2009 January | Kyle Hepp

January 21, 2009

Living outside the U.S. will open up your eyes to the culture of another country, that’s for sure. Most people spend more time learning about their new place of residence than they ever did learning about the history of where they grew up.

When I came here on study abroad, I took a ton of classes on Chilean culture and society because it was so interesting to me. I learned here, that so many things are not what they seem upon first glance. And this has made me question even the most normal things in my day to day life here. When a man leers at me on the street, I often start thinking about the roots of machismo. When I hear stories of racism against Peruvians or classism against anyone that has dark skin, my mind automatically jumps back to the indigenous abuses and rapes that occurred regularly in the fundos when Chile was first conquered.

In short, I’m now hypersensitive and overanalyze everything.

So, I wasn’t really surprised when I started searching for answers about cultural habits in the U.S., that I had previously never noticed.

We went to a basketball game. Almost all the players were black. I couldn’t tell who were the coaches from my nosebleed seats, but it looked to me like they were all white. I think there were three refs and if I remember correctly, two were white. The vast majority of fans were white. Orlando Magic, Rich DeVos, actually from my hometown area of Grand Rapids, is the whitest white, filthy rich old man you can possibly imagine. The Magic were playing the San Antonio Spurs, whose chairman is another rich, old Caucasian man.

A quick google search showed me that the NBA is actually lauded for having more diversity than any other men’s professional sport. That being said, in 2008, there was ONE African American owner and 40% of the head coaches were black. 40% sounds pretty high until you stop to think that somewhere between 75-90% (depending on who you ask, I couldn’t find definite info for 2008) of the players are black. So why aren’t African Americans reaching the upper echelons in the business world of basketball, if they’re good enough to play basketball?

Lots of people have studied racism in sports much more thoroughly than I have. This topic has clearly been around for a while. I’m not the first person to notice. It’s obviously a huge issue, and even with the first African American president, we still have a long ways to go. But, my point wasn’t really to show that racism in the U.S. still exists (DUH), rather to point out out how much more aware of it I am now when I go back, after a few years of living in Chile.

I’ve started looking at my surroundings with a more critical eye, no matter where I am. Has this happened to anyone else after spending some time abroad?

7 Comments

January 15, 2009

I just had the weirdest moment. Here I am sitting at Starbucks, completely wrapped in my own little world — computer out, head down, working hard on writing stories. I hear someone go loudly, “Oye weon, no puede ser!”

And in my head I think, “How strange, there’s a Chilean in here, I wonder if I should go make conversation.”

I turn around to see what kind of weirdo is using Chilean slang, snap out of my daydream (In which I am in a Starbucks in Tampa, a 15 minute drive from my dad and a two hour flight from my mom, where there’s no winter, where there’s air conditioning everywhere, where people stand in neat and orderly lines and make friendly small talk, where clothes are cute and mullets are rare, and my husband is paid overtime if he works slave-labor hours) and realize, I AM IN CHILE.

Motherfuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucker.

That was a rude awakening. Guess I’m not as over this funk as I’d like to pretend to be — seeing as how my subconscious seems to have moved back to the U.S. without me.

8 Comments

January 14, 2009

I finally get what all the fuss is about. Ever since I moved away to Tampa for college, people have been telling me, “You should move to New York, you would love it there!”

Well, we finally got around to visiting, and I DID love it there!

One of my blogging bosses, Vera, decided that enough was enough and she wanted to meet the employee who had been working for her for a year and a half, so she flew S. and I out! I know, I couldn’t believe it either.

S. and I awoke at 4am to get ourselves to the airport, park in short term parking and then sprint in to do the automatic check-in with only carry-on luggage, fly through security and make it to our gate just as the plane was boarding. We jetted out of Tampa as the sun was rising. S. passed out immediately on the plane, as he always does, only awakening when I gripped his hand too tight in my moments of fear. There were little personal TV’s in front of us. I had no idea that U.S. domestic airlines were doing that now too (we were on JetBlue)! Point being that as flew, I was watching the news of the plane that had just crashed on the runway somewhere (Dallas? Denver maybe?). And I’m a nervous flyer to begin with.

