each page.

Unfortunately, I don't have the energy to write about our other external assignments, like the fun games we played some mornings, or the essays we wrote, or the books we read. In all, the assignments we've done for this class did not go in vain. All of them have helped inspire my current sketches and I wish that everyone will read this post and ask about them back home. It will really change the way you think!

Yesterday we went on a journey to Normandy. On the bus ride up John gave us an assignment to write a letter home as if we were the soldiers, knowing that we very well may die. At first I thought it was pretty silly, but when I started getting into the idea of having to let go of your loved ones and be let go I started tearing up. I had to play ridiculous card games to get out of that negative mindset. Once we reached Normandy I had no problem getting right back into that space. Elwood was our guide and he was incredible with the way he recounted the history and actually made it interesting. Pont du Hoc was beautiful. It's so weird how I get this idea of this dark and ugly place when I think of the war but the reason that it was so beautiful to me was because of the craters made by the bombs. What really intrigued me was cemetary. I dont know why... but death is always on my mind and it fascinates me. Seeing all of those tombstones row by row blew my mind...

-Kim A.

Found the different side of Paris

Mark, Corwin and I woke up at 4:30 in order to go to see the Notre-Dame.
It was one of my best experience in the trip so far.

Guess who we met at Notre-Dame?

More photos....

Day 14 and only 7 more to go :(

Although everything John has planned for us has been awesome, it's nice to have some time off and do things you personally want to do. So today a group of us went out to several places. One of them being the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre. We ended up staying for a part of the mass, the acoustics were amazing!

I don't know if you've herd in the US, but there's been an outbreak here in Europe. These things are everywhere and walking the streets on a daily basis is getting to be dangerous. Just yesterday we decided to make a run for the Arc de Tromphe to view it in all its glory. At first everything was calm, yet too calm. It was an uneasy comfortableness, but being naive, we got use to it real quick and started to get friendly. Taking photos, having a drink.. then SUDDENLY I realized Yung-Han was missing in our group. In a slow motion head twist I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I yelled out, "YUNG HAN... RRRUUUNNN." In the slowest voice I could possibly muster. He looked at my as if I just pelted him with a loaf of briend, to which I replied with flaling arms and obscure facial gestures. He finally understood the chaos of my communication and turned around to see the beast.

Luckily for Yung Han, Gus was there and he turned that monstrosity into dinner for that night. We got away that time, but who knows whats to come in the future. This trip is getting more intense by the day and I am enjoying it every step of the way. More tales to come.

-Nikita