October 30, 2008
Just dropping in to post a few quick pictures of Papito enjoying the new place. In the first picture you can see one of the key features of our apartment. 
Hint: We did NOT move to the lofts on Antonio Bellet. Are kidding me?!? Those things are like 600,000 pesos a month to rent plus over 100,000 pesos in gastos comunes, aka for Really. Rich. People. Only. They are gorgeous, though.
October 28, 2008
I don’t have internet (or TV, yes, we are really roughing it) at the new place! Telefonica is supposed to come…ummmm….who knows. As we are all aware, customer service isn’t one of the high points for a lot of businesses here so hopefully they’ll come set everything up by the end of the week. I’m not holding my breath though.
I just wanted to pop in and say hello so you know I’m still alive. Thanks for the concern, nothing bad happened to us to make us move, although there are very entertaining stories behind it all, which I’ll get to soon.
Also, any non-urgent emails will be responded to this weekend so if you’ve written me and I haven’t responded, don’t fret!
October 23, 2008
My post is only about halfway done, so I won’t be posting mine yet or reading these, but for now you can leave a comment below when yours is up and I’ll put your link here!
*Update: I really don’t know if I’m going to be able to write my post this weekend. Sorry but I’m moving. Right now. We are in desperate need of a truck! If anybody has a camioneta and an hour of time to move a fridge and bed please email me: kylehepp at gmail dot com We’re moving a block away from where we live now so it wouldn’t take long and you would have my eternal gratitude.
And I have to write 32 stories before Monday. And I have to finish designing a wedding album. And I have to run 3 miles today as part of my training program. To say I’m a little stressed out would be an understatement. Sorry about being a crappy group blogging organizer!
October 22, 2008
I have severe writers block. I can’t even think of anything to write about for the group blogging topic and I’ve known what it was going to be for the past two weeks (racism/classism in Chile, in case you missed that post).
So for now you just get a picture of my new blue dress which I am very excited about! Seriously, I’ve been telling everyone I know about it. I took pictures to email to my mom because when she saw it not on me, just in the box she didn’t think it was cute. When S. came in the bathroom I asked him if he liked it and this was his reaction:
October 21, 2008
I have so much going on right now and so much to be excited about at the moment. One, I can’t talk about just yet because I don’t want to jinx it, and the other is a job opportunity that I want SO BAD. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! I don’t want to say what it is unless I actually get this job, but it’s related to wedding photography in the U.S. (nope, no relocation, don’t worry) and I’m very excited about the possibility.
In general, I don’t let myself get my hopes when I apply for jobs. I don’t like to count my chickens before they’re hatched. But, I can’t help but be enthusiastic about this one. I will be ECSTATIC if I get it!!!!! And pretty let down if I don’t.
In other news, we have raised a whopping $736.32 dollars for Marcelo! Umm, pardon my French, but holy shit!!!! You guys are absolutely amazing. Basically, the first semester matriculation fee is covered, plus 4.3 months worth of tuition. WOW. I took most of the money out right now since the dollar is high and we are putting it into a deposit so it can earn interest until Feb. when we have to pay the matriculation. I’ve been absolutely floored by the response of people who have bought postcards and pictures, flat out donated and helped spread the word! It feels really good to know that the people who read this blog care so much about their fellow human being, and are happy to lend a hand.
And, don’t forget, the contest isn’t over yet! I would love to have more people enter…and right now your odds are really good. There are four prizes and only about 25 people entered. So do it, enter the contest! I originally thought that the contest would be the big draw and nobody would buy photos but it’s been the other way around! I have prizes and want to give them out to you guys because you all rock my world!
All proceeds of postcard/picture sales continue to go straight to the cause until November 6th. So if you’re thinking about purchasing, do it soon!
*Updated: The postcard of the palm tree overlooking the mountains and the “Bridge to Nowhere,” (the really blue postcard overlooking a bridge in Pucon) are both currently unavailable if you live in Chile. If you live in the U.S. they’re on backorder and should be available to mail to you in hopefully 2-3 weeks. If you’re in Chile and you really have your heart set on either of those two I’ll be bringing back more stock of those postcards at the end of December. Don’t forget, postcards are just 1,250 a piece if you order them individually, or 5,000 for 5. If I have to mail them to you the entire set is 7,500.
And, last but not least, group blogging topic for this Friday is Racism/Classism. As always, feel free to apply the topic to whatever country you live in or have lived in!
Chao, happy Tuesday.
