2009 March | Kyle Hepp

March 31, 2009

AWESOME!

I’m so excited!!!! I just checked my Statcounter for the month of March and it was my highest trafficked month for JMCS ever, beating my old record by a looooooooong shot! I mean, don’t get excited or anything, in big girl blog terms my traffic is NOTHING. I’m actually too embaressed to even say how many page views it is because I know nobody else will be impressed. But for me, it’s really good.

So thank you so much to everyone who visits the page, reads in RSS form, email form, group blogs, comments, whatever. I started this little blog just so I could write. You know, because I really like to write, clearly. Never in a million years could I have imagined that it would become this amazing community and support system of people in Chile, the U.S. and around the globe. Thanks so much to everyone for being a part of it!

Real post and Q&A video coming soon. Sorry, end of the month is tough, I’m always swamped. I’ll try to do the video tomorrow.

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March 29, 2009

First off, let me tell you that this post was supposed to be a video post answering some of the questions from you guys. However, last night I went to tape the video and the batteries on my camera were dead. Vlogging FAIL. And I’m not sure I’ll have time to tape something tonight, so I’ll get to that as soon as possible but it might not be within the next couple of days.

Moving on.

Last night Chile wiped the floor with Peru — I’m talking about futbol, clearly. Because A. I would never use such crass terms to describe a racially charged political situation and B. I don’t really care too much about what’s going on between these two countries anyways. They’ve always had beef with each other and I don’t foresee that changing any time soon, no matter what happens with their borders.

So back to soccer. I love watching, I love playing, I love everything about it. Chile is my honorary team, although I’ll admit, in past World Cups, I’ve rooted for Argentina after the U.S. was knocked out (and because Chile hasn’t made it to any of the past WC’s in my recent watching history). I know that’s something a true Chile fan would NEVER do. Mention Argentine futbol and to a Chilean and you’re bound to get the same reaction from most Chileans, “Argentinos culiados!” But in the end, I’m a futbol fan. And if Argentina’s playing good soccer, I want to watch. I get bored by those French and Italian pansies.

Last night, like I said, Chile beat Peru 3-1. But right before the game S. and I headed to the supermarket. Holy bad idea, batman! Lines were 10-15 people deep. Every Chilean in Santiago was out making their pre-game purchases. As I stook there waiting to check out, I chuckled to myself and wished I had my camera with me. In the line I was in, all but one person were buying giant bags of carne and pan. Most also accompanied that with bolsas de mayo and huge bottles of Coca Colas and pisco Capel — Chilean culture at it’s finest.

We arrived back home and cooked up some choripanes minus the bread and made some pebre to go along with while we watched. It was our own mini-asado and I think we might have to make it into a tradition. We don’t normally go out to watch the games, because we both always have to work. Surprise, surprise. So last night we stayed in, but by eating choripan and pebre and having the game on while I wrote a few stories, I felt more connected to the triumph. I felt like I was a part of the Chilean celebration.

So last night was fun. Not as fun as the historic moment when we beat Argentina but it was an enjoyable moment nonetheless. Although this was the first time Chile had beat Peru in Peru in something like 24 years, I’m going to be honest, I expect Chile to beat the Bolivias, and Perus and Venezuelas of the soccer world without problem. So I can’t say I see it as any kind of enormous victory. What is impressive though, is the fact that Bielsa has completely turned this team around. I think he’s the first coach in a long time who takes things seriously, and while he might be a complete crazy, he’s doing a great job. The work ethic and drive that the players didn’t have before, shows.

And honestly, during futbol matches, that’s one of the few times when I feel like I’m a part of Chilean society. Normally, when I speak about this country and the culture here, I talk in terms they and we. “They do this,” but “we (meaning we the gringos) do this.” But, when Chile scores, I’m all, “WE SCORED! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!”

I hung my head in shame and cried alongside the entire country after Chile’s embaressing non-qualifying run for Germany ‘06. But, I think Chile is well on it’s way to South Africa if things keep up this way. And when they qualify, I’ll be right there with every other Chilean screaming, “Vamos, vamos Chileeeeeeeenoooooos!” I’ll be saying, “We did it.”

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March 27, 2009

I love Friday, even though I have no plans to do anything except work. It’s just a mental thing. I always get excited for weekends, even though the truth is that I can’t remember the last time I had a non-working weekend. However, I can sleep in and start working at the time I feel like it, so that’s good enough for me.

I guess I don’t have any stories to tell or any deep observations on Chile society to share today so I’ll just wrap up a few quick odds and ends.

First off, thank you SO much to those of you who commented or simply went to pay my story at TONIC a visit. I really appreciate it! I’ll be posting over there more often now so I’ll probably often link to what I’m writing about going green in Chile.

Second of all, remember when I posted about being back in love with Chile because of two weddings I shot in one weekend? The second one is up, complete with pictures of my take on the American Gothic portrait and a performance by the famous Chilean folkloric singer, Charo Cofre.

