Hello ALL! sorry it has been a few days.. i have traveled to so many places in the past few days. I have SEEN it all. trust me!! Let's see where should i start? Well. Saturday i was suppose to go see mrs griffis but it would have taken 3 hours there and back and i only had about 5 hours to spend because we were leaving at 5am Sunday morning to go to France we decided it would be best for Mrs. Griffis to come see me after my mini-break. So I went with Kyndel, Shelby, and Lindsay to Dover, England to the Castle and White-cliffs. It was REALLY cool!! I enjoyed the little get-a-way. Then Sunday we left at 5am and i slept the whole bus ride to the ferry and slept about 2 hours on the ferry until we ate lunch on the ferry (cruise ship practically). We got to France around 2oclock which is 7hours difference from Hattiesburg time. On our way to our hostel we went to a battle bridge, i forgot the name but it was really neat to see all the flags. FOR ONCE in my whole entire life... i seriously cried when i saw the American flag for the first time. I could not have been any prouder to be from America. The red and white strips and blue stars ment the world to me. I stared at the flag for a good 10 minutes then walked around a gift shop to buy postcards. We left and went to the hostel and the whole way there Doug, the man in charge of us BSP students, told us how great this hostel was and that he brings people every year to this place and it is just wonderful. We should be lucky. O.M.G. I seriously have NEVER stayed at a crappy enough place in my whole life. i mean everyone probably has stayed at a nasty cheap hotel before right? no.. wrong.. i felt like i was beyond roughing it. i cried when i saw my "room" i was in. It has 3 mini twin beds. and i swear we shared sheets with the people before us. Our room was the lucky one out of everyone else in my group that had NO shower or toliet. Where was the closest ones you might ask? Oh just 4 floors down is the public bathroom that has clowns on the walls and the lights barely come on... and the showers? oh just outside turn the corner, go through the lobby and turn another corner and its the shack building on the right with old worn out mattresses in it. With no hot water, no doors and spider webs all over.. so Mary Lois did not take a shower for two days straight. YEP! Roughing it has another meaning.. thank you mom for making me pack wet wips with me.. i sure did use them this trip! OH and to top it off... i have not been in an airconditioned bedroom for 20 days now. God Bless! America i miss you!

Okay so i am alive so that is the good part.. let me move on.. Monday I went to the town of Bayeaux and went to see a church with a stuffed parashoot man on the church's steeple. It was neat to see how they left a rememberable mark on when a man landed on the church steeple in war in 1941. Then we went to a landmark called Pointe something and i was in the battleground of the two beaches, Omaha and Utah. I took some awesome pictures. It was great to see ocean again... even if it is the English Channel. GAH! i love seeing water since we have been stuck in the city for two weeks.
Then it was the moment we were on our way to the National Cemetery where my great-uncle is burried. Doug spoke to us before we got off the bus about how it was going to be emotional for us all and to take it in. He said to find someone's marker that is burried there and remember it and to promise him one thing.. either one day in the future come back to it OR promise to send someone else to that very grave. He said that 1 out of every other grave marker has had no visits in the past year, 5 years or even 20 years. SO then it came when i walked off the bus to the front of the information center. I walked in already tears running down my face to a lady who was named Susan. She looked at me as I approached and asked me if i needed help. I told her I was sent here to visit my great-unce's grave and I would like more information on how to get to it. Not knowing what was going to be said next.. i waited.. she asked me to write down his name and so i did. She asked again how i was related and i told her that he is my grandmother's brother. and she smiled really big! So then she spoke French to this other lady and the other one smiled at me too.. I was very confused but i just smiled and was patiently waiting to see what was next. The lady went to get all these papers and made a copy of other papers and such.. she then asked me to sign in as a family member instead of the books for just visitors. I signed a seperate book and it asked for my name, address and to write a note? so i just wrote.. I have come to visit my great-uncle with my College Class Study Abroad Program. Then she told me to follow her down and handed me two flags: the American flag and the French Flag. So i carried them along with a BIG folder full of information on L.H. 's division down to his grave. I walked along many of the unknown grave and tears were flowing heavidly. It was so sad! The cemetery in general was the most well kept, beautiful and meaningful place i have ever been to. It was literally steps away from overlooking Omaha Beach. I was in heaven! I loved the view.. and i am sure L.H. does, too! I wish i could be burried there! It is breathtaking! SO i finally made it to his grave which is close to the chapel and I just stared at it for a little bit and then she asked me if i would like his name in Omaha sand so i could read it better.. well of course.. i said so she sponged it with sand across his whole grave marker and it was so neat to see.. i have tonns of pictures! It will make you cry! I will post later..


Sorry i am running out of time! I will post more later!!

I am in Paris now and it is possibly the dirtest city ever and it smells bad. today was a very long day. everyone is tired and sick from the hostel in Bayeaux! I think i am getting a little sick myself. strep is what it feels like! i am going to bed.. its 11:18 p.m.! good night! love you!