Kyle Hepp

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.  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,  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.