October 19, 2008
Sundays for me are like any other workday. The only real difference is that I sleep in and may or may not take a longer lunch break to go out to eat or go on a walk or do something fun. But 99% of the time I work as many, if not more hours than I do during the week.
I like to take advantage of the “day of rest,” to work more uninterruptedly. On Monday-Friday I receive floods and floods of emails every day. No, I’m not superpopular. Keep in mind that I write for 5 different blogs, and work for one online business and therefore have 5 different internet bosses who are in constant contact. I subscribe to various newsletters relating to celebrities, fashion, eco-friendly lifestyle and photography, all of which I at least try to keep up with since these are things I need to be able to write about knowledgeably. That’s on top of personal blog emails, comments and communication with friends and family back home. I’m, unfortunately, not exaggerating when I say that I get up to go to the bathroom and by the time I’m back there are 10 new emails in my inbox. On Sundays there’s a pause in the madness.
S. knows that I work on the weekends, so today he asked me today, “Do you have a lot to do or can you watch Scrubs with me for a little bit?” I was in kind of a bad mood and I responded, “Look at my to-do list for today and tell me if you think I have time.”
He scribbled something on my notebook, came back over, handed it to me and said, “Problem solved.”
In case you can’t read his completely unintelligible handwriting, he wrote, “Scrubs with Papinni and S,” at the bottom of my list (Papinni is our nickname for Papito). I stopped what I was doing and watched two episodes while we all cuddled. If only every day were that simple.
These two melt my heart.
October 16, 2008
Last night I witnessed something so beautiful, so touching it brought me to tears. This was an event that may never happen again in my lifetime, a historic moment that will live on forever.
Chile beat Argentina mother truckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-0, may not sound like much to you, but for people who follow Chilean soccer, the last time we even scored on Argentina was 11 years ago during Salas’ reigning years. The last time we won was….never. Ok, well that might not actually be true. I’m not sure, it’s what S. told me and I take everything he says with a grain of salt because he has a slight tendency to over exaggerate. Any Chilean futbol fan out there know if that’s a real stat or not?
I’m not even joking when I said I was so happy I cried. I LOVE soccer. So naturally it was easy for me to make the transition to becoming a fan of the national team here. The U.S. will always be in my hearts and if they ever match up against Chile we all know who I’d be rooting for — Go red, white and blue! Wait a second…hahaha, but yes, U.S. is always my #1 team. But, their games aren’t shown here. And Chile is my adopted country so they’re also my adopted team.
This is a team that was literally a joke last year. They went to one an important, prestigious tournament (Copa Sudamerica) and were accused of damaging hotel property and sexually harassing female hotel workers. The press complained that the players showed up late to practice, and stayed out partying until 4am on the night before gameday.
One year and a new coach makes a whole lot of difference. The kicker — Bielsa is an Argentine. How funny it must have felt to him that his new team’s current biggest accomplishment ever is beating Argentina decisively.
Last night, in a moment of euphoria, I told Emily, “Soccer can give Chileans something to be happy about! This could make this country a better place to live.”
Obviously, that’s a huge overstatement. But, I really do feel like Chileans need to find something they can feel proud of — and there are plenty of things like the growing economy and how developed this country is, low levels of corruption, and a country riddled with beautiful scenery from the desert to the Antarctic. But, for some reason all that isn’t enough, and I feel like a lot of Chileans are constantly, “mirando pa’ afuera,” (looking outside) to see if they can find something better, wishing they themselves, or the country was better.
It’s not wrong to want to better your country — there are a million things I would change about the U.S. if I could. But, the thing is, I don’t want to change it to be like someplace else. I would make certain things better, but would hope that the country would still retain it’s sense of self. And sometimes I get the feeling that Chile just wishes it could be someone else.
Such an important victory in soccer could be one small step in the right direction. I hope that it makes people here realize, you don’t have to be like Argentina. You can play like Chile and still beat them at their own game.
And at the very least, that awesome goal by Orellana put a huge grin on a lot of Chilean faces. Hopefully today there will less pushing in the metro, less grouchy folks waiting in line, more smiles on the streets, more optimism in general, people united in a common sense of, “We did it!!!” Chile beat Argentina.
October 13, 2008
The other day I met Meredith in person. The encounter got me thinking about how it’s always a little weird to meet someone after you’ve been reading their blog for a while. You know so much of their life story already even though you have never had a real life interaction. Since people sometimes reveal much more in writing you often have been privy to their ups and downs, their dreams, their frustrations and so much more. If you had just met that person on the street and never read their blog it would most likely take you months to get to that level of intimacy, but the internet just skips us ahead through that phase.
