That's All Folks

Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to finally finish the blog. Our last week in Germany consisted of a lot of class work, field trips, and studying. On one of the field trips we took a bus tour around Bastogne and learned all about the Battle of the Bulge. It really was a very interesting city that still kept a lot of historical buildings up. We also went a little bit outside the city and saw some fox holes left behind from the war.

Unfortunately, the last few days in Europe weren't the most exciting. We were in this really neat "community type" area that had a game room, a dinning room, a nice park-ish area outside, and a pretty walking path. However, we weren't really able to enjoy any of these things because of how much we were trying to focus on studying for the final.

After we took our finals we got all packed up and headed to our Rhine River cruise. Although we were all extremely exhausted from the trip and studying, the Rhine River cruise was still really awesome. There were castles on either side, and little towns and vineyards going up and down the hills as we rode past. It was so pretty and quite incredible to see the houses and castles built on such steep hills.

After six long weeks of being in Europe it was really nice to be back in good ol Texas. I hope I get another opportunity to go to Europe because it was truly an amazing experience. Thank you mom and dad for allowing me to go on such an incredible trip! I love you both so much for it! And thank you everyone for reading this blog and keeping up with me during my trip!

Germany

Today started out sad, as we were all very depressed to leave the beautiful city of Paris, but also some what excited to see Germany. We drove about 3 hours and stopped in Verdun to see Fort Duoumont and Citadel. At Fort Duoumont we followed Dr. Bradford through a series of tunnels that showed what the soldiers living conditions were like during the war there. There bed chambers were the most interesting i thought. They had a bunch of bed bunks in a room, each bunk smaller than a queen but much larger than a twin. Now, that wouldn't be a problem if each bunk didn't have to have 3 people on it. This meant that six men took up the space of one bunk bed. The room wasn't even that large, but multiplying the amount of bunks in the room meant almost 100 men in this small area. I can't even imagine having to live in a place so cold and dreary.

After the Fort, we all got back on the bus and headed to Citadel. This was another set of tunnels. However, instead of walking around we got in this little cart thing and rode through the tunnels, watching videos and seeing models of what would be going on back then. It wasn't the most exciting ride...but still pretty cool to go through the tunnels. After that we headed towards McDonald's for lunch, and then got back on the bus to continue on to Germany. It was another 3 hours to Otzenhausen, so I'm really glad I fell asleep.

Alex and I are roommates once again (I know we just can't get enough of each other haha). Our room is really nice, we each have our own beds, and the room is very spacious. The hotel room we shared in Paris was gorgeous, but if you were at all claustrophobic you would have dropped dead within two seconds. This place is also very convenient, everything we would need is very close by. Our classroom is just downstairs from our rooms. There is another building right next door that is kind of a "party room". They have a ping-pong table and Foosball table. There is also a laundry room downstairs. In the last building there is an extremely nice bar that plays American music and has a pool table. It really is a nice place! And perfect to focus on school work since we won't be going downtown or anything. We had dinner near the bar tonight which was delicious! Mom, I know you said German food wasn't really that good, but this was pretty wonderful haha. We had BBQ sausage and ham for a main dish, potato salad, pasta salad, bread and some kind of carrot thing. They also had roasted corn on the cob which was delicious, and some tomato thing that had some garnish stuff on top. All in all it was a great meal and I'm really excited to eat again haha.

Well it's pretty late here...Alex and I decided to do Watson's extra credit paper tonight before classes started back up again. So we each had to watch a movie and write a 2 pg review on it. Alex watched Schindler's List (amazing movie, but I had already seen it), and I watched the movie Strike; a German film that talks about the Polish workers strikes after the war. It mainly focuses on Agnieszka Kowalska, a woman that becomes one of the founders for Poland's Solidarity Union. It was a great film and very easy to write about because of the powerful story line. But anyways time to get some sleep, night!

I Love Paris! cont...

The D'Orsay Museum was really spectacular! My favorite things to see there were the Degas Ballerina's and the Toulouse Lautrec collection. After the museum we headed back over to the Louvre. We had already seen a few things there, but Alex ended up showing me a part of the "Da Vinci Code" so we decided to go back and look at the same paintings they showed in the movie. It was pretty cool to see it all right in front of us. Well after that we were so tired from all of our walking that we decided to head back home and relax for a little bit before dinner.

We laid down for awhile just to catch up on some rest. Then we took showers and got ready to meet a few people downstairs for dinner and our last night out in Paris. We took the metro down to the Latin Corner to experience some of the early night life, and just see the area. It was a really cool spot. There were a lot of really neat cafes and bars all along the streets it was really cool. We had a nice dinner at one of the cute little restaurants down the street. After dinner we decided to head back near our hotel, get a few bottles of wine and then go sit in front of the Eiffel Tower as a group. It was a lot of fun, there's so much going on at the Eiffel Tower at night and every time it lights up it is so pretty! At first it was Michal Ann, Stephanie, Cam, Alex, Daniel, Kaitlyn, Allison, Alan and I, but then about an hour later Kyle, John and Rex joined our group. It was a great way to spend our last night in Paris!

I Love Paris!

Today Alex and I ended up waking up a little late, but got up quickly and got dressed to head to Notre Dame. We went on the metro, by ourselves for once, and OF COURSE went to the wrong stop and ended up having to walk several blocks to find it. FINALLY we found it and got in line for the Cathedral. We realized that there were a separate line for the Bell Tower so we left the Cathedral and got in the one hour line for the Bell Tower. We took turns going into the Cathedral while the other person waited in line, since we had plenty of time. Finally it was our turn to head up the Tower. For awhile it was just a constant stone spiral stairway going up and up and up and up and up...but it was definitely worth it once we reached the top because the sight of the city was gorgeous! The gargoyles were right at our level it was so cool! You could walk around a little bit seeing different angles of the city. Then there was this small opening to see the Bell Tower. It was so cool! Maggie, if you're reading this it was like being in the Hunchback of Notre Dame movie, the animators had the look of the place dead on. Completely wooden on the inside, with thick wood columns(i guess you would call them) and wooden stairways up the tower. I took plenty of pictures so you will see what I'm talking about. We went up one last longgg stairwell up to the top of Notre Dame. Again, a beautiful view!! After seeing all of that we climbed down the never-ending spiral stairs and finally reached the ground. Notre Dame was so awesome!

Next we headed over to Sainte-Chapelle, another gorgeous Cathedral, known for its large stained glass windows. I didn't enjoy this place as much as Notre Dame, but the stained glass was definitely really cool! We walked around for a little bit then headed back downstairs to the gift shop on our way out. Next we headed towards the Muss D'Orsay! It took awhile to get there because we were pretty far away from it walking distance, but it was well worth the walk. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside which was a huge upset because the building was so cool! We went and saw the Van Gogh section and the impressionist section that included works by Toulouse Letrec, Claude Monet, Degas and Renoir. It was really a cool museum!!

I had more to write but right now I have to jump in the shower to get ready for dinner but I'll finish up later!

Walking through Paris...

This morning we started our day with a 3 hour walking tour all around Paris. We got to see all the major sites as well as less important buildings that were once used as a greater purpose during World War II. For example, the military school right next to our hotel was once used to hold all the Gypsy's, gays, Jews, and political rivals before being shipped off to camps. We had a wonderful tour guide that was funny and really knew a lot about what he was talking about. The tour was really long, but you hardly noticed the length with everything you were seeing and all the interesting stories the guide told along the way.

After the tour it was about 1pm so we were all ready for lunch. Chris, Alex, and I split up from the group because we were trying to get to Montmartre, near Moulin Rouge and Sacre - Coeur (another cathedral). We took the metro to Montmartre (which was an experience, let me tell you). There were two different metro "exits" near the Moulin Rouge so we got off at the first one, hoping we wouldn't pass it. Well, being tourists, and knowing absolutely nothing about the area around there, came out of the the first metro exit only to find streets lined with sex shops (a real classy party of town...haha)...well we quickly noticed our mistake and walked fast towards the next set of metro stairs only to avoid having to by another ticket just to go to the next stop. It was really ridiculous haha. But we finally got to the next stop, and right there in front of me was the MOULIN ROUGE!!!!! I was sooo excited!!! I just stared at it for the longest time, completely starstruck and overwhelmed (sorry that the Moulin Rouge affected me more than the Arc de Triumph...I have problems haha). I was however very bummed out that I couldn't go inside (I thought about dressing up like a can-can dancer and sneaking backstage, but realized that that probably wouldn't work). And seeing as lunch and dinner shows are outrageously expensive for a college student, we walked across the street and just had a light lunch instead. After lunch we walked further into the more bohemian area of Montmartre. It was really cool! There were little shops everywhere, it was very cute! We then made our way up an extremely steep hill to the Sacre - Coeur Cathedral. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I did buy one postcard so everyone could see the ceiling of the alter, which is spectacular! We only stayed for a little bit because thy were in the middle of mass and we didn't want to disturb them. At the area right in front of the cathedral is the most beautiful view of Paris! You can see so far into the city, and there is so much room. It is an incredible sight!

After we climbed back down the hill, we got back on the metro and headed for the Arc De Triumph. The Arc was pretty cool, but just not nearly as stunning as what I had already seen today and the day before. After the Arc we just turned around and decided to take a stroll down the Champs-Elysee's. It was a really cool street, but definitely put my mind into perspective and back to the realization that I am just a poor college student haha. It was worth walking through though, just to see everything! I also made a pit stop down one of the streets on the Champs-Elysee's to see the George V. Now I am aware that the George V is not a tourist attraction, however I am what you would call a SUPER-tourist that happens to be in love with the movie "French Kiss" that happened to be filmed at that hotel (mom you will at least appreciate this I'm sure :)). By this time we were ready to call it an afternoon. So we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel for a break before heading out again for dinner.

Around 7:30ish we met back up in the lobby and headed out for dinner. We got on the metro and headed towards the Louvre to try and see as much as possible before it closed. We ate dinner at this cute little cafe close to the metro stop for the Louvre, where we were serenaded by the beautiful music of Coolio's Gangster Paradise and Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart (It was quite the cultural experience if you ask me). After dinner we headed into the Louvre where we were able to see several Greek statues of the Greek Gods and Heroes. We were also able to get through several Italian paintings including the Mona Lisa, before we were told to start heading for the doors for closing time. We made one last stop after the Louvre. We grabbed another taxi and headed back towards the Eiffel Tower where they have night cruises like the one I talked about yesterday. Luckily, we were just able to make the boat as it left. It was a really nice and pretty cruise that took us up and down the Seine River to see all the major cites and attractions. Everything looked beautiful late at night. Paris is just a gorgeous city! Now I know why Bridget lives here haha!

Well Alex and I finally made it in for the night so we're about to go to sleep. Tomorrow we have our museum passes to hit some of the more popular things like Notre Dame and the D'Orsay Museum (where they keep Degas and Monet's works). I'm really excited and can't wait to write about it tomorrow!

First Day in PARIS!!!!

Ok so I have decided that I am much too far behind to catch you up on what I've done, so I'm just going to start fresh from here. If I have any spare time in the next couple days I'll try to add in things I've missed...

So this morning we packed up the bus and left Sainte-Malo and headed to Paris! On the way there we made a stop at the Chartres Cathedral, to look at it and have lunch near by. Apparently this particular Cathedral is on some list of the top 1000 things to see in the world before you die. I don't know what else is on that list, but this cathedral was amazing! It definitely out did any other cathedral I've seen yet! The outside made it look huge, but it's size really didn't strike me until I walked inside. The inside was dark and mostly only lit by candles. There was a long entry way and chairs laid out for a service. I don't even know how to describe the ceiling. It seemed like it never ended! There was beautiful stain glass surrounding the entire upper part of the cathedral. As I walked further in you could see confession booths that looked like antiques. The carving on the wood was so intricate. Around the alter was a "screen" made from the 16th to 18th c. It was an extremely detailed stone that circled around the back part of the alter. It was made up of 41 different scenes all following the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It was breathtaking! Just looking at the stone and seeing the details that hand carved was amazing. I bought a book for 7 euros explaining the cathedral and the meanings of all the statues, carvings, and stain glass so that I could show everyone back home how incredible this place was! So don't worry mom, you'll have plenty to read about! :)

