New beginnings and adventures in Normandy

How jealousy can destroy relationships

The situation with my boyfriend escalated more and more as he became incredibly jealous and I simply didn't want to deal with that anymore. I was confused, didn't know what to do and just needed time to think about all that. In Germany I was quite happy with him, but when he was as jealous and complicated as now, I wasn't sure if the relationship would survive my whole year abroad. Furthermore, I passed more and more time with my French friend who still tried to kiss me and things like that, but I was still trying to neglect my feelings about him because it was just too complicating. It would maybe be nice for the 4 months I was in France, but afterwards? No. I wouldn't be able to live with a long-distance-relationship. But I liked passing time with him, so I didn't want to lose him completely. Very complicated!

I asked my boyfriend for some time to think about everything because I was absolutely not sure if or how I wanted to continue with all that. Instead of continuing being jealous now he was desperate and overwhelmed me with love and how much he wanted to stay together with me. That was even worse than his behaviour before and I had not only that problem but also a lot of things to do for university, so it was hard to focus for me and I would have to make a decision soon if I didn't want to go crazy.

So finally, I broke up with my boyfriend because I couldn't stand the situation anymore and it would not work out during my year abroad if he was already crying after one and a half months about how much he missed me and then became jealous as hell. In the first place I didn't break up with him because I wanted to start something (whatever) with my French friend, it was just because his behaviour was unbelievable for me. I felt better immediately and could focus on university again and meet my friend without bad conscience.

We passed even more time and well, I can't say that there wasn't anything between us, but for the moment it wasn't serious. I just wanted to see what would happen and that's all. We met in the evenings for going to a bar or to the park and things like that and I really enjoyed the time, it was so relaxing and just nice.

Spontaneous trip to Normandy

For the middle of April my German colleague had planned to make a bus tour through the Normandy, because there was quite a cheap offer on Groupon. As I wanted to change my mind a bit and see some places of France, I decided to come with them spontaneously. In the end we were a group of 6 people from Amiens that started our way Saturday morning at 5 a. m. to Paris. We had to catch the bus at Arc de Triomphe at 8 which was a tough timetable. But after some problems finding the right bus (apparently every bus tour started at Arc de Triomphe and they didn't have signs or something) we were finally in the bus and excited to start the tour.

Giverny - the home of Monet

The tour guide was Chinese but talked French and English and introduced us to the program of the 2-day-tour. It was a very, very tough timetable because it was far and with a large group there's always someone who is late. But the program seemed to be quite interesting and for only €99 it was okay. At first, we would have to drive about two and a half hours to get toGiverny, the place of Monet's house and garden. I wasn't able to sleep in buses even if I was extremely tired, so I listened to music and watched the changing scenery. Finally, we arrived and had 2 hours to discover the house and garden of Monet. The weather was amazing, sunny and warm. So, we entered the place and found a fascinating garden with so many flowers and little paths and roses and just everything a perfect garden should have. I was impressed and we couldn't stop taking pictures. The house was less impressive but also interesting to see, with some original paintings from Monet and his furniture and everything.

The last highlight of Giverny was Monet's Asian Garden. It was a large lake surrounded by a small path and a million of wonderful plants and flowers. We couldn't stop taking pictures and enjoy the amazing atmosphere but finally we had to get back to the bus and continue our trip.

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