Just another day for you... you and me in paradise...

So we are now up to Monday, April 2nd, 2007. Today is exactly 2 months from the end of my amazing adventure and my subsequent return to my home land of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And the two month point came in with a bang, as I had an absolutely crazy weekend.

Our story begins one Thursday evening, where myself, Nick C, Kelsey, Chantale, Heather, Alicia, and Katerina went out to dinner to a nice little Tex-Mex place here in Rouen. Some good food and ice cream later, we returned to residence, and then Igor and Pedro came by my room to chill, and we watched some random YouTube videos till about 2:30 AM. Once they left, I checked my e-mail to find out that the deadline to apply for a position on the J.I.C. at John Molson for next year was the following day. That meant I pretty much had to fill out an application right then and there, so I did, and then got to sleep at about 3:30.
Now this may not seem very interesting, but I had to meet John the next morning at 5:50 AM to catch the first bus down to the train station and hop on a train, as we decided to go visit Juno Beach for the day. For those not up on their history, Juno Beach was the Canadian d-day landing beach during World War II. When the allied forces began their invasion of Europe to take it back from the Germans, their point of entry was right here in Normandy, with the Canadians storming Juno Beach, the Americans taking Omaha and Utah beaches, and the British taking Sword and Gold beaches.

So, we caught an early train up to Caen (about an hour and a half ride), and then had to take a bus for about another hour and a half to get to the town of Courseulles-sur-Mer, where the beach is located. We began by entering the Juno Beach Centre, which is a museum and reception point for the beach, staffed entirely by fellow Canadians. The building is supposed to be in the shape of a maple leaf, but I don't really see it.


So we toured the museum, which was kinda small, but interesting all the same, and then made our way over to the beaches. The beaches had many monuments on them, including tanks used in the 2nd world war, bunkers from the war, statues, crosses, and more, pretty much all dedicated to the Canadian troops. After the beaches, we walked through the city to try to find a cab to get us to the Canadian cemetery, but we failed, as Courseulles-sur-Mer is somewhat of a ghost town until summertime. So instead, we went back and walked further up the beaches, then caught a bus back into Caen, where we did a little shopping, as I needed a new belt, and John a new pair of sunglasses.


Then it was back to school where there was a big party being organized IN the school that was to go till 5:30 am. When we got back (8:45 pm), we found out we had to be in the building by 10 PM or else we couldn't get in. So John and I drank up quickly, then headed over to the ESC school building at 9:45 with Heather and Chantale. First thing to note, it was raining out. Now we arrive at the school building, and there is tons of security guards all over, including two ofthem standing with frickin GUARD DOGS! For a school party! They send us around the back to get in, and when we get there, the bouncer asks to see our bracelets. Wait a minute. What bracelets? Apparently, we were supposed to know that to get in, we needed to buy bracelets. Ok, no problem, so where can we get these bracelets? Oh... sold out you say. John tries to argue with "We came all the way from Canada to go to this party!..." while I try to negociate in French. We eventually accept that even if we had no way to know that we needed to buy bracelets, we weren't getting in, so John announces "Alright, let's go back to Canada" as we leave and head to residence. Already a bit drunk, we weren't about to call it a night, so myself, John, Igor, Amanda, and Ashley sat in the Cafet Ango room and played some drinking games, getting totally smashed off combinations of vodka, red wine, and whatever else. {section removed due to censors} But for whatever reason, we walked over towards the school anyway, only to run into two of the party's promoters leaving the event. So of course, I complained to the two girls in drunken French, while John went with the English Canadian approach, explaining how we had been at Juno Beach that day, where we liberated their country. I'm pretty sure they were afraid of us, but eventually we retreated, and called it a night.

Saturday wasn't that eventful, as I made a trip to Carrefour early, picked up some things (such as alcohol, since I had finished two bottled of vodka in 2 nights of drinking that week), and came back to relax and watch a dvd. That night, it was a guy's birthday, and he planned a mini-pub crawl, which we stayed on for 3 bars (Yesterday, Underground, and Murphy's), before catching a cab home as we again had to be up early the next morning.

And that brings us to Sunday, a pretty awesome day indeed. 'Twas the day of the school-planned trip to Disneyland Paris! (formerly known as EuroDisney)
Now, for those of you that didn't know, I'm actually quite a chicken. Yes, hard to believe, I know, with my tough / no fear exterior (lol), but I'm quite the scaredy cat in general. And it's no exception with rides. Sure I've been on Splash Mountain once in Florida, and the Indiana Jones ride there too, but for the most part, I'm more of a It's a Small World / MadHatter's Tea Cups kinda guy. Or I was, until yesterday, anyway.
We started the day off (after our 3 hour bus ride to the park) with Space Mountain. We were in a group of 9-13 people throughout the day, made up of usual suspects for those that follow my blog closely, and I rode alongside Anthony, who was also somewhat frightened by roller coasters and the like. So we gave each other support, and were buckled in and off, and it was fun! As nervous as I was, I don't tend to actually get "scared" per se, so once we were off and running, I was lookin around, talking, and screaming with a big smile on. It took me a little bit to get used to the feelings of the turns and drops and such, but once I did, it was pretty good.

After Space Mountain, we hit up Star Tours, which is a virtual reality 'roller coaster' based on Star Wars. Then we took a coaster break to go on my old favourites of It's a Small World and the Tea Cups (which are much more fun when you're older and strong enough to spin them like crazy), before moving on to the Indiana Jones ride, which is very different from the one in Florida. It's essentially a wooden roller coaster with a 360 degree loop. We waited in line for quite a while for that one, and the loop definitely had me a little worried. But we went and while I didn't love the loop part, it was an experience. The ride was quick and very short, making it a bit disappointing, but still fun.
Next up was the Pirates of the Caribbean which takes you on a boat through a well-decorated building with all kinds of pirate scenes and music. The drops on your ride are small so it's a pretty easy one to take, and was a good rest before our next stop which would, surprisingly, be my favourite ride of the day: Thunder Mountain.
This one required a wait of about an hour, but it was worth it. It was a long ride that was intensely fast with very sharp turns and some drops, alternating between outdoors and pitch black caves. Woo, what a thrill.
Now the day was almost over, but we had time for one last ride, and chose the Haunted Mansion, which was fun, but more funny than scary. And so it was time to go, but it was an amazing day, and we capped it off with a hot dog that was the closest you can find to the real thing here in France.
And that was the weekend. Happy Passover to all for this evening. Next weekend, I'll be in Brussels, Belgium, and the week after starts our spring break though I don't know what that'll involve.

That's all for now. GO HABS GO... it's crunch time boys, you're almost there.

Peace OUT.

Dan