Kyle Hepp

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.

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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)

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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.

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