September 30, 2008
For more in this series please check out:
Expat Interviews Edition 1
Expat Interviews Edition 2
Rachel Feldman is one of my good friends in Chile. She’s also one of the few young women I know who live here permanently or semi-permanently and did not originally come down for a man. Rachel managed to score a completely amazing job working for a crazy South African guy. I think you’ll agree that her life here is pretty fascinating. Read on, enjoy her story, and leave her a little love!
1. Please give us some background on you and your situation in Chile. How old are you, how long have you been here, how long do you plan on staying, where are you from, are you married, what part of Chile do you live in? Tell us your story! What originally brought you to the country?
I first arrived in Santiago in December of 07, after having graduated from Goucher College (small liberal arts school near Baltimore, MD) the previous May with a B.A. in Management with a concentration in International Business and a Spanish minor. I had been to Ecuador for a month when I was 16 and did a semester abroad in Salamanca, Spain, but I always knew I wanted to go back to South America at some point for some more abroad experience and to really make Spanish a second language. A classmate of mine from Goucher is ½ American, ½ Chilena, and grew up mostly in Chile, so knowing her but almost nothing about Chile, I thought, “Ok, I’ll go to Chile!”
I arrived with a round trip ticket for a total stay of 4 ½ months, with only my first 3 weeks planned with classes at a language school (Tandem, in Bellavista, Santiago). I already spoke decent Spanish but thought it would be good for the transition, and give me something to do and a place to meet people for my first few weeks while I figured everything else out. My plan after that was to find some sort of work/internship experience that would help me improve my Spanish and add value to my resume (for me that ruled out teaching English). Originally I had tried to plan something from the States before I left, but that proved challenging and I was lazy, and deiced it would be much more fun to just figure it out when I got here.
As luck would have it, I ended up meeting Kevin, a man who had just arrived from South Africa, sent to Chile to open the South American regional head office for a publishing firm based in Dubai. Kevin was also taking classes at Tandem, because he actually didn’t speak any Spanish at the time. As soon as I heard him mention his plans, I basically saw an opportunity and jumped on it. I asked him a million questions, told him all about myself and everything I could offer, etc… After meeting a few more times and talking it over, he decided he did in fact see a role for me in the company (he later told me he was quite shocked/impressed with my forwardness, which is why he even considered hiring me). And that’s how I “planned” what I thought would be my next 3 months in Chile.
As it turned out, Kevin had not even begun to set up the company, so I began my job by helping do just that, and we dove head first into figuring out how to legally create a company, find lawyers and accountants, plan the year, find an office, set up phones and internet (which turned out to be one of the biggest challenges due to the complete incompetence of Telefonica), and hire additional staff, etc… As we were setting up the company, we also began work on the first publication which is scheduled to print at the end of the year. I quickly realized that walking away from the project before seeing it completed would be difficult for me, and Kevin offered me the opportunity to stay through the year, so all of a sudden my “trip” went from 4 month to almost a year.
3. What do you do here? Describe a typical day in your life.
Originally my function was “translator” but as I learned the ropes of doing business in Chile, I proved myself able to handle responsibility and accomplish things other than just helping my boss communicate, so I took on the role of Project Manager (official title General Manager as this translates best for working in Chile). Now that we officially have the company set up, my job currently entails about a million different things. Kevin and I work together on a lot, but part of my role is still translator as his level of Spanish is still quite basic (although he is learning), so by default I end up dealing with the majority of day to day business.
I help with general office communication and manage the staff (4 more other than Kevin and myself), and I deal with the lawyers, accountants, and Telefonica (again, such incompetence means unfortunately this is an all too frequent and quite unpleasant experience). I have also been involved in finding a printer, identifying potential clients, setting up meetings, going to meetings both on my own and with Kevin; rallying support (successfully!) for the publication from governmental organizations and important business chambers, and going to meetings and maintaining communication with them. Then there is managing the process of actually making the book: gathering material from clients, bugging clients for material, a lot of translating both from English to Spanish and vice-versa, bugging clients for money, communicating with our design and editorial team which is actually in South Africa, working with our printer, and anything else that’s part of actually putting together this massive publication.
4. How does a typical day in your life differ from what life used to be like for you in your home country?
There is almost nothing about my day-to-day life in Chile that at all resembles what my life used to be like in the States before I came. The obvious difference is living in a foreign country with a different language, but more than the language are the daily challenges of the cultural differences, which I couldn’t even begin to explain (if you read Kyle’s blog and those of other gringos living in Chile, you might begin to get an idea).
5. How much do you spend on living costs, i.e. rent, groceries, bills, etc.
Coming from a relatively expensive part of the United States (Greater Washington D.C. area), I find Santiago to be slightly cheaper than the cost of living back home (although I have noticed the increase in cost of living since I have been here, which from what I understand is happening pretty much everywhere, the States as well).