So where do you begin the friendship in real life? Do you start at the beginning or just fast forward ahead to behaving like good buddies right away? Obviously this depends on the person, but still, what’s the etiquette in these situations now that online has our social boundaries all blurred?
When I see people that I know, I generally greet them with a hug. When I joined a group of friends for lunch and Meredith was unexpectedly there, I felt like I should greet her with a hug too. I mean, c’mon, I’ve “known” her forever! Or not — since that was actually the first time meeting in person. Would a hug be awkward or coming on too strong? Sometimes meeting internet friends feels a lot like a blind date!
She came off in person very much like she does in her blog — friendly, open and happy. The only part of her real life personality that differed much from her written personality is that she seems less serious in person. I got the serious impression because her blog posts are always well thought out, well written and rarely have typos. In person she’s more lighthearted.
Only on a few occasions have fellow bloggers really surprised me with how different they were from their online persona — I think Rachel from A Chile Tale was the perfect example of that. She’s way nicer in person than you would ever expect her to be! I don’t say that because I thought her blog was bitchy like some people did. I just say that because she has a very British sense of humor which can sometimes translate as sharp when written and not spoken.
I always wonder what people who read this blog and have never met me would think if they knew me in real life. I feel like I’ll probably let people down because of three main reasons — Number one is that I’m not as funny or smart in person. I’m just not quick witted on my feet! I’ve already admitted that it takes me hours if not weeks thinking of blog posts and what I’m going to write, so if they’re funny, it’s because I worked hard to try and make them that way!
And then, the second reason is obvious as a former fatty. I’m always worried that people will be shocked by how I look in real life since I only post flattering pictures of myself on the blog — of course I’m not going to post photos in which I look like a whale, but in person I’m definitely not as svelte and good looking as I try to make myself look on camera.
The third and final reason that I get nervous to meet blog readers in person is because that in my blog I make a conscious effort to be positive, as I do in real life. However, this does not mean that my real life is perfect. I remember meeting one girl who had been reading my blog for a few months before we finally got together and she was shocked that S. and I fight. Of course we do, no marriage is perfect! Just because I don’t blog about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. In trying to stay positive I worry that I paint too rosy a picture sometimes and that if I don’t live up to the inhuman expectations I fear people might have of me, I will be a let down when they discover I don’t have a perfect life! Of course, this is an insecurity that I’ve always had. I don’t like anyone to see me weak or unhappy. I can pinpoint the feeling of having to fake happiness back to my parents seperation. I was in third or fourth grade when they divorced and all I could see was how miserable it was making my brother. So even though I was upset too I would try as hard as I could to put on a happy front in hopes that he would feel better. I try not to burden people with my problems because I don’t want them to feel they have to take care of me. Very few people have actually seen my soft underbelly.
Anyways, this whole post turned into more of a cry for psychiatrict help than anything else, but the real life person versus the blog image is an interesting topic that I’ve been thinking about for a long time now. What do you think — if you have a blog do you think you come across the same in real life as you do online?
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my contest to win MAC makeup or a t-shirt!!! It’s easy and you’ll be helping spread the word about a good cause. Just link back to the original post in your blog and leave a comment letting me know you did so (or if you don’t have a blog email ten people with a link to the original post and copy me on the email: kylehepp at gmail dot com)
October 12, 2008
CONTEST. DO NOT FORGET TO ENTER. It’s easy, just link back to the original post in your blog and then leave a comment on the original post so I know you did it, or send an email out to 10 friends with the link and copy me on it! Win makeup and t-shirts and help me out for a good cause!
I threw a bachelorette party for the lovely Tamsin a few weeks ago and of course, as gifts, we needed lingerie. The only problem was that sexy “ropa interior,” or “lenceria,” as it’s called in Spanish is hard to come by in Chile.
Emily, while a little bit harsh in her style judgments, did make a really good point the other day when she wrote about fashion in Chile — do women here really own the way they dress? How many Chilean women do you notice that look like they wake up in the morning, and put on an outfit because it makes them feel hot?!?
