I never thought I'd get to say this...

The dog ate my homework.


No, not really.
He ate my uniform instead.

I don't have to go to school today!

Hahahahaha, I find this amazingly, spectacularly, mind-blowingly ironic. Especially because I actually wanted to go to school today, as there was absolutely nobody at school last week. They were all on some religious retreat.

But, such is my luck, I'm home for the day, and for the first time since I've arrived in this beautiful country, I tried to go to sleep and failed. This never happens. I am ALWAYS able to sleep. It's a talent of mine. That siesta that goes on in Santiago? From 2 to 6 pm? Where everything is closed and the streets are almost completely empty? Yeah, I own that siesta. I nap like no other.

I have other fun here besides napping, obviously. For instance, this weekend... hmmm what happened this weekend?

On Friday, I went on an adventure to the supermarket with Mathis, the French boy. I bought 50 pesos worth of chocolate (like $15/20 ish dollars, but since the dollar is stronger, 50 pesos goes a loooong way) and he bought 30 pesos of chocolate. Typical fat foreigners. But wait. It gets worse. We then ventured over to Phoebe's house (she's the hick from Pennsylvania - JUST KIDDING. Sort of. Love yins Phoebe. hahaha.) where she had a bunch of friends over, as well as her sisters friends, and we made tacos, listened to music, and watched movies until 5 am. (The best thing about Argentina-time is that 5 am is generally not considered a late hour, but rather a normal one. No parent gets mad if you call them for a ride from 3-5 am.)

So that was fun. Saturday was not as nice a day - I had a mild spat with my host dad and cancelled my Saturday plans. I figured that I didn't want to add to any tension within the house by leaving it. A good call on my part, I would say. The one comforting aspect of Saturday was that I discovered that I'm pretty good at arguing in Spanish. That must mean I'm getting better.

Aaand then, Sunday. Que lindo día... a lovely day. I went to a birthday party. It was an asado. Asado is the meat they barbeque here. Every Sunday, people get together and cook like three cows together, it's quite the festival. So I went to that party, ate a lot of really delicious meat, chatted with the extended family for a bit, and then left to go to my friend's house. I hung out there a bit, then we went to the cetro (downtown), got amazing Argentine ice cream, and did a bit of walking. We ended up at the zoo - a horrible zoo by American standards, normal by Argentine standards. Later we headed home, after drinking more coffee, and then I relaxed until I went to sleep. My 11 year old sister decided she wanted to give me a foot massage, as a bonus. All is well. A nice, calm day.



MOM - here is a picture of my in my lovely Catholic school uniform. I'll try and find some of the family when my host mom comes back from Mar del Plata. She has the camera right now.

Kisses! Molly

An interesting development...

Sniff sniff. I smell something new. A change in the family dynamic.

And it is either thanks to me, or that strange phenomenon of growing up - I'm not really sure.

Basically, this is what's happening: I have a fifteen year old brother.

(He is your typical fifteen year old boy: sometimes you just want to kill him. The other day, he wouldn't let me have the remote when ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT was on. This is a sin punishable by death. We yelled for fifteen minutes. I settled it by calling Mommy.

Being an only child, I've never really experienced the whole remote control wrestling thing. Good lord, it is exhausting. And annoying.)

His name is Inti, and he is chock-full of hormones, so sometimes he is a diva/moodmonster on a bike. When I first got here, he seemed to spend a lot more time in the house, but now - not so much. I think what's happened is that because I spend a lot of time socializing outside of the house (I'll get to that later), he has realized that he can too. I have officially made an impact. YAY.

So that's my little gem of wisdom of the day. About the socializing thing: I try and create a 80-20 balance of time inside-ouside the house. Family is important here, and every Sunday the fam gets together and eats delicious barbeque. However, I'm quite absorbed in my social life, especially because I've come to realize that if I spend too much time in the house I will have a dead sibling on my hands. So I've created my balance, and I'm glad to say it's working.

On the weekends, I hang out with friends or other exchange students. My favorite thing to do, still, is go dancing. Here it is just SO MUCH FUN. During the week, there are a few things to do, but usually I just hang out, maybe get something to eat. Santiago is tiny, and you can't really go anywhere besides a friend's house or the town center.

Hmmm what else? My Spanish is coming along well. For about two weeks I had a bit of a rut where I felt like I wasn't learning anything, but now I'm back on track. I just have to actively work on it. For instance, when I go home I usually translate some of the things I wrote down in school, it's a good way to pick up new vocabulary. I still haven't perfected the Santiago accent on the "R", probably because it's IMPOSSIBLE. Ah well.

Also, I know I haven't blogged in a while. SORRY! I've gotten pretty caught up in everything here. I'll try and work on that one. Lovelovelovelove.

Kisses, Molly