I pay $125,000 CLP (+/- U$250.00) per month for my room and own bathroom in an apartment I share with 3 other Chileans (my rent includes monthly expenses, cable and internet) + 3,000 a week for someone who comes and cleans every Saturday (normal to have a “maid” here).
I would guess I spend roughly $4,000 pesos a week on Transantiago (there is a bus that goes pretty much between my apartment and my office, which is nice). Plus an additional $5-10,000 on (non-work related) taxis.
Food is getting expensive! I probably spend somewhere around $15,000 pesos a week on groceries etc. and another $20,000 a week on food out at restaurants. (I have recently started to go home for lunch to save a bit of money and actually eat better)
Social life/miscellaneous can run me anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 a week depending on whats going on, but if I had to guess, probably a monthly average of $100,000. (does that seems like a lot?)
I’ve actually never added it up before, surprisingly enough, but that puts my total monthly expenses at over $400,000 pesos, or $800.00 US (which actually sounds like a lot to me, and I think I might start monitoring my expenses more closely).
6. How has your standard of living changed since moving here?
I’d love to avoid coming across as snobby and spoiled here, but the biggest changes for me in terms of standard of living are not having my own car, living in a slightly older and less modern apartment (learning how to light my hot water heater with a match if I want a hot shower was quite an experience, having a washing machine but no dryer, no dishwasher, and no central heating), and other little surprises which remind me Chile is still technically a developing country. All in all, though, I can’t really complain.
7. What do you love about living here?
I love traveling, and I love the thrill of learning a new country and culture, even more so by living in it. Life is different here, but having proved to myself that I am capable of living in a foreign country with a different language and culture gives me confidence about myself and what I am capable of. Plus I learn something new practically everyday just about life in general here.
8. What has been the hardest adjustment for you in moving abroad?
The same things I mentioned as positive can also have a negative effect. Sometimes I just want to be able to rely on whatever it is a need to do, and depending on my mood, the unexpected can either be a fun learning experience or extremely frustrating and inconvenient. Again, Kyle and other gringo blogs give excellent insight into this.
Also I miss my family terribly, but by far, the hardest adjustment has been living apart from my boyfriend. When I first came down here, it was to be a quick 4 months to boost my career, and has now turned into 1+ year because of the work opportunity I found. He has been completely supportive of me the entire time, and has considered moving down here with me next year so I can continue the same job and we can be together (he loves traveling and the idea of living abroad as much as I do). Right now that looks unlikely because of some things that are going on with him and his family at home, so we are working it out as we go along, but it has been extremely tough. We have managed to see each other every 2-3 months since January, which has been expensive but worth it, as we’ve done some fun traveling together throughout the year. But I do know I can’t continue to only see him every 2-3 months for a week at a time for very much longer, and he is extremely important to me. I plan on including him in whatever my next abroad experience may be.
9. If you could change anything about your life in Chile, what would it be?
Well obviously having my boyfriend here with me would be an improvement! Also it would be nice if I could see my family and friends from home a bit more often. Of course having more money would be nice! Or being able to travel more, but other than the obvious stuff that would be the same no matter where in the world I am, it’s hard to say I would change anything specific.
10. If you could talk to other women considering moving to this country what advice do you have for them?
Advice for other women wanting to move to Chile? Most important is probably to be open minded. Decide what it is you really want to get out of your experience here and go from there. Realize what you are getting into: Chile is a different country and a different culture, and it’s important to be flexible. And be ready for people look at you/treat you weird if you look or talk different from them, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a million things to love about Chile and the people here.
11. Tell us anything else you want us to know about you or your life in Chile!
Basically for me, this whole thing would not be possible with out the support of my family, who sees the value in this experience for me and is therefore behind me 100%. I am very lucky for that and certainly would not have been able to take some of the risks or make some of the decisions I have without knowing that no matter what, I can always go home and they will be there. That takes a lot of pressure off of me and is one of the reasons why this year has been at all possible for me.
Rachel at the beach house.
September 29, 2008
Here’s a quick catch up on some of the pictures I never got around to posting from our trip to the beach with Emily and Rodolfo, plus Tamsin’s bachelorette party!
Also, if you haven’t seen our group posting on “What Chileans Think of Gringos,” you should definitely do so. Including myself there were 15 participants, and a lot of the posts were just added today. So if you haven’t checked since Friday you might be missing out.
Beach.
I love this life.
So do Emily and Lola.
