SPRING BREAK 2010!

It's been awhile since I last updated (Its a good thing I take notes so I can write them here later)! I have been extremely busy as my time here in London comes to a close.
Anyway, For Spring Break 2010 I decided to not only go to Normandy, France (More specifically, Honfleur), but I also went to Scotland!

HONFLEUR!

We got off to kind of a rocky start when we (Myself and 3 others) headed off to Normandy. I wasn't in the best spirits to be travelling and we had had a few issues leading up to it. Anyway, that pales in comparison to what happened the day we left. My friend and I were talking about leaving and everything and I had to go to work. When I returned, I walked in with my friend in tears saying she was really sick and couldn't go. So I immediately jumped into "Mommy mode" (which I had learned from Colorguard). I got medicine and helped her out in hopes that she would still come to Normandy. But, in the end she had to pass. So we left to Portsmouth to get on an 8 hour ferry to Le Havre.

I knew that I was going to get sea sick, but I didn't know it would be that bad. I normally cant sleep when travelling, but those 8 hours were TORTURE! I slept most of the way (thank goodness!). When we arrived, we left the ferry to no taxis, buses, or people to ask for directions. So here we are 4 college students who cant really speak French in the middle of what appeared to be at the time a deserted port town. AWESOME... Thankfully, we found a sign that we barely made out to say taxi. We wanted to go to the bus station to take a bus into Honfleur, but the taxi man said their wasn't on... He lied... so we had to pay 40 euro just to get to our apartment.

Honfleur is a cute little town in Normandy. It's the birthplace of the Impressionism movement, so I was SUPER excited that I was there. The only problem with Honfleur is that they only really speak French. Some speak broken English, but few. The whole week I tried to learn how to speak French and by the end I was pretty decent (at least with common phrases). That night, My mom asked me to walk for Tom Zondiros, while my family walked at the same time in Hermosa beach. Tom Zondiros was my dads boss. He was a WONDERFUL man and he has done sooooo much for my family. I know we are all sad that Tom has passed, but I know he is in a better place now.

The next day my friends were supposed to go to see the D-day sights while I stayed behind and worked on my essays. Unfortunately due to a TYPHOON that day they came back! When they came back they were literally DRIPPING with water. So, we all decided to stay in. One of my friends made Banana Pancakes while the rest of us relaxed (It was spring break after all!).

After pancakes, we went to the Musee Boudin to view impressionistic paintings. That put me in a really great mood! I love love love Impressionism... I can get enough Monet or Boudin! After that we basically had dinner and went to bed.

The next day, I spent the whole day catching up on my homework. It was a great relaxing day to myself.

The day after that, We went to Deauville and Trouville (Famous Beach Towns). We walked around and went to the beach. The sand reminded me of California. I actually ENJOYED stepping in it! We walked along the beach looking at shells and watched kids play football (soccer).

The next day, One of the members of our group had to leave early. But the rest of us went to visit the Eric Satie museum. Eric satie was a composer, but he also created modern art. The museum was awesome. As you walk by different pieces, there were different musical pieces to accompany them . This was BY FAR the best Modern art exhibit I have ever been to. Who knew it would be in Honfleur? That Night, the tree of us hung out in the apartment. I was busy helping a friend with his EMT class while the others were watching Kings. However, the internet is Awful so I kept yelling and moving in order to be heard.

The next morning, I cleaned the apartment before we had to leave. I thoroughly enjoyed the time to myself. When my friends got back from the Coffee shop, we left for Le have to board our ferry back to London. Unfortunately we got to the port way early so we wandered the mall. I can honestly say I have regrets about going. Not because I didn't have an AMAZING time, its just there was tension within the group who went.

We boarded the Ferry and headed home. Once we arrived it was 10:00PM (our ferry was delayed) and when we got to the train station, the last train to London had left! So we took a train as close to london as possible and took a taxi the rest of the way.

We finally got in at 2:00AM and I had to get up and leave for Scotland at 6:00AM! GREAT! But, I am in College, I can handle no sleep!

To be continued.......