Yesterday we went on our last CIDEF excursion, to Normandy. What's in Normandy, you ask? Well for one, do me a favor...and smack yourself. Now that that's done, I'll tell you. =) I hope you all have enough WWII knowledge in your brains to know that France was occupied by Nazi Germany during it. America, Canada and Britain (and some french) joined forces and planned an attack on the Normand beaches. It was the largest attack made from water in world history. At midnight on June 6th, 1944, about 24,000 airborne troops conducted an assault on the area, and at around 6:30am was when the remainder (over 160,000 troops landed total that day) assaulted the beach area by ship. (over 5,000 of them!) There were many codenames for this attack in order to keep it secret from the German troops occupying the land to be bombed. They had soldiers in planes, in ships, parachuting down, and wading onto shore, climbing cliffs, etc. just to fight for freedom and peace within the world. The entire invasion took place across a 50 mile stretch of Normandy's coast and divided by sectors of beach; Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The majority of U.S. troops stormed Omaha beach and Utah beach, but let's face it; there were a lot of them, I can guarantee they stormed each beach. Now that you have a small history lesson, I can fill you in on what we did, that is if any of you are still reading.
I woke up at a bright and early 4:15 a.m. to get my ass moving and be at school in time to leave a little after 6. Sleeping on the bus was almost completely a fail on the way there, but I got to listen to my ipod for 3 straight hours while staring at french countryside become lighter and lighter.(sun rising) Our first destination was in Caen, at a museum/memorial for WWII. We all had a little over an hour to walk through the exhibits. (which wasn't enough time to read everything, but I did learn some new things, and was starting to feel increasingly sad and overwhelmed near the end anyway) After we explored the exhibit, we all watched a film in which there was no talking, just music to explain emotions. This was probably my favorite part of the museum just because it was real footage of the beaches on that fateful day. I cannot even begin to describe how weird it was to see people parachuting down, flying over, wading in, climbing up, etc. and all the while explosions are going off, guns being fired, people are falling, and the sun isn't even up yet. The film ended and everyone sat in silence for a minute, mainly because we didn't know where to go next, but also and more importantly because we were all shocked and saddened.
After this, we grabbed our lunches from the bus, and sprawled out in the grass next to the museum. This lightened the mood because the day was beautiful. I spent a little over an hour eating and chatting with Liana and Leah, as we all laid in the grass and played with daisy's. We took a break for bathrooms and postcard buying, then it was back on the buses, and on to the next place.
Next we went to the American Cemetery, which is actually owned by the U.S. I don't actually remember talking the entire time I walked through this, I was pretty much in awe of how huge and sad it all was. There are rows upon rows of white crosses and stars of David, and no picture I took does the place justice. It was very humbling to realize that each and every one of them were a person that fought for our freedom, for the worlds freedom, and that many of them were unidentified. It brought up a sense of emotion I didn't realize I would experience, all about how many of them were young, not old enough to have experienced as much life as even I have now, and the ones who did were still not ready. They had families, and kids, brothers, sisters, parents, all of which proud of them, but waiting for them to come home. Which brings up my next thought. Pride. This place was full of what America is good at portraying; pride. The marble crosses and stars of David were all lined in very neat and tidy rows, the place was spread out and well kept, to give off the impression of not only sadness but of pride for what was accomplished. There were statues that resembled lady liberty, and the entire place rests on a cliff off of the beach where I'm sure many of these wonderful people lost their lives. After exploring it for a while, Liana, Leah and I made our way to the front where there was a small museum to go through. We didn't have time to really look through much of it, but the weirdest part of this small museum for me wasn't anything to do with the war. It was instead something that hit me as odd. 
A man was handing out pamphlets and I passed him he asked me in english, and with a english accent, if I would like one. I shyly said yes, thank you back to him. But finding those words was hard. It has literally been months since I have spoken english to an authority figure. I speak it with my girls all the time, but that's it. And it was a very odd feeling to speak english, and it didn't come naturally. This was the first moment since I've been here where I realized I might in fact have a hard time adjusting to life when I come home in June.enough about that.
After we all boarded the buses, we sat there for some time waiting, because one of the students had wandered down to the beach (we weren't supposed to) and we had to wait for him to come back. Which made us late for our next stop. Omaha beach. We were supposed to have time to walk and relax, but we had 15 minutes or so instead. Oh well, it didn't stop us from taking off our shoes and socks, rolling up our jeans and sprinting into the freezing Atlantic water. =) It felt amazing to have no coat on, and have my feet in the ocean . fantastic. Now you might be thinking, girl you were on the beach were many many soldiers died fighting for our freedom and you were frolicking in the water? Yes, yes I was. Those soldiers were fighting for our freedom, not for us to be continuously sad, I was being free and allowing myself that simple joy. On another note, if I were to walk around and not allow myself to feel anything but sad for the lives lost in places I'm at, I'd be sad almost all the time. Hello, I'm in France, and this country is OLD, a lot of people have died in places we have all been. Life isn't about dwelling on death, but focusing on living.
That being said, I did still feel that twinge of sadness and there are monuments on the beach to commemorate the loss of lives for the gain of freedom. 
We left the beach and headed to the Point du Hoc. Which was basically a very important place between two beaches that we had to take over before the beaches could be stormed. Soldiers had to climb 100 ft cliffs while it was still dark and attack the German troops resting there. The reason we visited this place is because the U.S. payed to have it kept how it was during the war instead of filled in and made to look normal. The rolling hills there? yeah, not so much. They're holes from bombs dropped on d-day. The barracks are destroyed, and overgrown with moss and are horribly eerie to walk through. The barbed wire still stands along the edges and you can look down the cliffs at the sand below and just imagine how horrifying it all must have been. Standing there and looking out at the sea and other beautiful cliffs jutting into it, I got the overwhelming feeling that something horrible happened here, and it was ironic, because it is all so breathtakingly beautiful. We wandered here for a long time, and I was happy to have time to explore it all.
Next, and last was the German Cemetery; which was very different than the American one. First, all of the stones are set into the ground, and are grayish. There are black crosses in clumps, in a few places, but it all struck me as sort of dark, and almost...ashamed? It made me feel sad to know that this place probably wasn't visited much, but that it being there at all meant a lot as well. We were told that the majority of the soldiers buried here were 17 years old at their age of death. That's two years younger than I am right now, and I don't know about any of you, but I sure as hell find that fact to be frightening. Another fact I learned and never forgot about the German army during WWII was that it wasn't an option. How we had the draft going on? Yeah they did too, only it was much worse, and they were forced in at I believe the age of 16 or 17. Many didn't finish high school, and had to fight for an army which I'm sure many of them didn't want to. The movie Swing kids came to mind here.
I would fill you in on more minor details, but this post is long enough and I can do that later in the week. I hope all of you had spectacular weekends, and that you weren't too bored by what I wrote.
This isn't the film they showed, but it might help give you a little perspective:6.6.44
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