Papito, not so much. Actually I’m totally kidding. This photo makes her look like a victim, but she was not. She was actually the bitch of house. Lola is bigger than her but Papito knows how to play mind games. At one point on the actual beach, Lola was having so much fun digging a huge hole in the sand. Then she stopped and started chasing Papito’s tail. Papito got pissed off and stole Lola’s hole for revenge. My puppy is slightly evil. Oh, and in this picture, they’re playing a game called, “Bite face,” with each other. They’re not fighting, I swear!
Bachelorette Party.
The penis straws and penis candle were my doing. 
We all pitched in to buy Tamsin some lingerie. I spent three hours running around Santiago trying to find anything that could be considered at all sexy (and not made out of polyester). It was a futile search, but in the end I think her future husband won’t care too much.
Seriously, who doesn’t love Pina Coladas and chocolate penises?
It was a really fun girls’ night out!
This picture post was brought to you by: Papito.
September 26, 2008
Ok, last night I was about halfway through my blog post when my computer shut off with no warning. This keeps happening and I don’t know why. Unfortunately I was writing in Word, it was 2am and I hadn’t saved. Bye bye What Chileans Think of Gringos post. So now, since it’s day time and I have actual real work, I’ll write mine up as soon as I can. But in the mean time here are other blogger’s posts which I am holding off on reading until after I’ve written mine. Go ahead and paste the group blogging list in your blog if you please!
Carlos
Flo
Clare
Sara
Abby
Katina
Emily
Amanda
Renee
Kathleen
Lydia
Shannon
Emma
Heather
Gus
Tyffanie
Really. Stupid.
This is how I feel many gringos are perceived by many Chileans. And unfortunately there are far too many gringos that do nothing but perpetuate the “weon,” or dumb idiot stereotype. As an exchange student I was guilty of having a night out on the town that involved drinking pisco straight out of the bottle, dancing with friends, making a spectacle, puking on the curb, almost getting arrested and finally being carried up to my room at 4am by my host mom where she changed me into my pajamas. I felt like a horrendous person, not only for embarrassing myself but for embarrassing gringos as a whole — for being just another insanely obnoxious one of them. I learned my lesson, it happened once. The worst part was that when I bought my host mom flower to apologize for the whole incident she shrugged it off and said, “This happens once a semester with every exchange student we host.” They had hosted 8 or 9 students before me. That only made me feel even more terrible. Not only was I a bane on society, but all of my people are. So in that aspect, I completely understand why a lot of Chileans just tend to brush off most gringos as pretty socially retarded in general.
On the other hand, I feel many Chileans perceive gringos as stupid in another sense of the word. They think we are all weones because we come from a society in which we trust our neighbors and the system and pretty much everybody we know. So you arrive in this country, you go to a Starbucks, you sit down, work on your computer for a while…and then you get up to go to the bathroom and you leave your laptop unattended for a minute. The next thing you know, there’s a guard in your face speaking to you like you’re the densest person to have ever walked the planet, “What were you thinking! Why in the world would you leave a computer alone, someone is going to ROB you!”
Leaving my computer unattended in public places, going jogging at 2am by myself, not locking the doors at my house, asking any random person on the street for directions, leaving my car running and unlocked while I run in to a gas station really quick — these are all normal parts of my life in the U.S. that never gave me a second thought until I moved to Chile.
In a way I actually feel fortunate that I was assaulted on day number 5 here because it wisened me up pretty darn fast. Otherwise who knows how long I would have gone around obliviously without ever once thinking of my own safety and well-being. Chileans call that stupid. I call it being naive. How I was supposed to learn that there are thugs waiting to rob me around every corner (or so the Chilean media would have you believe. It’s actually not that terrifying in Santiago at all, but the news is full of paranoid reports, like everywhere in the world) if that was something I had never dealt with before?
When reading about living in Santiago before coming here, guide books and things tell you the same thing I’m telling you right now — it’s a very safe city but you still need to be careful. I took that to mean, don’t go to bad neighborhoods and avoid talking to creepy looking men. To me, in the U.S., that’s what be careful meant. In the U.S., locking all my doors all the time and holding onto my purse so tightly that you’d have to pry it from me with the jaws of life means paranoid — so I didn’t do that, until I learned that in Chile if you don’t you’re a weona.
So, I do think that the stupid gringo stereotype applies to many of us when speaking of obnoxious non-culture sensitive behavior. But when it comes to the stereotype that all gringos are just idiots because we aren’t careful with our safety, I think that it’s more misunderstood naivity than anything else. I can also back this observation up throughout various conversations that I’ve had with S. over the past couple of years. I know for a fact that he used to perceive me as stupid (not in general, just with safety) and now he still perceives me as naive (I disagree. I’m not as naive as I used to be but I do still try to always expect the best of people, which he continues to see as naive).
Alright, now that I’m done writing my thoughts on one small sliver of this topic, I’m off to check out what you guys had to say.