Thirdly, I can’t believe I forgot to mention this earlier, but Marcelo has just about finished his first month at DUOC! He said that some of his classes are really fun (he has one on architectural drawing or something like that, which he thinks is super cool). He has a grumpy old professor for an Intro to Construccion class, but he’s not worried because he says he already knows all of the concepts. Duh. He’s been working in construction for longer than S., so he’ll be fine there. Marcelo is however, really worried about his math class. They had to take a placement test to see what level they’d start at and out of 50 questions he only got 5 right. But, the highest scoring person in the class only got 20 right, so I guess either all the kids in his class aren’t meant to be mathmeticians, or the test was really freaking hard. I’m going to go with the latter. He has another test coming up soon. He’s pretty nervous about it. Marcelo needs to pass this class because he has a math class every semester from here on out and if he fails one, he’ll fall behind. He says that he remembers learning most of the concepts at some point or another, but high school was so long ago that he’s fuzzy on everything.

S. says that people at work have been helping Marcelo study, teaching him math concepts that he doesn’t get, and sharing their old school materials with him. Plus, the boss-man isn’t giving him any trouble when he needs to leave early for class. I think it’s so cool that this whole thing became a group effort!

And lastly, I found this quote that I wrote down from when S. and I were on our way back from the U.S. flying home to Chile.

Me, worried, during turbulence: S., does this scare you?
S. No, it’s just like the micros…a big micro in the sky.

LOL.

PS. If you have a question that you want me to answer in my video this weekend, ask now or forever hold your peace!

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March 26, 2009

Hey guys! I wrote up an extended version of what happened with the big fire burning down the apartment near where I live over at TONIC News.

TONIC is now having us promote our stories as much as possible so if you could take a second to click over to my story that would be AWESOME and I would appreciate it so very much. I also just got fired from one of my other blogs which is cutting back and going through some big changes, so I’d really like to keep this job. Meaning I’m trying to guilt you into checking out my story — your clicks and/or comments are much appreciated.

And also, TONIC is a really blog all about good news and green living. So if you like being happy, you’ll like the content over there, seriously.

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Way back in the day I started responding to some of the frequently asked questions I got when I ran that survey/contest on the blog. But I never got around to finishing answering all of them. So I’m going to make a video blog this weekend and try to respond to the rest of those.

I thought I’d open this back up in case anyone else has anymore questions. Feel free to ask whatever you want about Chile, my dog, my life, my weight, our travel plans, finances, photography…I am an open book!

Leave a comment on this post with your question or send me an email: kylehepp (at) gmail dot com. I’ll do a video blog and answer as honestly as possible.

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March 25, 2009

I have a twin. She’s homeless and lives in San Francisco.

People on Flickr are always discovering her and I and then sending me emails to tell me I look just like her.

I have her picture bookmarked and every once in a while I go back to look at the girl…a reminder that our life is sometimes nothing more than the circumstances we are born into. Sure, everyone is capable of rising above, I fully believe that. But, being born to parents who love us, who aren’t poor, who aren’t drug addicts — the list could go on and on — gives anyone of us with this privilege a huge home court advantage.

I go back and look at her because she is me/I am her in a different life. The description by the photographer who took the picture says “she’s smarter than she lets on,” and “from everywhere.” So am I.

Today this was my amazing life. I had a big salad with bacon ranch dressing that an angel from Cincinatti brought me, my bottle of fizzy water that’s always with me, and a glass of chilled, sweet red wine for dinner. I used the internet to work while my dog sat on the couch and kept me company. As I sit here I can smell the flowers that a good friend brought us.

I am blessed. I look at her photo and wonder where she is and what she’s doing now. I hope she’s found her way.

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Obviously, I want to see everywhere and everything that the world has to offer. That’s probably not possible due to the fact that we have been saving no money lately.

Anyways, these are a few places top on my list.

In Chile:

La Carretera Austral
Patagonia
Chiloe
Easter Island

In South America:

Galapagos Islands
Cartagena de las Indias
Angel Falls
Machu Picchu

In Central America:

I just really want to go back to Costa Rica! Ever since we went 3 or 4 years ago that place has been on my mind.

In North America:

I’d really like to spend some time in some of the smaller Mexican beach towns.
NYC. Again, because I love it.
California, because I’m pretty I’d love it but I’ve never been.
S. is dying to go to Canada, and I wouldn’t mind spending some time camping there.

Europe (I’m just going to list countries, not specific destinations within each country, because there are too many).

Ireland
France
Italy
Greece
Turkey
Czechoslavakia
Germany (Ok, here, I really want to go see the concentration camps. I feel like those are just something that every person should see).
Pretty much anywhere in Eastern Europe

Middle East:

Dubai (I have a really good friend who lives there)
Anywhere within cheap flying range.

Asia:

Tibet would be my top priority if I could only go one place, but really, I don’t know enough about this side of the world to pick out specific destinations. I do know that a lot of places are cheap and beautiful and that’s enough to make me want to see it all.

I also really want to see New Zeeland, and Australia as long as our money doesn’t run out! You’ll probably also notice that nowhere in Africa is on there. Of course I would love to do a safari, but those are for rich people, or people with a lot more money saved than what we have. And plus, that’s something we can also do when we’re older, even if we have kids…especially if we have kids. What child doesn’t dream of going on a safari?!? I would like to do some sort of service work in Africa, but I need to find a charity that’s not shady, not religious and doesn’t involve teaching English. I’d also love to do Egypt.

