NORMANDIE:

First of all it was seriously like 60 degrees and rainy at the end of last week and alllll throughout the weekend. Lucky for me, the night before I left, I asked my mom what was pushing me over the 70lb weight limit. She told me it was my jeans. I left with zero pairs. So I believe the phrase was "pulling an Anna" all last week/weekend whenever the under-dressed appeared.

Excursion One

Normandie is a region in France-the capital is Caen. So first we headed to the Normandie Museum primarily focused on World War II. They had actual tanks, bombers, etc But it told the history leading up to WWII, etc. Me and Katherine (don't judge this grammar) were on patrol. See we had some sketch professors on the bus who attempted to give the students a rundown on WWII history-clearly they were swimming in the French tank. Super annoying. Then at the museum we were forced to watch a cheesy French-made documentary about D-day (once again clearly a joke).

This important moment for us American students was tainted by a slanted presentation of history: this film was 90% about the FRENCH troops on D-day (come again?) Whatever. Pretty sure the Canadians got more air time than the Americans. All we kept saying was "We know who the real heroes are".

For some reason our group was being annoyingly clickish. So we spent much of our time laughing about how no one else could join. We also have found this hysterical habit of taking funny pictures of people (yep, even those in our program). So funny.

Katherine, Anna, & Ty in the mirrored entrance of the museum (it was raining and my nick-named "Texas hair" was going flat. It was by this time more like 50 degrees-and my linen shorts clearly failed me.

The best part of the trip came after the museum when we went to the actual beach. We went to Omaha Beach, one of the beaches where the American's came ashore on D-Day. The French actually gave the Americans land overlooking this beachhead. So it was so cool to enter on to "American land" because suddenly everything became super-American.

America did such a great job planning and constructing the site. There is the actual monument center, the cemetery, museum, and perfectly groomed grounds to walk on. It was practically the best experience of my life.

This is where the monument center is-behind it is the cemetery. They are setting up for the anniversary of D-Day June 6th.

To the west the cemetery overlooks the Atlantic. It is so surreal. I have always read about it in books and watched it in films but I guessed I was not really prepared for the impact it would have.

There was also a chapel at the end of the cemetery where people could go. It was really pretty-so we all took a picture in front of it. In order: Lacy (Aggie), Tyler (Aggie), Anna (not sure ha), and Scott (not an Aggie-but he's basically Sc"walking genius"ott).

My friends pitied me and lent me random articles of clothes. Ty kept calling me bag lady.

On the American site are cliffs that overlook the beach. There are paths that lead down to it. So we walked down to Omaha and took pictures.

Walking ddddown.

During this trip, we added a new boy to our group, Scott. On the bus we all made sure to sit together-seriously never laughed so hard in my life.

Beach.

Anna & Hunter

We actually all took off our shoes and got in the water.

Ty, Hunter, & Scott (Scott is like fluent in French ugh makes us sick)

We made them stand in the water until they took a good one. Hunter's face hahaha. Their "I want to die" expressions are related to the freezing temp. & length of exposure ha.

Hunter finds joy in photobombing all of my pictures (when I am taking a serious picture and he purposely tries to destroy it). I'll have to post some later. He's from West Virginia. One of the famous quotes of the trip:

Hunter: "Yeah, well in 7th grade West Virginia history class. . ."

Anna (interrupts): "West Virginia has a history?" bahahaha

After we left Utah beach we went to Point du Hoc where there were German bunkers and preserved holes in the ground where Allied bombs were dropped. HUGE HOLES.

I had a hilarious video of us at the bunkers BUT in the two minutes it lasted there seemed to be 10 inappropriate incidences (of which I can say I wasn't involved in any of them).

(Huge Hole)

Tyler also managed to fall not once, but twice-so funny. It also started to rain here so we ran for cover in these bunkers. It was so eerie being there knowing that nearly 66 years before Nazis looked out of the same concrete windows to see the Allies coming. Nazis are creepy anyway but just being down there in the dark was almost too much.

