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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Mon Apartment and it's FINALLY sunny!

I figured that since today was such a beautiful day, I'd write a little blog post.
Also, my sister thinks I don't update enough.

So:
My apartment:

(I took these photos a while ago on cleaning day)
my room! from the door!

other side of my room!

living room (dining room to the right)

kitchen!

kitchen!

And it's absolutely beautiful today (March 13, 2012)!!







view from my wide open window/door

look at that! 67 degrees! Woot!

Also, if anyone has any clues on how to pack for a two week spring break in a backpack let me know! 
I'm headed to Spain/Portugal and then Scotland/England. 
And I'm flying Ryanair and EasyJet aka strictest baggage airlines ever.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Normandy: D-Day Memorials

Bonjour tout le monde!

Yesterday, I got up at 5:15am and had to be at the University at 6:15.
Let me tell you, it's kinda scary walking 20 minutes in a town you don't really know at 5:45am.

Anyway, we headed out at 6:30 towards Caen, which is about a 3 hour drive from Angers.

Our first stop was the Memorial de Caen, which is a museum whose different rooms showcase different aspects of World War Two (Deuxieme Guerre Mondial).

Have you ever had the feeling, you've been some place before, and you walk in and you know you have?
Well that has happened quite a bit on this trip (Thanks, Mom and Dad)
And it did yesterday, thanks to this:
Apparently, I remember planes hanging from ceilings.

Here's more from the Memorial:
Map of Europe before and after the first world war

1929


Lots of Pictures around the museum


The Stars Jewsish people had to wear "Juif" is French and "Jude" is German.

Then we ate, and headed off to the American Cemetary, which is technically American soil, so I went back to the US yesterday for an hour, and came back to France. 

10,000 soldiers are buried here, with the average age being 24. 
Omaha Beach as seen from the cemetary

Omaha Beach


The Memorial.





Unknown Soldier





The Chapel in the middle 

Medal of Honor


Then we headed to a different section of Omaha Beach.
Omaha Beach is very large, with many different places to access it from.



It was finally sunny! So we got to take off our shoes for a little bit and walk on the sand.

Finally got to take off our boots!


Hillary and I

It's hard to imagine that a place so beautiful had something so horrible happen there not too long ago.

After the beach, we had to brush all the sand off of our feet and boots, and loaded back on the bus. 
We then headed to Le Pointe de Hoc, which is between Omaha and Utah Beaches. 
It is where the Rangers were stationed on D-Day.

Craters






The memorial to the Rangers





A bunker


One of the Cannons.

After that we headed to the German Military Cemetary. 
I personally did not like this one as much, it was kind of eery.
And very different than the American Cemetary.


Each Headstone is for 2 soldiers


These trees were planted by the familes of the solders, and the green plaque at the bottom indicates whose family it was.



UP NEXT:
Next weekend: Anjou Troglodite (farm in a cave?), the last CIDEF excursion for me
The 23-25: IRELAND, I'm SO SO excited. 
March 31st: Cointreau Museum in Angers, but a free weekend! 
April 6: BEGINNING OF SPRING BREAK! Heading to Paris for my flight out on Saturday
April 7: Fly to Madrid.
April 8-14: Sevilla, Spain, Lagos, Portugal & Granada, Spain with my sorority sister Emily
April 16: Fly to Edinburgh
April 16-22: Edinburgh, York and London, by myself because I love the UK that much
May 17-20: London again with my friends