After we went through the cathedral we got back on the bus and headed on to Paris. We arrived later in the afternoon around 3:30ish. After Alex and I got our room keys we headed up stairs to get settled, shower, and then head back to the lobby to meet everyone at 530. We decided as a group to walk around for a bit before dinner. Lucky for us we're only about 10 mins walking distance from the Eiffel Tower! I have to say I felt EXACTLY like Meg Ryan in "French Kiss" when I saw it. It was still unbelievable even with it standing right in front of me. It may not be the nicest looking architecture in the world, but it still can take your breath away. After we took a few pictures we headed down towards these little shop areas where we had dinner at "Le Champ de Mars" (at least I think that's what I remember it was called). I had veal in a mushroom sauce, it was delicious!

After dinner our group split up. Some headed back to the hotel, while Alex, Alan, Michael, Kaitlyn, Allison, Stephanie and I decided to look for this old book store called "Shakespeare and Company". It supposedly is a well known book store that has original copies of some really famous novels. Unfortunately for us, the store was about 40 mins of a walking distance from dinner, but we made the trip anyways (yes, I was very tired and didn't feel like walking haha). It was really cool to walk though because we stayed right next to the Seine River, so we were able to see a bunch of different things as we walked by. However, there was only one thing that made my heart jump, and that was Notre Dame. Seeing it in person was just amazing! I was completely drawn into it (and wondering why we were going to a book store instead of the incredible cathedral to our left?!!?). But we went to the book store instead, which sadly was a huge let down. I took some pictures, and it was definitely "neat," but not walking half across town worthy....Unfortunately we were supposed to meet back up with the group for a night cruise so we didn't have time to walk across the street to Notre Dame. But mark my words, I will see that beautiful cathedral again!

So we all got in a Taxi and raced back to the Eiffel Tower to meet the rest of the group. Well once we got down to the area to buy tickets for the night cruise, there was an accident involving a bus falling into the river and sinking. So they closed the cruises for the night. Hopefully we'll get to go tomorrow because it sounded really cool! Well after that we all realized how tired we were, and how much we all had planned the next day, so we just headed back home. Tomorrow we have our group walking tour (yay oh yay, by the way I am so jealous of the people with Seg Way's all over the city) at 10am then afterwards we're let loose. Alex, Chris, Kyle and I plan to see the MOULIN ROUGE!!!! Which if anyone who is reading this knows that this is probably the one place I want to see in Paris!!!! So I am super excited for tomorrow and can't wait to tell everyone about it on here afterwards!! Sorry for not posting for so long, we have a little longer before we start back up with classes, so hopefully the blogs will continue as usual. Love and miss everybody!! And thank you everyone following me on here and taking the time to read my blogs!

Sorry I haven't written in awhile...we had mid-terms as well as a paper due this week so I was just trying to focus on that. But anyways, to catch you all up, after we returned from Ireland the first places we went were Musee De Rangers and St. Mere Eglise.



The Musee de Rangers was really cool. Our tour guide didn't speak much English but he still had a lot of great information on the Rangers who climbed the cliffs at Point Du Hoc. We actually learned that Earl Rudder (An Aggie which Rudder Tower is named after on campus) was one of them. After we looked at all the displays downstairs we headed upstairs for a film that talked about the Ranger's objective at Point Du Hoc. The film featured footage from the movie "The Longest Day." It was a great museum that allowed us to understand what the Rangers went through at Poin Du Hoc. "Inaugurated on 6th June 1990, the Rangers Museum tells the story of an American Elite Unit directed by the Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder. Using texts, many photographs of models, as well as personal effects of these men, the visitor follows the course of the troop since his creation on June 19, 1942 in Northern Ireland until the end of the battle of <> on June 8, 1944.

After the museum we walked around town. It was a really cute little town that had a really cute market place. I bought some fresh black berries that were delicious! They had a few souvenir shops along the sides too, and a fresh fish market down towards the end of the street.



