Kyle Hepp

August 26, 2008

With the Olympic games coming to a close and Michelle Obama’s incredibly moving speech at the Democratic Convention (watched it today, cried like a baby…see if you can resist doing the same) U.S. patriotism is in the air.

Jayna just posted on why she loves the Oh-lympics — because the contingent of athletes shows off just how diverse a nation we truly are. I couldn’t agree more. That’s definitely an aspect of my country that I really ache for sometimes.

One day while watching the Games, S. tried to get me riled up and started heckling me because the U.S. was behind in the medal count. I snidely replied, “Four little words, baby. Michael mother-effing Phelps. We don’t need anybody else…BOO YA!”

Ok, so maybe the “BOO YA,” at the end was a little unnecessary. Out pops my U.S.A.’ian arrogance — or is it sense of pride? The two are easily confused, or maybe interchangeable.

Don’t get me wrong, the stereotype of the arrogant American bastard is very much alive and kicking, and I hate it. But, I do long for that certain je ne sais quoi that many people from my country seem to have. My mom would probably call it a “can do attitude.” It’s a sense of you-just-can’t-get-us-down.

Some might call it a superiority complex, and when done wrong, I think that’s exactly what it is. But in most people, I believe it’s more of a sense of optimism than anything else.

I love that about “mi gente,” and I miss it.

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Alright, time to vote on the next group blogging post, which will be, not this Friday, next. I would like to vote and choose the topic now so I can start thinking about my post. Unlike some of you, I can’t just whip something up at the last minute. I’m a nerd and my blogging is all carefully calculated.

This list is pretty long so maybe we can use this poll to narrow it down to three or four topics and then do another poll to choose between those. Also, obviously we can continue group blogging for as long as everybody still likes the idea so I think we’ll have plenty of time to get to most of these topics!

If for some reason I didn’t put your topic in there, I’m sorry. I’ll have to put them in the poll for next time. I may have missed a few because topic suggestions were spread out in the comments over quite a few posts. Also if the topic says, Chilean something, feel free to substitute Ecuadorian something or U.S. something or whatever to relate the topic you’re living so you can participate from anywhere!

Please vote for only topic even though I think it allows you to choose multiple answers. I’m technologically retarded and couldn’t figure out how to change that.

And if you haven’t been back to the original Chilean men post, you should check it out again, because I’ve added a couple new late joiners who also chimed in on the subject!

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August 24, 2008

There are a lot of reason why I really love having a Papito but so far here are a few that top my list.

• The other day while I was out walking her, a couple stopped to ask me for directions. MISTAAAAAAAAKE, never ask the blond girl, people! I had no idea. But what I did have was a big full of hot steaming poop. It’s always fun to talk to people when you’re carrying around shit.

• I love projecting all the repressed anger I have built up at my parents for saddling me with the boy’s name, Kyle, onto my dog by calling her Little Daddy in Spanish.

• Speaking of how awesome her name is, I really enjoy that calling her Papito gives me a reason to walk around the streets of Santiago singing “Papi, Papiiii, Papi Chulo, Papi Papi Papi, ven a mi!“

• Because being covered in dog hair is the new black this season. Fur is IN!

• It’s simultaneously sweet and repulsive when she licks my face with her doggy breath. I love the girl but we seriously need to buy her some Altoids or something because it smells like something dead is rotting inside inside her mouth.

• Even when I reason with her and ask her to wait at the apartment just 10 minutes while I go buy something from the supermarket, she still cries at the door when I leave. It breaks my heart, but I can’t take her with me because I can’t leave her tied outside while I run in like a lot of people do with their dogs — Papi will chew through her leash in a heartbeat, wander away and most likely end up dodging oncoming traffic because she’s really not the street dog she’s cracked up to be. She apparently never learned that speeding cars + puppy in the middle of the road = death. But hey, if you can dodge traffic, you can dodge balls, right?

• When big dogs come to try and eat Papito while we’re out on her walk, I pick her up to try and protect her. The last time a giant angry puppy came our way he started growling at her. I picked her up and she was so scared she tried to scale my body like a totem pole. She stepped on the collar of my shirt, pulling it all the way down. We were next to a playground. I flashed like three little kids under the age of 4. Whoops! Hope they’ve had the birds and the bees talk already.

Also, the other thing I wanted to talk about on this post, was our great group blogging topic on Friday. What did you guys think? My thoughts were that I absolutely loved reading the posts. I liked leaving the topic quite broad because it was fun to see where everybody took it. I think it’s a good way for all of us to see other people’s perspectives on one subject. I even internet met some new Chile bloggers, so that was exciting, plus it was a good way for all of us to share traffic and give each other lots of link love.

So what’s next? Would you be interested in doing this again (or for those of you who didn’t partake in the fun, ever)? If so, how often would you want to do it…once a week, once a month? A few suggestions for more topics were: Chilean women, favorite vacation spots in Chile and favorite spots to eat or go out in Chile. Leave some feedback and let me know what you think about the whole group blogging thing.

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