Suggestions are more than welcome! We’ll take anyone’s advice on where to go and what to see if we can swing it. Please realize that if I didn’t list a specific country or place it’s not because I don’t want to go there, it’s just that I’m realistic in knowing that while we might have an infinite amount of time we do have a finite amount of money and for now these are the priorities.

I’m also trying to make sure that if we are skipping certain places, they’re places we’ll be able to get back to easily once we’re older and even if we have kids. For example, you CAN vacation in Europe when you’re older, even with children. Since it’s more expensive, it probably makes sense to wait until we’re better established and have enough money to enjoy it. However, we cannot backup through Asia when we’re older and have kids, and it’s cheaper now, making it more of a priority on my list.

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March 23, 2009

This country is not for me.

As much as I love certain bits and pieces of it, aside from my husband, they are all superficial reasons and not enough to hold me. It’s the man I love who ties me here. I’m tied to him and through him, to Chile. I love that connection, but S. himself doesn’t feel a strong bind either. To him this place is like a family member. He knows he has to love it and so he does so, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes not.

In the long term though, the reason is simple. Life in some other countries is easier. To a Chilean 30-40 hours a week is a part-time job. To someone in the U.S. that’s a full time employment, and many people earn much more salary-wise in the U.S. while working much less.

And thinking way long term, the best education that money can buy here leaves children completely isolated from the realities of the rest of their country. Time after time I run into cuicos who live up in La Dehesa, go to school in La Dehesa, have never been below Plaza Italia and generally have no clue about the living conditions of the rest of Chile. I wouldn’t want my children to have that mentality. But odds are, if they go to a cuico school and live in cuicolandia to be close to said colegio, they’ll be brushing up against it on a pretty regular basis.

Then there are the silly little things that rub me the wrong way. I’d like to be able to get a hair and when I ask for “layers” to not come out with a mullet instead. The “close families” that people from Latin America always brag about drive me nuts when they’d rather suffocate than turn their children independent. Culturally, I find most Chileans extremely hard to read, and have had little success in making friends with Chilean women. Of course, there’s the HUGE trust issue as well, which I have talked about on this blog a lot, but I would classify it as one of the defining characteristics of Chileans who live in Santiago. “Piropos,” aka catcalls, especially when they cause me to get in fights, make me want to claw my eyes out, as does public transportation using the metro. The difference between socioeconomic classes pains me and makes me uncomfortable. Women are exploited in the name of being a “promotora,” every day. And just the fact that Chileans put mayonnaise on everything and walk slower than snails is enough to push me over the edge if I’m already having a bad day.

Those reasons wouldn’t be enough to have me wanting to leave.

But, there are the reasons my perceptions have been shaped the way they have. Chile has given me reason after reason to hate it with the passion of a thousand burning suns. I don’t hate it because it also gave me S.

Today, I was talking with a friend and she said, “Maybe all those things that happened to you were lessons you needed to learn. If you had learned them in any other city you’d hate that place instead. But since they happened here, you’ll forever hold that against Santiago, regardless of it’s good or bad characteristics.” Wise words. Maybe I could have really loved it here long term. But I’ll never know because we can’t turn back the clock. And she’s right, I will forever hold these things, not necessarily against the city, but as a part of me. I can’t forget them. They’ve made me paranoid and that’s OK because it’s my mind’s way of protecting me, making sure I never get in such horrible situations again.

In my own way, I very much respect this country and appreciate it for what it is. But that’s not enough. Chile isn’t for me.

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I know I gripe about living in Chile sometimes, but I have this country to thank for winning me an AWESOME contest!!!!

One of my favorite photographers (I’ve linked to him before from my photography blog, so you might have already seen his blog, but if not, run, do not walk to his website, his pictures are amazing), Bobby Earle, held a contest to win a DVD. The DVD has info from a rad businessman/photographer and a presentation from an incredible photographer who I love, Jasmine Star. I actually tried to go to her workshop a while back, and when I started searching for plane tickets and hotels and realized the cost, I started bawling like a little baby.

So my tears and living in Chile were what pushed Bobby over the edge to choose me as the contest winner and to say I’m pumped would be an understatement. I’m like a little sponge ready to soak up all the information on that DVD and put it into use!

Check out Bobby’s blog and leave him some love. Tell him how awesome his pictures are, or you can just thank him for the DVD for me

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March 21, 2009

I just made a quick video to say thanks to everyone who participated/read/commented on the group blog! I love everyone who takes part in this little community of Chile bloggers that we have. Thanks so much!!!

Hello from my 5d Mark II from Kyle Hepp on Vimeo.

PS. These videos were shot with my new camera that has HD video capacity too. WOAH, cool. I will probably never really learn how to use it. I’m still mastering the craft of photography too, I don’t even want to think about the time that would be needed to spend learning videography too…but for now, it’s great for high quality videos for JMCS.

Also, I realize that I speak grammatically incorrect English in this video. Please forgive me, my English is out of practice. Writing is fine, but speaking…not so much. Sometimes I sound like a foreigner.