In this country the Catholic church still wields it’s power with an iron fist (i.e. the fact that divorce was only recently legalized. I don’t remember when, but I know it was sometime while I was here, meaning in the past 4 years or so. Or the fact that the day after pill sales have basically been cut off). Women are supposed to be sex objects for men on the street but virginal and pure for their boyfriends (even though judging by the stats that the amount of teen pregnancies has actually gone up in the past year, nobody is waiting to have sex).
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that, Chile, by appearances, wants you to think that they’re a conservative society — even though they’re really not.
So searching for sexy lingerie in Chile isn’t an easy task. Like most shopping experiences in Santiago what you find is way overpriced and very poor quality. Then add to that the stigma upon women openly reveling in their sexuality and you are just asking for disaster to strike.
I first trolled the streets of Providencia hoping to stumble upon a cute boutique or two which would give me some good options. There are a few underwear stores, but they were all selling mostly boring, bland bathrobes and full coverage nightgowns — nothing that screamed, “Wedding night!” to me.
Then I passed by a sex shop. Since it couldn’t hurt to look I stopped in. While I did pick up some penis straws, a penis candle and a penis chocolate for our night out, I decided that any lingerie made out of plastic and feathers wasn’t exactly the look I was hoping to find for Tamsin.
So, I continued on to Almacenes Paris. This is one of the two biggest department stores in Chile. While the shopping there isn’t totally horrendous, if you do find something cute, every other woman in the country is bound to have made the same find, so you’ll cross paths on a regular basis with women dressed identitical to you if you buy clothes there. But with lingerie, individuality wasn’t as big of a factor so I thought I’d give it a try.
Rather than wander around aimlessly I went straight to a sales woman and asked her, “What options do you have that I could buy as a bachelorette party gift for the bride, or is there anything you have that would be good for the wedding night? I’m looking for the sexiest lingerie you have.”
She was an older woman and she looked at me with bewilderment on her face. “Let me ask someone else, I’m not a spring chicken anymore (ya no soy tan jovencita) and a girl your age might have a better idea,” she said. Her coworker walked up at this point, a woman no more than 35 years old and the older woman explained what I was looking for. The younger girl’s face lit up and she said, “Ah! I know, you want something really fun right?!?” I said, “Yes!” excitedly, because she seemed like she actually understood what I was hoping to find. In my mind, “fun,” lingerie means corsets and stockings and other more extravagently sexy underwear.
This woman led me over to a rack filled with Mickey Mouse nightgowns, bras with the ears on them and full coverage underwear that even my own grandma would consider to be conservative.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’s off her effing rocker so I put on my most enthusiastic fake smile and told her, “You’re so right, this is exactly what I’m looking for. What bride wouldn’t want the adorable Mickey Mouse accompanying her on her wedding night?”
This whole experience to me really seemed to sum up women and sexuality in Chile to me. Women might be freaks behind closed doors (or not, I don’t know, I’ve never slept with a Chilena) but in public their image is childlike, dependent upon men and innocent among other things. Forget openly expressing sexuality in public!
What do you think about the subject of sexuality and women and self expression through fashion in Chile?
Again, enter my contest and help out a good cause and you’ll have my undying love for the rest of your life.
October 9, 2008
I realize I have been a huge slacker this week on blogging. Believe it or not that’s because I’ve been swamped, blogging for people who pay me. I should have announced the topic yesterday but I had a little bit of a crisis. For the past year I’ve had all my to-do lists in a neat little notebook that goes with me everywhere. I check things off as I go and if it weren’t for that notebook my head would probably explode. Then it ran out of paper. And I didn’t have time to go pick up a new one. I wrote my to-do list on a scrap piece of paper and then promptly lost it. I don’t do well with individual sheets. I blame lack of to-do list for not blogging, because updating JMCS is usually one of the first things I write down.
Moving on to much more important things — there was a tie for our group blogging topic this week so I’ll just announce the one that comes first alphabetically for today and then we’ll do the other topic in two more weeks. So for today, feel free to join us in writing about — The Hardest Custom to Adjust to in Chile (or abroad, or anywhere if you want to make this work for your non-Chile related blog). My post will be coming at some moment during the weekend, but I’ll start posting your links today! *Updated, it’s down below.
Sara
Heather
Abby
Rita (Colombia)
Lydia
Clare
Amanda
Kathleen (Ecuador)
Lori (Brazil)
Renee
Shannon
Carlos
Katina
Emily
Tyffanie
Jessica
Hardest Custom to Adjust to in Chile — Extreme Family Involvement
I haven’t really written about my husband’s family too much on this blog. I try to keep them off JMCS because I would never want them to accidentally google me or S. and be surprised to find out that they’re actually internet superstars (not that either of his parents really knows how to use the internet, but who knows, maybe the day they decide to buy a vacuum cleaner that’s not from the early 1800’s they’ll also decide to learn how to use their computer).
