Franceville!

I am currently living in Franceville, France. It is a region of Normandy, so while I have been here we have learned a ton of information about the invasion of D-day. We are living in a house, but it is considered a French Institute. We are learning a little bit of French, which is making if very difficult to keep all the languages straight! Everyday we go on "excursions" all day, usually to something related to D-day. Yesterday we visited Omaha beach and Utah beach which are the beaches the American forces invaded on D-day. We also watched Saving Private Ryan, to prepare ourselves- I didn't really enjoy that movie, but it was good to watch. We went to the cemetery of the dead soldiers and were able to see the graves of the brothers that inspired the story of Saving Private Ryan. The silver lining of the story, if you have seen the movie, is that in real life 2 of the brothers actually lived. One of them was a POW and survived, which is not shown in the movie.

We are going to a soccer game tonight and continue our French part of the trip for the next couple of weeks. Starting Monday we live with a French family for a week- could be interesting, but I am excited. I come home a month from today, which is crazy to me. We have time with our host families, a few days in Paris, a few days in Prague, and then we go back to the Schloss in Austria until I come home. While we are at the Schloss we go to Vienna for a weekend to visit a Christmas market- I am really excited!