To begin this correctly, I must go back a little further...
It was Thursday evening and the 197th AAS meeting was coming to an end, I had spent the day dodging raindrops. Imagine that, the one time I am in CA and it's raining for over 50% of the time! Anyway, I settled into my double occupancy hotel room. I had lots to do, the next day presented quite a hurdle, namely the equator; I was heading to CHILE for the REU at CTIO. Don Hoard, the director of the REU program, was at the meeting and met with Shay and myself. We were flying to Chicago on the same plane to meet up with the other two students. We met early Friday and headed to the airport, earlier than normal since we were connecting - eventually - with an international flight.
The flight to Chicago was long, the inflight movie was about some senator that staged a car crash so it looked like he saved this woman, the only thing is, he didn't save her... interesting choice for a flight. Actually, that wasn't what the movie was about, it was really about a woman vice president. We landed safely in Chicago and waited for the next flight to Miami, that's right Miami. There's something bad about everything, the bad thing about NOAO is that they only deal with one airline, that airline doesn't have any direct flights from San Diego to Miami. It was fun though, I got to fly all over the US, and from coast to coast.
Next stop Santiago! The flight was an overnight one, I don't like sleeping in planes or cars or buses or uncomfortable places. But I was tired, so I slept. I woke up to a bright blinding sunrise, it was pretty though and I saw the Andes for the first time ever. The Santiago airport was interesting, hey they have an Au Bon Pain, my favorite! We waited for the plane to La Serena... and we continued to wait... it was a while till we finally boarded and were off to our "final" destination.
La Serena, home for the next ten weeks. We live on the Recinto which is conviently located on a hill overlooking the town and sea. The Recinto is very pretty and lush with vegetation. We spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday relaxing and wandering around the Recinto and the town. Monday was the official first day of the program.
We exchanged money, met the scientists and our advisors, discussed projects and the overall observatory issues and proceedures. We had a trip back to Santiago in a couple days to attend the Magnetic Fields across the H-R Diagram workshop, so we couldn't really begin any serious work. We became aquainted with the computer lab and other essential assets.
On Wednesday we headed to Santiago on an overnight bus, but it was actually more comfortable than the plane, so I lived. We quickly checked into our hotel rooms and headed to the first round of talks at the workshop. Thursday evening was the banquet dinner for the workshop. We attended and had our way with the chocolate trays! Mmm! The workshop was excellent and I learned more about magnetic fields and astronomy than I ever knew existed!
The weekend was ours to explore the wonderful city of Santiago. Which I did, I love Santiago, its now one of my favorite cities. Cierro Santa Lucia is a large hill in the center of town, it rises quickly and provides a wonderful view of the whole city. Its a marvel of an attraction. La Providencia is an long stretch of road lined with stores and unusual and usual malls. The roads that branch off of La Providencia house small resturants, in particular, El Huerto/La Huerta, depending on which door you walk in through. Its an excellent resturant with a vegetarian menu and a soothing familiar atmosphere.
On Sunday we departed to La Serena, this time during the day. The route was very scenic and allowed us to see the rocky shorelines in Chile. This is the right time to be here.