study abroad trip

Bayeux’s Living History

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Humbling.

That’s the only way to describe what we’ve encountered the past two or three days in Bayeux, which is a small, genteel town on the Norman coast not too far from where D-Day took place. Of the morning on the day that I am writing this post, we went to Utah Beach, where the Allied troops had by far the easiest landing (tomorrow we go to Omaha Beach, which was, without a doubt, the most difficult landing). Here on this beach, men landed, fought and died for the right of others, most of whom they’d never met, to live in peace and not have to fear totalitarianism or that whatever family or people they were born into would get them killed.

Standing at the beach or by the museum we would later go into, you can see memorials all over the coast, commemorating the many people who fought and died on that bloody day nearly seventy years ago. And all around the area, you see white and blue signs marking a spot where an Allied soldier was felled. When you reach the town of St. Mere-Eglise, you can go to the church and how the paratroopers who helped to liberate the town have been immortalized on the outside of the church and the stained-glass windows depicting paratroopers on either side of the Virgin Mary.

After roaming through the Musee Airborne, you finally go to the German War Cemetery, kept and maintained as a reminder of the atrocities of the war and how peace should be preserved.

One sees all this, and one can’t help but feel humbled by all that they’ve been witness too. This is the marking of history, of powerful events that still resonate in this area of France today. It’s like being hit by a shockwave from the past that flows through you and makes you aware of the gravity of the battle for the liberation of France.

Tomorrow I go to visit more beaches and cemeteries. I don’t think that feeling of humility will be diminished. In fact, I’m willing to bet money it’ll be just as awe-inspiring as Utah and everywhere else I was today, if not much more than that. And I look forward to documenting every minute of it, both in photos and in my memories (though the latter tends to be really spotty sometimes).

See you when I write again!

 

Becoming Grounded In History

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Selena, Rami, Henry at Belfast

Selena Vlagic, Henry Dolin, and I at the HMS Belfast

There’s so much I want to say about this trip, so much I want to tell everyone about. I want to talk about the weather, or my impressions of the city, or what I love and hate about our hotel, or about visiting so many cultural sites. Basically, I want to convey everything I’ve seen and experienced since I arrived at Heathrow this Wednesday.

I guess I can sum up everything with a quote from a quote from Sweeney Todd: “There’s no place like London.” Up until even this past semester, reading about London, even knowing that I’d be visiting it soon, was like reading about a fairy-tale kingdom. It was so distant, it didn’t seem real. But being here, absorbing the sights and sounds and smells of the city have brought home the history and the reality of where I am. I’ve visited the Churchill Museum, the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Bletchley Park, the Shakespeare Globe, and so many more. Finally, London feels real to me. I’m actually here.

And not only has London become more real to me, but so has the war I’ve been studying for nearly my whole college career. Yes, it has always seemed real to me. There’s too much information and too many testimonials from veterans and survivors for me to have felt the war to have been anything but a reality. But when I stepped into the Churchill Museum and began exploring where Churchill helped to plan the war and where soldiers slept, ate and worked round the clock to keep Britain from being invaded, I felt myself become part of the war; I could see my place in history and how it related to me.

And then in Bletchley Park, I had another one of those moments when I saw the war through a whole new light. Standing there among the huts and the mansion where the British Army, Navy, and Civil Intelligence Services broke the Enigma codes, which helped to end the war a few years earlier, I realized I was standing in history, where important events took place and without which I might not be around to write about this study abroad trip. As I went through the museum at Bletchley and saw a full-length Nazi flag displayed near the code-breaking exhibit, I thought to myself: “If it weren’t for the people who were part of the Bletchley Intelligence Project, I couldn’t be sure where I’d be now. I might not even exist.”  Standing there in that museum, I put my hand on the swastika and sent it a mental message, as if to address Adolf Hitler’s ghost: “All that you and your followers stood for, the people here helped defeat. And I live to remember it.”

With the statue of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.

With the statue of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.

So what can I tell you about my study abroad trip so far? Only that it has been edifying beyond belief, and made the Second World War more relevant to me than ever before. As the days go by, and as we travel between locations, to different museums and battle sites and historic places of note, I’m sure that awareness will only grow deeper. And at the end, I will be able to look back and know that this trip has greatly influenced not only broadened my knowledge of WWII, but also made me appreciative of all the sacrifices that were made so that someday I could come here and write about it.

I will write again from Normandy. Look forward to more musings and photos and discussions of the places I’ve been. Good night everybody.

Two Days Left In The States

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You know, even as I sit in my apartment, doing laundry and packing things together and trying to remember every last little inconsequential thing I’ll need for the trip, part of it doesn’t feel real. It’s like a fantasy story, almost. Someone who happens to have my memories and my life will be going to a magical land where he’ll be confronted with dark histories and learn amazing new things and see some awesome sights and maybe even find a little romance (I can hope, right?). And I’ll still be at my apartment learning about it through the TV or my Kindle or a good book.

Even two days away, I’m having trouble believing that this is actually happening to me. It seemed so far away when I was trying to get through the semester, even with the number of scholarships I applied to and the courses I was taking to remind me of what I was doing it all for. But now it’s two days upon me, I’ve bought a ticket to see Titus Andronicus at the Globe Theatre, and it’s still so hard to believe it’s happening to me.

Well, when I get there, I’m sure it’ll start to sink in. All good things do, don’t they? They sink in eventually. And I’m so looking forward to seeing all that I can and learning about each country and making memories (or taking photos) that will last a lifetime. And I’m so grateful to the university, to The Ohio State University, for allowing me to go on this trip and providing me with the funding to go on the trip in the form of various scholarships.

So wish me luck, brave New World. I’m heading to the Old World and I’m ready for some new experiences. Bring it on!

Oh, and if you hear about a dragon or Godzilla or some sort of demon attacking London, Bayeaux, Paris, or Berlin, that might be me enjoying myself too much. I apologize in advance for any damage I may do over there. Can’t help myself.

Two Weeks To Go

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I cannot believe it is only two weeks until we leave for our trip to Study World War II in Europe. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for so long, and here it is right in front of me. I can’t believe how much time has flown this semester.

In any case, I’m looking forward to describing what we’ll be doing while abroad and what we’ll see and do. I do know this though: I’ll be making memories that will last a lifetime. Especially when I use my camera.

I’ll write more when I have more to write about. Until then, Au revoir!