Theater, Normandy and Cinema. Woot.

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Hello everyone!

I hope all is well and that your semester is not too hectic. I’m doing amazingly. This coming week is our last week of classes before our two weeks off, so my professors decided it’d be a good idea to give me a test in every class but one next week. Not cool. But I’m nonetheless loving every moment here 😊

Every Saturday afternoon in March, I’ve had an Intercultural Workshop that I chose to participate in. It was lots of fun, and the differences between certain cultures were really interesting… things I had never really thought twice about were problems for students from other countries. Vice versa. Anyway, each Saturday we worked on a couple of skits that showed these differences, and this past Wednesday we acted them out…for the public. Oh joy. Nah it wasn’t so bad. There were between 30-40 people there, and after each skit, there was a Q&A session. Everyone had really interesting questions/comments, so I was glad I had done it... once it was over!

This Saturday, I went to Normandy with the CIDEF. It was such an amazing trip. We left from the University around 6:15-6:30 and headed towards Caen, where there is an amazing museum outlining both World Wars. It was neat to see, and I actually met two older men from Georgia while I was there. Anyways, we looked around the museum and watched a short movie about the invasion of Normandy in particular. The images were really émouvantes, and I don’t think I honestly realized how devastating the wars were to this area.

After the museum and a generous lunch break, we headed out to the American cemetery a little under an hour away I’d estimate. All I can say is: HUGE. You get out of the bus, look at the coast line, tighten your jacket around your neck (it’s freezing and super windy!), and think to yourself “oh ok…wow. This is pretty.” Then you start walking and turn around a corner and woah…it hits you: little white crosses and stars of David stretch in all directions as far as you can literally see. I was amazed, in a really somber way, of course. I had already formulated the image in my head (via pictures and movies) of a bunch of white crosses all over, but I did notice that there were some stars of David as well, which made me happy to see. In the middle of the cemetery there is a little chapel too, which had a really cool mosaic on the ceiling.

Next we went to Omaha Beach. It was really awesome, and quite moving, to stand on the same sand upon which so many soldiers lost their lives on June 6, 1944. It was just incredible. We then went to Pointe du Hoc, which is situated between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. It’s a lesser known battle site, as it is located between two of the most infamous. The Americans fought the Germans starting early on D-Day and ending about 2 or 3 days later once the troops were relieved from Utah Beach. At Pointe du Hoc, a considerably smaller number of US troops died, and the “mission” was deamed a success. Today, there is a war memorial site where the French have left everything as it was on the day of the battle. That was the coolest thing I have ever seen! We saw all of the bunkers and barbed wire and massive holes in the ground from fallen bombs (the Americans initially did an air attack before attacking by foot). And seeing the bunkers, I couldn’t imagine staying in them for days at a time with a good number of other men. They were so small, dark, and damp. That’d be a nightmare.

Our last stop of the trip was a German cemetery just down the road from Pointe du Hoc. The atmosphere was considerably different from that of the American cemetery. In the American cemetery, a cross or star of David marks each grave. In the German one, there would be a group of 5 crosses, then about 20 plaques on the ground marking each grave. So when you first walk in, you aren’t overwhelmed by the number of graves. They seem less numerous, when in fact they are almost twice as many. In the center of the cemetery there is a huge mound with a statue on the top of it. And the bottom of the mound, there are gifts from countries from all over the world given out of respect for the German soldiers who lost their lives in the wars. There was even a gift from Poland, a country absolutely destroyed in the war. I don’t know…I was just glad to see that people aren’t holding grudges and pointing fingers.

Well, after the German cemetery, we loaded back up into the bus and headed home, arriving in Angers a little before 10. During the bus ride, we listened to French songs talking about the war, which were quite interesting and helped pass time. Upon our arrival in Angers, I quickly found a sandwich to eat, walked home, and slept like a baby. This morning (Sunday) I woke up at 9, which is late for me. Then I remembered that we were supposed to change our clocks one hour ahead last night, so I had in fact slept until 10. Lame. This afternoon I went to see a movie, Les 3 Royaumes, with two girls from the foyer. It was, ironically, a war movie. I had told them previously that I pretty much liked any movie except for horror and that they could pick what we would see. The timing was just a bit strange for this one! It was a good movie, about a war in China, and it was actually in Chinese with French subtitles. I really liked it, minus the gross battle scenes (I’m totally not a fan of violence), but I think I’ve had enough of “War” for one weekend.

So I just got back from the movie, and I think I’m going to study for a bit before cooking something for dinner. I hope your week goes well, and I’ll keep you updated on life here!


Haley Marie Archer

Mots/Expressions en français:

1) Se faire mousser - to brag; to blow one’s own horn
Il est évidemment très fier de lui-même car il s’est fait mousser devant nous toute la soirée.

2) Remuer - to stir up ; to upset
3) Cramer - to go up in flames
4) Clapet - mouth, trap (familiar)
Il ne voulait point remuer sa petite-amie mais tout a cramé dès qu’il a ouvert son clapet.

5) Déraper - to get out of control ; to make a faux-pas ; to get out of hand
J’aime bien regarder les émissions de Stéphane Guillon. Il est sans aucun doute très drôle, mais de temps en temps il dérape, confondant l’humour avec la méchanceté.

These words/expressions were found over the past week or so while reading magazines, books, the news, etc. All of them are acceptable in public, though if you tell someone to "Ferme ton clapet!" you're being a bit harsh. It's definitely not a polite way to ask someone to be quite, and I'd suggest just avoiding the word altogether. It's good to know, for you'll certainly come across it in written French if the writer is being a bit "loose" in his/her language, but it's best to leave it à l’écrit and formulate the same idea in a more appropriate, polite manner when speaking. Then again, it's much nicer than the more popular "Ta gueule!" so who knows anymore?!

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Photos

Wedding Dress
This wedding dress was made out of a parachute found after WWII

Star of David
The graves of Jewish soldiers are marked with Stars of David.

Unknown Soldier
If the soldier was identified, we are given his name, date of death, state of origin, and his rank/division in the military. For the unknown soldiers, the crosses look like this.

American Cemetery
The crosses seem to stretch on and on and on...

Pointe du Hoc
All of the "craters" you see are where the ground was hit by bombs from the American air attack.

German cemetery
There are groups of 5 crosses placed throughout the cemetery, but the actual graves are marked by plaques on the ground.

German Cemetery
Mosaic in the chapel of the German Cemetery