But, in keeping with tradition, I have to be honest here, or else what’s the point of having a blog? Adjusting to the custom of how involved Chilean parents are, or want to be, in their children’s lives has been hands down the hardest adjustment for me in
I lived with S. in his bedroom in his family’s house for a 1.5 years. Then we moved next door, although our houses were still connected by a secret passageway so we were never really in our own space. As anyone who has been a long time reader knows, I’ve struggled with a lot of customs in Chile — piropos (catcalls), lack of independence because of safety issues, bureaucracy, distrust of fellow human beings, etc. But, family involvement takes the cake as the most difficult thing I’ve dealt with while trying to adjust to life here.
I should probably clarify first — I love my husband’s family very much. I’m grateful to them for being generous enough to open their home to me when I was on study abroad. I’m happy that they love their son so much. Moving back in with a family after having lived on my own for so many years would have been hard for me even if it was my own. I don’t blame them in any way, shape or form for the negative feelings I felt.
The custom of extreme family involvement in the childrens’ lives stems, in part, from the fact that most Chileans live at home with their parents until they’re much older. This naturally means that the parents will be able to exert much more influence over their 25-35 year old, “children.” If mom and dad are paying the bills and putting your food on the table you can’t not answer when you’re on your way out the door and mom insists on knowing where you’re going and what time you’re coming back. And insist she will. Insisting seems to be a Chilean specialty. In Spanish slang, young people call it, “hinchando.” A person who insists too much is an “hincha-pelotas.”
As long as the kids are still under their parents roof, no matter what age, I see no problem with the whole hinchando thing. The problem comes when the child moves out, yet the parents have a hard time cutting the apron string, so to speak. I know that my husband’s family isn’t unique in this — I have friends whose husband’s family would probably disown them both if they didn’t go over to their home every Sunday for for an eternal family lunch. Once, at a party, another friend’s husband’s mom showed up unannounced with all his clothes washed and pressed because she has her nana continue to make sure his wardrobe looks proper for work. My MIL called incessantly when we first moved out just checking up on us.
This is simply what Chilean mothers do. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just a different custom than what I’ve been used to in the past (and what my husband quickly became used to while living with me in the U.S. — unadulterated freedom). With my own mom if she calls I can tell her that I don’t feel like talking and she won’t be offended. She can do the same for me and neither of us ever gets our feelings hurt. If I’m upset she will wait for me to come to her to tell her what’s wrong, rather than insisting I let her know right away. That’s the kind of family I grew up with and how I was used to interacting with people. We go to each other on our own terms, and that method has really worked for us. I get along with my family wonderfully, I adore them all. I honestly can’t remember the last time in my adult life that we fought — aside from talking politics with my brother — that always gets sticky. He’s a *gasp* Republican. But, we always end up agreeing to disagree.
S.’s family dynamics don’t really work like that. Telling someone how you actually feel is cause for not speaking for weeks on end and nobody hesitates to snap at each other and lose patience with one another. This isn’t because they don’t love each other as much as my family loves each other. It’s just because they’re all so on top of each other all the time that it’s bound to happen. With a little space I think everyone would get along better.
I don’t want to cut off all contact with my in-laws, or anything like that. But, my husband and I needed them to give us breathing room in order to start our own family life. This concept was difficult for them to understand. But, things have improved significantly over the past six months as they’ve recognized our need for space and therefore we’ve began to appreciate them much more now that we’ve put some distance between ourselves.
And of course, don’t forget about the contest! Just link to my post in your blog or send out an email to 10 people with a link! But, this is very important, after you’ve posted, please don’t forget to leave a comment on the original post because otherwise I might miss your entry.
Last but not least, today is Emma’s birthday!!! Head on over to her blog and leave her some looooooove.
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- http://www.kylehepp.com/2010/03/72-aftershock-hits-santiago/ Pretty crazy big aftershocks today.
- @jenty, they said aftershocks will continue for the next couple of months - year
- @2ndcreative, haha, clearly I should've checked Twitter before trying to find the news from some other source. Thanks for the info!
- @matukoamini, yikes, just stressing me out!
- @jessicashepard, all is fine at least in my house!
- @gabriel, SI WEON. way more than enough.