Our next stop was in Sainte Mere Eglise for the Airborne museum. When we first got there we had lunch at this really cute creperie place (Alex, Alan and I). After lunch we had a few minutes to walk around town, but then met the rest of the group around the front of the museum. The museum was really cool, there were tanks and planes everywhere. Unfortunately I really didn't get a good look at anything because of the confusion with our tour guide. Apparently there was some miscommunication with the guide and we eneded up having a guide that barely understood any English. So Kyle, Chris and I (the only people in the group that understands French somewhat) ended up talking to him for the majority of the time we had been there. I loved it though!! He was so interesting, and it was really cool to converse with him in french. Luckily Kyle and Chris did most of the talking, because they understand a heck of a lot more than me! But still it was great talking with the man. He ended up giving us a special certificate from the museum and two seals of the airborne museum as well. Afterwards we met up with the group in the movie room to watch the 20 min film "Fight for Freedom."

1st Day in Ireland!!!

Ireland was amazing! Unfortunately, our first night was a little rough because our plane was delayed 2 hours, so we were all stuck in the airport for a long time. We didn't even make it into the city until about 2am Dublin time. We checked into our hostel and then all pretty much went to sleep.

The next day we were all up bright and early ready to see the sights! We found out about this great bus tour called the "Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour" that takes you all around the town and allows you to get off at certain spots. It's also only about a ten min wait in between buses so it was very easy to get off and see as much as we wanted! The first day we took the bus basically the whole way around just to get a large tour of the city. It was really neat to see how everything is in Dublin.

I think I'll just try to write individual blogs about the places we went so its easier to get a feel for everything...but this was our main schedule

Thurs: arrive at 2am and SLEEP!!

Fri: Take the Bus tour around the city. We saw Grafton (where we ate lunch), Trinity College, Christ Church, The Viking Museum, the Guinness Storehouse, and Temple Bar

Sat: Alex & I were kind of on our own but we saw Dublin Castle and then just kind of walked around town to see the city, then at 8 we met up with everyone to see a live River dance at the Gaiety Theatre!

Sun: Alex Stephanie and I had a day trip to Wicklow Glendalough with the "Over the Top Day Tours". It was amazing! That lasted all day so afterwards we went back to the hostel for a little while until our Ghostbus Tour at 9:30 (very creepy, so worth it too).

Mon: nothing except get in a cab and head to the airport to go back to Caen :( I miss Ireland already......my homeland!!! haha :)

Picture 1: Avalon House...the Hostel we stayed at

Picture 2: Chris Alex and I roaming the streets of Dublin

Picture 3: The Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour we used

Picture 4: Streets of Dublin

Picture 5: Opening of Grafton St.

Picture 6: At the Gravity Bar on the top floor of the Guinness Storehouse (Michal-Ann, Allison, Me, Chris & Alex)

Picture 7: Walking to Temple Bar Friday night

Picture 8: Me on the Wicklow Tour

Picture 9: Stephanie & Alex being funny on the Ghostbus Tour

Picture 10: Ghostbus Tour bus

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Sorry about the delay...

The last place we went was the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial right off of Omaha Beach, "Bloody Omaha." This Cemetery and Memorial honors the men apart of the massive allied assault on the Normandy coastline on June 6, 1944 aimed to liberate France and drive into Nazi Germany. The cemetery was breathtaking, there were 9,387 soldiers buried with headstones, as well as 1,557 men on the wall for soldiers missing in action. When you looked out at all the graves you just could do nothing but go silent. There were so many it seemed like the rows of soldiers would never end. Walking through the cemetery made me speechless. There was nothing to say, and nothing to do but to walk up and down and honor the men that gave their lives for freedom. We also were each given a rose to place on the headstone of our choosing, I put my rose on a man buried next to his brother, who both were from Texas (our tour guide gave us a list of men from texas buried in the cemetery). I know I thought that the Canadian Cemetery was amazing, but this cemetery almost made me forget about everything else we had visited that day. It was incredible.

Picture 1: The front view of the start of the Cemetery

Picture 2: The opposite view of Picture 1. The statue is supposed to symbolize Youth

Picture 3: The Wall honoring those missing in action

Picture 4: A view of the headstones

Picture 5: Troy R. Dooley's headstone (where I placed my rose)

Omaha Beach!

