Kyle Hepp

14 Comments

1. 

   I know it is hard to say your are sorry, even if you would do it again… Still, sometimes it feels so good to just not have to worry anymore. I am happy you are pleased.

   Comment by Clare — February 24, 2009 @ 8:48 pm

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2. 

   I’m glad. I don’t believe that picking up negative aspects of a society is especially great to do just becauese you can get away with it and everyone else does. It makes no sense that you should treat the doorman poorly just because other people would. Not that the situation was that horrible, but as in refusing to correct it.

   I’ve really come to enjoy exposing Chileans or anybody else to the little things of my life or American culture that aren’t typically done here. One time I had to teach an ESL writing class on the structure of thank you notes and nobody had ever written one or said thank you before other than as an immediate response to an action or gift.

   Also, your doorman is kinda a helpful service and person to have around. When we lived with the crazy lady in Santiago we talked a lot to the doormen who kidna let us in on how everybody treats them like crap, or at the best, indifferently. That sucks, frankly. I think not contributing to that is a nice idea.

   The other day I really really had to go to the bathroom, and I asked the concierge of a nice ritzy apartment building if there was a bathroom I could use (thinking a lobby bathroom or for the cleaning staff perhaps). He took me up some floors then let me into somebodys apartment who wasnt home at the time, left me alone and gave me their apartment keys. Who knows the story on that but thats still probably someone best to have on your good side, just in case

   Comment by lydia — February 24, 2009 @ 9:11 pm

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3. 

   I am so glad it worked out for you!

   Comment by Miyaunna — February 25, 2009 @ 3:51 am

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4. 

   i’m glad this is resolved and you feel better. NOW, on to that big news you were teasing us with last week….

   Comment by Isabel — February 25, 2009 @ 6:01 am

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5. 

   Hahahaha, love that he called you on being drunk. Don Jose is pretty cool.

   Comment by Emily — February 25, 2009 @ 7:03 am

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6. 

   You know that Chilean never say no thing? He was probably saying “yes” which really meant “no” then he had to quick figure a way to get out of it by telling you that someone complained.

   Comment by Sara — February 25, 2009 @ 8:32 am

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7. 

   Well done for saying you’re sorry. Interesting that it doesn’t seem to occur to anybody how people back in the US would feel about having a dog by a pool where children play. Or maybe you are much more liberal with these things than we are in boring old Britain.

   Wembley

   PS – And drink less next time! It looks even worse in Chile.

   Comment by Anonymous — February 25, 2009 @ 2:41 pm

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8. 

   Wembley, no children live in my building. It’s all one bedroom loft apartments. And as I said, my friends and I were the only by the pool, there were no other residents to bother.

   Comment by Mamacita Chilena — February 25, 2009 @ 2:44 pm

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9. 

   I’m glad it all worked out well.

   And I’m with Isobel. What’s the big news?

   Comment by Ordinary Girl — February 25, 2009 @ 3:33 pm

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10. 

    I think the point about treating people like their job matters is huge . . because their jobs do matter and somebody’s got to do it. So many times it’s so easy to just see through or see past the people who have the lowly jobs providing a service. I’ve picked up a trick from my hubby which is to look at name tags and call people by name and engage them in a little trivial talk (not so much to distract them from their job, but enough to recognize them as a person.) I often work late and the cleaning people often end up working around me. I try to get to know them by name and learn a little about their families. One thing I’ve learned is that a little consideration goes a long way and in life it’s surprising how things have a way of coming around again at you unexpectedly.

    Comment by Ritamae — February 25, 2009 @ 8:09 pm

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11. 

    So glad that you had an awesome birthday and that all worked out in the end. I’ve always struggled with swallowing my pride. I think it has gotten easier as I’ve gotten older though. 5 years ago I had such a different attitude. I hope it is a wonderful year!!!

    Comment by Lori - Blondie in Brazil — February 26, 2009 @ 12:15 pm

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12. 

    Happy belated birthday, Kyle!!!

    Sorry for being late, but I was away in a trip through Southamerica, so I didn’t know about your b-day

    Now, onto the topic. Cheers to you for apologizing. I read some of the comments left by your friends in the past entry of your blog and was partially impressed, because some of them encouraged you to behave in the “appropiate” way (or what I think is right) and some of them were really rude about it.

    Anyways, I feel the urge to tell you a story about this kind of situation (that I’ve gone through with my canadian gfriend as well): when we moved to our loft in Plaza Brasil we were the new ones (duh!, obviously) and I started encouraging my gfriend about knowing the names of the doormen and taking the time to say hello everyday to them. Since she was still getting used to live here, she felt weird about it. Why? Maybe ’cause she’s from from a small town in BC and also is really shy. But she still managed to talk to them and that made me really happy. Why? I’ve worked as a bellboy, clerk and a lot more of “related to treat people” jobs and people here (and as far as I had to get to know) and everywhere else are really mean to them, just because they have this idea in their minds that “I pay your salary” (just like one of your friends wrote). But going back to the story, we’ve befriended most of our neighbours but one mean guy living right under us. He always brats about noises and me smoking cigarettes in my own loft (Hell, I’m supposed to have that right!!!). I still managed to control his anger towards me and my gfriend, specially since the first encounter we had he came upstairs to insult my gfriend and mother (who happened to be in my appt talking while I was buying groceries) and I almost killed him. After that, we still had issues but one day I found him in the elevator while leaving to work and he apologized for his behavior… I was puzzled and said “ok, just don’t mess with me or my relatives” and he understood. And later on wondering what happened I realized that this mean guy is friends with the doormen and they were the ones that actually told them that we were a nice couple and that he should stop treating us so badly.

    So, what you can see (and I’m sure you already know, but I just wanted to write about it =P ) is that they can be the best people around if you actually take the time to talk to them. They actually are the first ones to help my gfriend when she needs a hand carrying the groceries if I’m not at home or to take care when something needs to be fixed in our appartment. They (like every single worker anywhere in the world) just need some respect, the same respect we give to big authorities or powerful people. Just like Ritamae says, they are as important as everybody, even if they just take care of sweeping the floors of the building or do the general maintenance. And they also are in the very uncomfortable position of having to enforce the rules, ’cause it just takes one complaint from any of your neighbours to have them doing the dirty job, dirty job that when isn’t done usually ends up with them being fired for not pleasing the “disgusting and good for complaining” neighbours.

    After all this boring brick I just wrote I just have one thing to say (again):

    Happy Birthday Kyle

    Comment by Gus — February 27, 2009 @ 1:06 pm

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13. 

    Hey, I’m chilean and I always try to respect rules, exactly like you. This is an unusual behavior in Chile, i know, but some chileans -like me for instance- don’t break the rules. In fact, I hate those persons thinking they can do anything… usually, when I see some persons doing stupid things, I’m going to call to Carabineros, hehehe. I remember a group of guys drinking beer in the street, well, I called to the police, and they went directly to the police station, sorry, but if I’m trying to respect the law, everyone surrounding me must respect the law too

    Comment by Psicometodos — March 1, 2009 @ 10:33 am

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14. 

    If I was you I’d just bring him a couple of avocados with mayonnaise.

    Comment by Moi — March 1, 2009 @ 12:29 pm

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