First Day of Classes/War Memorial

Hey guys! Hope all is well back in the States!

Today was our first day of classes for our study abroad. I won't elaborate too much on them, but they should be really interesting.

Main Entrance of the museum.

The highlight of the day was our trip to the War Memorial museum in the city. It's basically a WWII/Cold War Museum along with a gallery of the Nobel Peace Prize. It's a huge building (parts of it are even underground). Since my focus is on Military History (primarily WWII) this was a awesome place to visit!

A lot of the building is designed for symbolism. The main entrance (see picture <-) is a smooth wall split in the middle by a rough and rugged gash (the period of peace shattered by the chaos of war)

Allied Ground-Attack Fighter in the
 main room

              
 Once we entered, we went to the WWII exhibit. It begins with the end of the First World War then follows a spiral walkway down underground to the outbreak of WWII in Poland (Europe spiraling down into the abyss of war)

A lot of the war exhibit is underground. It starts in 1939, then moves along through the war years till the end of the war, where you take the stairs back up to the main room. I took so many pictures and could go on forever about it but to keep this from turing into 20 pages I wont.

After the WWII exhibit we made our way to the Cold War exhibit. Again, lots of symbolism and pictures but for time sake I wont go into a whole lot of detail. But really a neat and well designed museum. The section on the Berlin Wall was probably my favorite part and the details and design of it made it really sink in.

Peace Garden

Memorial fountain at the American garden

Following the Cold War exhibit, we made our way outside to the Peace Gardens. Basically it is one large park divided up with memorials to the Allies. We visited the Canadian and American gardens (not sure if there was one for the British).

They were actually really peaceful (no pun intended). You didn't really hear any traffic from the street and everything was really green and quiet. It would have been an excellent field for football or ultimate Frisbee but I think that would have defeated the purpose haha.

There are plenty of other pictures from today on Facebook so check them out!


Everything else is going well! We left the museum around 4, took the tram back to campus, and have just been hanging out here all afternoon. We have gotten into some pretty intense games of Ping-Pong (since there is no tv and you can only be on Facebook for so long before you get bored). Tomorrow is a free day so I think we may go explore more of Caen.

Well, thats all for now!

Europe: Arrival/Abbey visit

Hey guys! I didnt have internet in my room yesterday so I am just now getting to set this up.

Arrival
The flight over went well. I had a girl trade seats with me to sit by her friend and there was no one sitting in the seat next to me so I had plenty of room! The food on the plane was downright awful, but they had plenty of good movies, snacks, and drinks to make up for it. Fortunately I was able to get a few hours of sleep which really helped avoid jetlag.

We arrived in Paris at around 9:20AM (2:18 AM Texas time), got our luggage and met up with some other people flying in from other airports. There was also a bomb scare so we had to move out of our terminal. Kinda crazy, but everyone is fine.

French Army soldier with FAMAS at the airport

Anyways, we got on a bus which took us to Caen. It seemed to last FOREVER! But we finally made it and settled in to our dorm space. Then we all went down to the local Carrefour (French equivalent of a Target and HEB) to get some groceries and necessities for our room. Unlike American stores, European stores DON'T give you grocery bags. So if you cant carry it our fit it in your bag, you have to buy a bag from the store.

Parts of downtown Caen

The weather here is amazing!! Since Caen is about 6 miles from the Atlantic coast there is a nice breeze coming of the ocean. That and the weather being in the 50's and 60's has made it very enjoyable to be outside. The only problem with the weather is that it rains almost spontaneously sometimes. We got caught in a heavier rainstorm on the way to Carrefour yesterday. I wish I could send some of it to Texas!

We were on our own for supper last night so my evening meal consisted of French bread, cheese (which is a big deal in Normandy) green olives, and a Coke. The hot water heater wasnt working at first so after an icy cold shower I headed off to bed and passed out after a matter of seconds.

Visit to Abbey aux Dammes (7/8/2011)
Our day began with breakfast around 7:30 followed by a short intro class at 8:30. The breakfast was excellent, which made up for my 'meal of champions' last night.

We then got into some more business casual clothes and to the Tram (metro bus/train thing) into downtown Caen. Caen is the site of William the Conquer's castle and the Abbey aux Dammes, where his wife Matilda is buried. It used to be a convent, but after the French Revolution and the centuries that followed it is now the seat of government for Normandy.

The Abbey was amazing! Its so cool to see a building that was built so long ago (1060) that is still standing! Since we were with a study aboard group we received a official tour from a government lady. Afterwards they even gave us a small reception where we got to try some local apple cider (another big deal in Caen).

Abbey aux Dammes

After the tour of the abbey, we were given the day off. Since it is street market day, we toured the local booths and a few downtown areas. I bought a sandwich for lunch but it tasted like crap so it looks like Im back to the BCOC (bread/cheese/olives/coke) diet for now.

Sanctuary of the Abbey

Anyways, thats all for now! Hope everything is good back in the US! Check Facebook for photos!