I heard an English accent bleed through the thick native French tongue—it made my brain work extra to peel back two layers that separated my American accent from the Normandy natives. My time in Normandy was engulfed in sound, and I constantly found myself comparing our loud, boisterous American voices to the low hum of French. As our large group would squeeze into little restaurants, sometimes my eye would catch local diners watching us shout, laugh, and cry out. Embarrassing as these moments were, Normandy’s environment brought my attention to sounds and details I’m quick to shrug off in Manhattan. My audio clip includes five different moments during our trip; Musée de Normandie, a bus ride, Mount St. Michel, Musée Baron Gerard, and a restaurant in the town of Caen.