Today we started our day on the sands of Omaha Beach. We followed the beach down a ways and then found the path that lead to the top of the cliffs. It was really interesting seeing how long and far the beach stretched, and how steep the cliffs were. We followed Prof. Watson up the trail until we finally reached the top. From the top the view was beautiful! The hike was definitely worth the view! After the hike we went to the ceremony for the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

Sorry I didn't write much....I felt the pictures really show off the beach more than I could explain it.

Picture 1: Omaha Beach

Picture 2: Omaha Beach

Picture 3: Omaha Beach

Picture 4: Walking on Omaha Beach (John, Rex, Kyle & Micheal-Ann)

Picture 5: View up from Omaha Beach

Picture 6: Walking the trail off the beach

Picture 7: Still walking the trail

Picture 8: Me, Stephanie, Alex & Tori

Picture 9: Walking the path towards the top

Picture 10: Alex, Me, Tori & Michael-Ann

Picture 11: Alex & Me

Picture 12: The Girls at the top (Kristinia, Allison, Me, Michael-Ann, Kaitlyn, Alex, Stephanie & Tori)

Picture 13: The Boys at the top (Michael, Cam, Alan, Kyle, Daniel, Eric, Chris, Rex, Ryan, Adam, Jason & John)

Arromanches & 360 Screen

Our second to last stop was in Arromanches where we watched the film "The Price of Freedom" on the 360 screen ("presented on 9 screens in a circular theater and projected by an exclusive process, mixes unreleased footage from archives of war correspondents with present day pictures shot on location in now peaceful settings").

This film was amazing! The screen wrapped entirely around you while you stood at the center. The film was so incredible with how they showed footage from the past and then brought the same area and terrain into the future to show what the men had been fighting for. The movie was heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. This probably was the one movie I've ever been in where you don't hear any other noise (not even a crunch from someone eating) but the sound coming from the scene in front of you. Everyone was just entranced by the screens. It literally takes your breath away seeing all the men marching, fighting, and injured. You just can't imagine what they had to go through. There is no other word for this film other than incredible.

After the film, we went down to the town area where we had lunch around all the nearby shops and then went into the Musee Du Debarquement (D-Day Museum). This museum had a lot of models and artifacts to look at. We had a guide explaining the artificial port assembled in Arromanches as well as many models to look at. I did enjoy the museum, however it did not come anywhere close to the Memorial Museum we had already seen, or the Arromanches 360 theatre film!!!

Picture 1: View from 360 Theatre to town

Picture 2: Alex in front of the view

Picture 3: Arromanches town where we ate lunch

Picture 4: Alex & I inside the D-Day Museum

Picture 5: The artificial port in the distance in the water

Canadian Cemetery

Our next stop was at the Canadian Cemetery. Now this place was truly incredible. When you first walk through you just notice how much care and respect is put in to make it as beautiful as it is. Once you get to the graves you see hundreds of them spread out everywhere, with flowers all in front. The one thing I really liked about this cemetery was the individuality they gave each grave. Yes, from a distance they seem grouped together, but while you're there you find yourself walking down row by row paying your respects to the men individually. Each grave has it's owner's name, rank, age, position, religious symbol and Canadian crest. What is even more personal is that each stone also has a poem at the bottom, chosen by either a family member or close friend. This place was so peaceful and beautiful. I wish I had more to write, but to be honest the entire time there I spent walking down each isle. Feeling extremely thankful to the men that laid below me. This is by far a site that should be at the top of every traveler's list to come and see.

Picture 1: The opening to the area that held the graves "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE"

Picture 2: Just one section of graves

Picture 3: A single grave

Picture 4: I put this up so you could see a quote "HE LOVED HONOUR MORE THAN HE FEARED DEATH. SLEEP ON. DEAR BUDDY. IN PEACE."

Picture 5: The center of where all the graves are

La Batterie De Merville

Monday cont....

After the Pegasus Memorial we headed to The Merville Battery. Background:

"The Merville Battery, a German Army strong point in the Atlantic Wall, was situated on the Eastern flank of the Allied invasion of 6th June 1944. Bombed ineffectively many times it was neutralised by the British 9th Parachute Battalion after an incredible attack."

