La Serena!

I am finallly back in Vina for more than 48 hours!!! WOOOOO!
When i got back from Peru my family had a surprise birthday party/dinner thing for me!!!! It was great!!! SOOOO MUCH FOOOD!!!! hordourves once (lots of sandwiches!) and 2 cakes... i ate enough for everyone so dont even worry. hahahahaha.
that was on tuesday and then on wed had class and volunteering (same with tuesday when i got back from the bussss) and thursday we left for La Serena
La Serena was a trip with all of COPA, my program (the intermediate program) and the advanced program. So that was neat. We stayed at this really cool little place where a group of like 5 or 6 had their own little apartment/condo thing! So we got to cook our own food (and our own portions!) which was sweet and just relax. we were across the street from the beach and out hotel had aneat pool and everything. So friday we went into town cuz it was cloudy in the morning and went to a Japanese garden and then came back, had some lunch and went to the beach for a while in the afternoon. Then after dinner we went to this observatory. it was reaaallllly neat! we saw jupiter, some of jupiter's moons, venus, and i have some really neat pictures of the moon through the telescope (posted on flickr!) On saturday we got to sleep in and then went back the conservatory area (which was about a 1.5 drive each way....) and had lunch at this solar resturant. But not solar like we think of with solar panels and stuff. no no no, they have boxes with silver almost mirrors around them and they put the food right in there and it cooks. its actually really neat. and pretty good. from there we went to Gabby's museum as I like to call her. Gabriela Mistral- she was a super good poet who won the first nobel prize for chile and was the first woman to win it for Latin America. so that was neat. a little fome, but something you just have to see. Sunday we headed out early and went to a national park, which actually wasn't nearly as cool as i had hoped. i mean it was sorta neat, but not overly picture-esque. It was in the hills along the coast and so those hills cause sort of some weird climates. Really foggy and cold and wet, and then just 20 yards down the hill its dry and arid like....
We made it back to vina, had some once and went to bed and now am back to the grind. things are actually starting to feel like real school? we've got papers and projects starting to be due! (well still not for another 3 weeks... but at least we've talked about them now?) and i missed a ton of school last week, and then this week i already have one class cancelled tomorrow and then the next two weeks one of my professor's is going to be gone and he cant find a sub, so there is another class cancelled... which works out so im not missing as much when the parents are here.
well thats all for now. more pictures are up on flickr! enjoy!
CHAU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!