The German view.

THEN ughh so our leaders told us they had a surprise-but with my sarcasm all I could think was well we paid for it so it's not like they are really going to give us something. But seriously when they told us- I thought it was a sick joke. They took us (mind you in 30 degree or so it seemed weather) to a cider/cheese/cookie/whatever making place. Really it's some famous cider from Normandie that apparently is the new thing. Whatever. All I remember is some idiot opening the cheese fridge of which released a smell that made me want to die. So I don't even care. Nonetheless they marched us around that thing for what seemed forever.

We then go back to Caen, where we were staying. So the five of us go to dinner. Since we are on the coast, it's all mostly seafood. ugh gross me out. So I ordered beef steak like a man as I weakily watched the others eat things that looked like they just might walk off your plate.

The welts or welps or something were still housed in their shells. So my options were duck, lamb, odd sea creatures, or more odd sea creatures-so instead I went with the most Texas option possible.

Our food came with dessert-so I ordered the only option I could identify with: vanilla ice-cream. The others went with more romantic options but once again I stay borderline grossed out 90% of the time so I have to be careful. My gag reflexes are top-of-the-line. But the funny part was the ice cream was so gross. When it was almost gone I let everyone try it-they hated it. I realized then I didn't like it either. So one of them says: the funny thing is, is that she still ate it ALL. So now I am on a one-a-week ice cream allowance (Haagen Daas on the Champs-Élysées only).

This is so long-last leg.

So the next day we went to Mont St. Michel. It's about 2 hours from Caen and about 4 from Paris.

This is Mont St. Michel. It is an island that is surrounded by water with a quick rising tide. Rick Steves is a running joke-only because he is my hero and best friend on the trip. I read all about Mont St. Michel in his France book the night before. So he claims that only 30 people actually live here. It's super touristy. But then again I am one. It was so cool.

I always threaten to start reading him out loud hahaha.

At the top is the Abbey of which we toured.

This is the view from the top.

So just to give an idea of what the wind was like I decided to try to capture it in strangers (a new found hobby of course-taking ridiculous pictures of people and laughing hysterically). My mom tells me to be nice. So yeah this wind was so out of control. I had like 10 Marilyn incidences. This part of France is cold & rainy 365.

Tyler, Anna, & K touring the Abbey.

We kept getting in trouble for not paying attention. As Tyler put it: if the lady would speak French I'd probably be able to get more (In reference to her attempt to speak English).

So this is a super famous omelette place called La Mere Poulard (shout out to Rick for teaching me this) (99.9% sure my name was supposed to be Anna Michelle Steves).

Inside this walled city is magical! The streets are narrow and windy with little shops everywhere. The walls broke the wind so the weather was perfect. There are all these Frenchy medieval things to buy-I was in heaven. No actually what gets me every time are books. I always fall for them about the places I go. Haha or like when my mom carried a Swiss flag (on a pole) around Europe that I thought I needed hahaha. Luckily Rick said that the shops are terrible about ripping off tourists with their high prices-so I refrained.

So now I'm back in Paris-Nadal is here too for the French Open.

Also, there is an owl that wakes me up every morning: who who who

I want to kill it.

I also got deathly (or so I thought) sick from the Metro. I HATE public transportation. My mom also tells me to quit saying this. But I can't. Home girl the other morning was coughing all over me, HORIZONTALLY. Who does that? She didn't even pretend she wanted to put her head down or cover her mouth. These are the kind of people I am dealing with.

Luckily in this semi-socialist state (courtesy of the tax payers I should say), medicine is cheap. All I had to do was go to a pharmacy without a dr.'s note and tell them what was wrong. So now I am better but I still hate the Metro.

Lastly, all I have wanted to do lately is watch the Sound of Music of which I brought with. But it's always too late when I get home. This weekend we are going to the Loire Valley to check out some sweet chateaus (Mick Jagger has one there) (maybe he'll be home).