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