September 24, 2008
Hey everybody! For those of you that missed out on the last post about group blogging, we’re going to do it this Friday and the topic is How Chileans Perceive Gringos (or how we think they perceive us). If you want to participate, as always, just leave a comment on my post and I’ll put up a link to your blog.
And if you’re living in another country feel free to change the topic so it fits for you. I can’t wait to see what everybody writes…especially the Chileans! I have a feeling they are ready to get their revenge after hearing all the things we had to say about them. 
September 23, 2008
I’m so excited to present Helen Conway as the JMCS interviewee for the 2nd edition of Expat Interviews (if you’re interested, you can find the first edition here). Helen has a love for Chile that I’ve never been able to muster, as well as an optimism you just don’t find every day (especially in a Brit ). Aside from that she’s smart and motivated, and like many of the amazing women that move to this country, she has an entrepreneurial spirit and a knack for survival. Check out her translation business online here!
Please give us some background on you and your situation in
How old are you? 41.
How long have you been here? 4 years.
How long do you plan on staying? The rest of my life.
Where are you from?
Are you married? Divorced, now living with someone.
What part of
2. Tell us your story. What originally brought you to the country?
I am a 41 year-old British woman who came to
Almost four years have passed and here I am, living in a sleepy, windswept village on a headland in Concón. I live in a small, flimsily built house with the most awe-inspiring sea views. I share this space with 7 street dogs, who drive me spare with their antics but give me the most incredible, unconditional love I have ever experienced and, touch wood, have protected me from break-ins, so common in this area. Recently my partner, Wolfgang, came to live here too. He’s a 48 year old lawyer, a lifelong batchelor who has adjusted slowly and with difficulty to having a gringa in his life.
3 What do you do here? Describe a typical day in your life.
I have a translations company which is just starting to be successful after two very hard years where I worked very hard, spent most of my savings and supplemented my income with some English classes.
It’s difficult to describe a typical day, as they vary a lot. Typically I get up at
Right now we have in four very big jobs, where work has been split between different translators and I need to project manage very carefully, which takes up a lot of time. I also send quotations to customers for jobs, proofread most of the Spanish to English translations and I translate myself too. There is a lot of administration and there are always some trámites I have to do, which means hours away from home queueing up in some office or other.
On a good day, at some point I go out for at least a little walk with some of the dogs, but often I don’t make time even for that. Lunch is something quick and easy; I get an organic box of vegetables every week so I eat pretty well.
4 How does a typical day in your life differ from what life used to be like for you in your home country?
Well, about 100%! In the
5 How much do you spend on living costs i.e. rent, groceries, bills etc.
Maybe CLP$400.000 per month. I haven’t analyzed recently.
6 How has your standard of living changed since moving here?
Good question. Well, on the plus side, I live in a more beautiful place, the climate here is wonderful, I love the fruit, the vegetables, the wine etc. We are privileged to have access to such a tremendous range of ingredients. I live a simpler life, partly by choice.
On the downside, like most people here on the coast at least, it’s a struggle to earn enough. Travel, especially abroad, means saving hard for a long time. The houses are not well constructed and get very cold in winter, which I find difficult.
7 What do you love about living here?
The weather, the sea, the dunes near my home, the pelicans and sealions; the fruit and vegetables, especially avocados, chirimoyas, cherries….
8 What has been the hardest adjustment for you in moving abroad?
I miss my friends. And making friends here has been difficult.
I don’t like the whole philosophy of distrust. Nobody trusts anybody, so they don’t extend themselves for instance inviting people they don’t know well to their homes, that kind of thing. And, for whatever reason, more people behave dishonestly here than in the
9 If you could change anything about your life in
I’d bring my friends here.
A huge shake-up of the banking system and all state institutions so that only necessary bureaucracy was left.
10 If you could talk to other women considering moving to this country, what advice do you have for them?
Beware of Chilean men; they seem to have a magnetic effect on gringas. Give it time, it’s not easy adjusting. Everything takes longer here than you think, so take it easy, give it time. And don’t be shy to ask for help, advice, company from others.
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- @dregonzrob, hahaha, eating wall paper, that's a new one. Dog whisperer dato coming your way :)
- @lanapuckett, when we get back I'll have to introduce you to @gabrielrodriguez, @sebamilla and @sebastiankaulen!
- @dregonzrob, you need the dog whisperer!!!
- Brian McBride is announcing his retirement from the game today. He will go down in history for me as my favorite U.S. player ever. LOVE him.
- Caroline and Tommy should probably stop being this hot or somebody's going to catch on fire. http://tinyurl.com/2feozcy
- Writing w/ @imnotobsessed tomorrow early! Love catching people up on their daily dose of gossip and I <3 @inosherry, my online co-worker :)