Anyways, as we began our descent into JFK, I woke S. up and point out the window. He asked, “Why is it all white, are we still in the clouds?” It was actually snowing hard you couldn’t even see out the window! Turbulence rocked the plane and my heart sunk lower and lower as I realized that the pilot probably couldn’t see out his window either.

But, although it was a little rocky, we made it down. My first impressions of the city were, “Where’s the city? And DAMN, it’s FREEZING.”

Upon arrival, I sprinted to the bathrooms and a woman rudely shoved me out of her way and cut me off on my way into the stall. I couldn’t believe it! The stereotype was true! New Yorkers are evil and cutthroat….except that she turned out to be the only rude person we encountered all day long, and since we were in the airport, there’s a good chance she wasn’t even from New York. Myth number 1, debunked.

My boss’ husband, Bill, picked us up, we found him with no problem. From there it was off to pick up Vera who had dropped the kids off at her mom’s house. We met her family and they greeted us with a kiss on the cheek. Both S. and I got really excited at that point, “You guys do that too?!?”

Finally actually meeting Vera after all this time was surreal because I feel like I’ve known her for so much longer. I mean, we email back and forth a million times a day and not just about work. I actually think we sometimes end up telling each other more about our marriages and our personal lives over the computer than I tell people in real life. Plus, I also read her personal blog and she often does videos so I already knew what was going on in her life, with her kids, and her diet, and everything. We were meeting for the first time but it was just like we were old friends.

First order of business was to buy city tour bus tickets and then to get ourselves to a Starbucks…a woman truly after my own heart. I had a dose of culture shock when we walked in to the store and all the calorie values were posted next to each drink. I didn’t know that NYC has a law requiring nutritional information to be displayed like that, and man was it freaky!

After that, we parked and boarded a double decker bus. S. and I had our cameras out the ENTIRE time. I mean, we were literally snapping away for 8 hours. It was amazing…there was just so much to photograph.

I think both of us were completely awestruck the entire time. We saw famous churchs, and streets where movies have been filmed, walked through Times Square, the center of the universe, saw Ground Zero, looked at the statue of liberty, passed by the street that Sarah Jessica Parker lives on now. I even got a fake Gucci purse in a back room in Chinatown! If that’s not the true New York experience, I don’t know what is. The only thing I was sad about was that we didn’t see an Olsen twin. I knew the odds were not in my favor, but still, I was keeping my fingers crossed. Seeing one of them dressed like a homeless person aka “hobo chic,” would have made my life complete.

Vera and Bill were completely patient with us the whole time. They didn’t seem to mind taking in a whirlwind tour and seeing the entire city in one day with people who looked like stupid tourists (because we were stupid tourists). They didn’t seem to be annoyed that every time they turned around we would be falling farther and farther behind because we were too busy taking pictures and gawking at things to keep up!

Even on a rainy, ice cold Sunday day, there were more people out than I ever could have imagined. NYC is crowded, sort of like Santiago, but ummm, better. The city just has an energy to it like no other. Both S. and I were pretty much in shock the entire time. We kept looking at each other and going, “This is JUST like the movies!” I liked it so much, it made me want to live there. Maybe someday in the far off future (when we’re rich), but still, that’s a city I could hang my hat on.

S. still keeps telling every person he knows that we went to NYC. I feel like it’s more of an accomplishment than a vacation to him. He feels like he’s made it big now that he’s been to the center of the world. And I still get a buzz thinking about being there. It was just a small enough taste to keep me coming back for more. Now, the next time we’re in the U.S. I HAVE to plan a longer trip there (Vera, keep your basement open!). It was amazing, really.

Below are my Hi-I’m-A-Tourist photos, mostly from my point and shoot. If you’d like to see the pictures that I took with my “real” camera, they’re all at my photography blog, first post up right now.

Nut 4 Nuts, started in Chile. And by the way, in case you didn’t know, another genius Chilean started a business called Nuts 5 Nuts. How’s that for entrepeneurialship? I wonder if it’s a joke, or if he actually didn’t understand that Nuts 4 Nuts means crazy about nuts?