This place was set up really cool. You were able to see the distance between each bunker, and understand what it would have been like to be stationed there. Our tour guide took us to several spots around the area and explained the history behind it all. It was very interesting. After our guide talked, we went into one of the bunkers where they had a sound and light show so people could see what it was like being in one of the bunkers while it was attacked. It was so dark you could barely see anything, the only light you got came sporadically from the bombs being dropped near the bunker. It's amazing how these men were able to move around in almost pitch darkness and take commands in orders and follow through with them. You also could barely hear anything because everything outside was extremely loud as well as everything inside. It really was interesting seeing what it was like to be stuck in one of those.

We also got to go inside the plane they also had on site. I can't imagine sitting in that thing and being without water or air. The entire plane was made of metal and you could just feel the heat as you walked inside. All in all it was a very interesting spot to visit and I'm glad we got to see it!

Picture 1: Me by the front entry way sign

Picture 2: One of the bunkers

Picture 3: The light & sound show (that's why its foggy)

Picture 4: Douglas C-47 plane

Picture 5: Inside the plane

Sunday Beach Day!

I almost left out our free day on Sunday! Well Sunday a group of us decided to go to the coast near where we live. It was just a bus trip away so we figured it all out and went. It wasn't the prettiest beach I've ever seen, but it was definitely a lot of fun with everyone! There was a small town for the beach where they had a market going on and a lot of little food cafe places to eat at. We had lunch there and some gelato! Most of the time we were just laying around on the beach. The boys bought a frisbee and a soccer ball so they decided to do that for a little while. I on the other hand am a person not very fond of frisbee and who also happens to hate soccer haha. So you can imagine my excitement when I noticed some sand volleyball courts set up not too far from where we were! I asked if anyone wanted to go, but unfortunately no one likes volleyball quite as much as I do. So i got some courage and went over to meet some new people. NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH. It was a little difficult at first but I got enough out for them to understand that I was asking to play. I introduced myself to them in French and explained where I was from. They did the same and then we started playing. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that there were gigantic rocks hidden everywhere you stepped....but the people were all really nice! After about 30-40 mins I headed back to my group so they would know I hadn't been taken haha. We missed our first bus back so we had to wait over an hour for the next one...there we had long discussions about the TV shows and movies we liked, followed of course by never ending quotations haha. We finally made it back a little after 7:30pm. It was a great day for the sun!

Picture 1: Beach

Picture 2: John, Kyle, Me & Alex

Picture 3: Alan & Daniel

Picture 4: Kyle

Picture 5: Alex, John & Me

Pegasus Bridge

Monday was our long field trip day we went to see several sites! We left around 8:30am and didn't arrive home until 6pm.

Our first stop was Pegasus Bridge. Here is some background:

"The Memorial Pegasus at Ranville-Benouville is dedicated to the men of the 6th British Airborne Division who were the first liberators to arrive in Normandy on the night of 5th/6th June 1944. In the museum the different missions of the Airborne Divison are presented. The most spectacular being the capture of the Benouville Bridge by glider borne troops commanded by Major John Howard."

This museum was based mostly on models and the actual planes and bridge from 1944. There is still a Pegasus-looking bridge in it's original location, however they moved the original a few miles away in order to build a stronger bridge for the future, and so not to ruin the original. When we first arrived at the museum, our tour guide brought us into a round room with a huge model of the area we were in. There were lights all over the board that came on at different times to show the locations of the gliders, where they landed, and where they started from. Our tour guide explained the entire operation from start to finish. Afterwards, we watched a short film on it where it had several men from the event speaking about their past. (They even had Hans Von Luck in the video talking about his 21st Division; he wasn't apart of this though, but it was kind cool since I just read his book!).

After the video we went outside to see the actual Pegasus Bridge. It was really big, and the strangest looking bridge I've ever seen haha. The tour guide took us on the bridge and gave us some more information. They also had one of the gliders outside and a way to look into it and see what the plane looked like inside and out. All in all it was a great place and very interesting. Above are a few of the pictures I took, hopefully they come out in some kind of order with this post haha.

(1 post down and 4 more to go!!! and this is just for Monday!)