Monday, April 4, 2005

Weekend in Normandy

This past weekend in Normandy was AMAZING!  (really long, too!)  Friday morning we got up at about 6:30, got on the bus and drove 3 hours to Caen to see the Peace Memorial Museum there.  The museum was really interesting, we walked through it for about an hour, then saw a film from the soldier's point of view: half the screen from the German side, half from the Allied side.  It was about the D-Day invasion at Normandy(obviously) but it was cool.  After lunch we got back on the bus to drive about an hour to Omaha Beach.  (for those who don't know/remember...it was one of the American Beaches from WWII).  We got to actually walk down to the beach which was AWESOME.  It's quite a hike...you basically walk through all the brush that the German's would have been sitting and waiting in, and then you get to the beach and it's bare.  It's so calm and serene and you can't even possibly begin to imagine that there were thousands of people that were invading the beach and you are standing the exact spot where probably many of them died.  Afterwards we walked up to the American Military Cemetary(it was in the movie Saving Private Ryan) and just walked through and looked at all of the gravestones.  What is interesting that I never knew, was that there are something like 9,371 graves at the cemetary and those are just the bodies that were unknown or not requested to be buried in the states.  Also, France gave the land to the U.S. when they decided to re-do the cemetaries and build one large one(that's there now) so the soldiers are buried on U.S. soil.  The names on the tombstones are all facing west too...symbolizing that west is where the U.S. is.  I thought that it was really touching to know that they purposely place the names on the tombstones like that.  I thought the cemetary was really emotional.  I don't know why, but it just got to me.  Before I left, I took the stone that I had stolen from the beach earlier that i was going to keep as a souvenir, and I placed it on one of the tombstones.  
Friday night for dinner, Marli, Kevin, Nicole and I went to this cute little restaurant right next to our hotel in St. Malo.  When we asked the waiter to explain the menu, he told us there were clams on it.  Marli and i both ordered clams as our first course and guess what we  got?  Raw oysters.  WHAT?  Yeah, so I ate all 6 of mine and one of Marli's (against my will, she did not eat hers and didn't want it to look like she didn't eat them, so we all "pitched in" to help her out...yuck).  Let's go with I will NEVER eat raw oysters again, eeww.  I like clams...those were definitely NOT clams.  We also got crepes for dessert which were AMAZING, they were chocolate, hence the amazing.  
Saturday we went to Mont St. Michel and got a tour of the little island/church.  It was really interesting.  We also got a walking tour of St. Malo when we got back and it is really pretty.  It's basically an Island surrounded by defensive city walls and we were walking on top of the walls.  the ocean was cool :)  Saturday night Liz, Marli, Nicole, Kevin and I went for crepes for dinner and then had ice cream! :)
Sunday we went to Bayeux to see a 200 ft.(or something like that) tapestry...woohoo for the excitement, next...
Afterwards we went to Giverny to Claude Monet's house.  It was really cool to see, but probably would have been nicer if the flowers were ALL in bloom and the trees had more leaves on them but still we had really REALLY  nice weather and so it was cool to see.
After that, we had a nice long bus ride home.
So I've been writing down everything that people say on this trip, dumb stuff, funny stuff, things we've just caught onto saying or doing...I told all of my friends about it and it's SO FUNNY now because they (mainly kevin) are just saying stuff to try and "get in my book."  Then there are those that don't realize yet that I AM listening, and I AM writing down EVERYTHING.  What was that Jeff?  "Attention mortals, I'm now exiting the shower?" yeah...don't ask.  
Well, we're in about the 8th inning, bases loaded and only one strike.  (nice right?) The last two weeks are going to be action packed.  By action packed I do mean homework and class, but still.  Intinerary for the  next week(tentative of course):
Today: no class because our professors love us: aka free day to catch up on reading and homework.
Tuesday: Class, papers due, more work...one last visit to the Musee d'Orsay.
Wednesday: More class, no homework due, visit the Picasso Museum.
Thursday: Class, (ditching out on western civ) Kris comes to PARIS!!!!!! Night one of the party weekend...
Friday: Day off...being a tourist showing Kris around the city, most likely going out friday night
Saturday: Same as friday, going out at Night to celebrate my 21st!!!! (we have class on monday, so the drunken fiesta starts saturday night)
Sunday: MY BIRTHDAY...aka a day of hopefully being hungover and loving it!  Dinner @ the Eiffel Tower.

As far as calling me goes:  I am pretty sure I lost my cell phone, so my dorm room number is all you've got.  I will post an entry later in the week so you'll know when I'll be aruond...
Lots of Love!  Gotta go to homework.

No comments: