weekend weekend!!

So, I was originally planning on completely devoting myself to homework after I got back from the weekend, but a call from the ma and my internet working in my room (YES!) changed that! I have sooo much homework to do tonight - reading (lots) and writing a paper, but figured I should do some catching up as well! My weekend was.. well, amazing is an understatement! We left on Friday, cause we never have class on Friday, in the morning on a 5 hour bus ride to Ica. The drive there was a little humbling, going past all the boxes for houses - for real like boxes, it's really sad. And tons and tons of garbage too - I don't know where all the garbage comes from because they have nothing? There's so much garbage tho. (I just got done talking with my host mom - Pilar - and she said, I know you won't believe this mom and dad.. or anyone else really?? lol, but she said I had the best manners of any student she's ever had). Ok, back to the weekend - we arrived in Ica in the afternoon and decided to go swimming in our hotel pool - a true oasis - desert everywhere - heaps and mountains of sandy desert everywhere except for our plush green hotel area, and then we saw the boys of the group climbing one of the huge sand dune - mountain things and decided we needed to do that too. Was soooo sooo hard - so hard - it was like doing the stairmaster x 900, and then added with the desert heat and sticky sand, but once we made it to the top and saw the whole town and our own little oasis - it was so worth it - vale la pena - it was sooo so beautiful. Then we ran down the huge sand mountain and it felt like we were jumping on a trampoline it was so steep - was such a rush! Then we went swimming and found talking parrots in the trees in our hotel that said, "Hola!" Lol - was sooo funny. And they were soo pretty, except one was very mean and almost ate me. (but then we decided that maybe we didn't like the talking parrots so much after they woke us up at 6am the next morning!!) Then, after that, we were going to go on the dunebuggies and sandboarding, which I really didn't know what to expect. We got in the dune-buggies - they can fit about 12 passengers - and they have harnesses, like you're going on a rollercoaster or something. Yeah.. it was faster and scarier and crazier than the scariest rollerocoaster I've ever been on! The driver was for real loco and he wasn't even wearing a seatbelt! He would go sooo fast up these HUGE sand mountains and then we would fly - almost free falling - to the bottom. The whole dune-buggy was screaming for dear life - I for real thought I was going to die, lol, was a real rush. Then, we pulled over to go sandboarding - on these super super super huge huge huge sand mountains. HUGE! I was sooo soo soo so scared to go down - we all went on our bellies for the most part for the really big sand dunes, and actually sandboarded down the smaller ones. Omg was such a rush. Then we saw the sunset in the sand-dunes and was sooo soo pretty. Then we went back to the hotel, and they had gratis pisco sours waiting for us! Yay! lol - gotta love the Peruvian pisco sours - their drink - and they make it strong! The next day we got up (at 6am from our friends the parrots) at 8am to drive to Paracas. Paracas was soo cool! We saw the famous Candelabra geoglyph We got to see sea lions and penguins at Islas Ballestas! And lots and lots of birds - peruvian pelicans :P and the ocean was soo soo beautiful, and I got soo soo burnt too - and then sick on the boat as well - and right when I was sure I was going to throw up from the boat ride - our boat decided to run out of gasoline, so we had to wait for another boat to come help us. I felt better tho when we went shopping all afternoon! And I got some super cute stuff, and mostly not for me! ;) And I so bargained for it. After we left Paracas, we went on to Nazca for the night and hung out at the pool during the day, then went to the planetarium dedicated to Maria Reiche, the german mathematician who researched the Nazca lines for most of her life. After that we grabbed a bite to eat. It's interesting here because there are people outside the restaurant who try and sell their restaurant to you by showing you the menu, or telling you what their special is, or saying that we'll get free stuff - we went to the restaurant that gave us free pisco sour and cake lol. This morning, we got up early to catch our flights, or sobrevuelos, to see the Nazca lines! The planes hold 6 people and swirve back and forth back and forth so everyone can see the lines in the desert. It's pretty interesting. My theory, amongst hearing them all, is that they were an irrigation system, yes, but also a way of speaking to their gods - why else would they make something that no one else could see? And I do believe that they did try and line them up with the stars as well, even tho that theory is widely refused. Really interesting tho. After we got back to the hotel, we got on the bus - for 7 hours!! And I just got home! (a while ago now) And I guess Lima did have an "earthquake", but a very very small one - "muy chiquito" - said my host mom, so nothing to worry about mom and dad :). I got the pleasure of talking to a few people on Thursday night before I left! Miss you all sooo so much and like to stay connected with you! (can't believe I still have internet in my room speaking of!) And I love love the videos of Pres eating Mandy :) - you have to put up the one of him opening my present too! Ok.. now I have more homework than I should in Peru :P - but back to it now! love you all! besos