3 weeks of vacation and 6 weeks to go

As you see from the pictures in my last blog entry…I had a pretty amazing time to say the least on my Euro Tour. You can all thank me for learning my lesson about overly wordy blogs when I wrote about my Spain trip, so thus I will not be paining you with 6+ pages of intense details of my trip. Instead, I will succinctly summarize its greatness.

11 days
44 exchange students
Cities visited: Strasbourg, Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Loano, Monaco, Cannes, Cassis, Marseilles, Lyon, Annecy, Geneva, Dijon
Theme song: What Goes Around by Justin Timberlake
Pictures taken: 1174
Average hours of sleep: 3-4

That actually doesn’t give really any insight into my trip, sorry. The pictures do a much better job of explaining, just look at those. In any case, know this romp around Europe goes down in the books as my most memorable experience from this year.

I got home at 4:30 last Friday from Euro Tour and left at precisely 5:35 in order to catch my train for St Nom la Breteche, a small town outside of Paris where I was staying the night with my YEO and Leo (the Brazilian in Paris) before our district’s weekend in Normandy. We ate really good crêpes with my YEO’s German friends and I wowed them with my vast knowledge of several useless German phrases which include “I bought this pen” and “I dropped my fork.”

The next morning we were off to the D-Day beaches in Normandy, which was quite an experience. We started off by watching a 360 degree film about the landings, then went down to a museum by the beach in Arromanches. The intense fog that surrounded the beach was fitting of its history, and made seeing a beach where so many young men died that much more powerful. But we did not stay somber the whole day, as we took full advantage of these free (free as in liberated not as in without cost) beaches to dig our feet in, get a little wet, and laugh. I think the soldiers who died there would find it appropriate that a group of 12 exchange students from around the world, whose countries were on both sides of the war (my YEO is German along with a girl in my district), could come together and enjoy the gift of freedom that they gave.

After the beaches, we headed over to the American cemetery a few miles away. This was even more powerful than the beaches, with line after line of white crosses testifying to the horrible toll the war had. It was also amazing to be there with the German exchange student, as we talked about how awful that part of history was but both shared brighter views for the future. After the American cemetery was the German cemetery. I found it more touching because of a simple detail on the gravestones of the German soldiers, their birthdates. Whereas on the American crosses only the day of death is mentioned, you notice with the German gravestones how truly young the soldiers were. It seemed like almost half were 18 or 19. It is just astounding to think about how different life is now. Using the example of Rike the German exchange student, at her age 60+ years ago she would be fighting in France against the French, whereas now she is acting as a goodwill ambassador there and living with a French family.

Anyways, the next day we visited a Castle built in the late 1100s by Richard the Lionheart and picnicked near there.

Tuesday was a Holiday in France, and therefore I was not obligated to attend school (although if I could just make that non-obligation continue until June 1st my joy would be made complete), so a few exchange students and I tanned in a Park, and then went and saw Das Leben Der Anderen/La Vie des Autres/The Lives of Others. It was a extremely well made and thought provoking film. See it.

Thursday I went and saw Gorgias by Plato (which is a book but was made into a play) with my Philosophy class. It was really hot in the theatre. I sweated a lot. I fell asleep a couple times. But overall it was pretty good.

Last night was really fun. My friend Guillaume and I did a little shopping after school, then we met his girlfriend and saw SpiderMan III. We went to McDonald’s after, and for my first time this year, got a beer with my BigMac meal. Although honestly I think coke goes a little better with a BigMac. Guillaume and I walked home because it was a slightly crisp and beautiful night. He is definitely one of the people at my school that I will be missing the most when I leave. Bref, I had a great time hanging out with him yesterday and speaking French. Did I mention I’m going to miss speaking French too?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Brent