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.
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.”
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!
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.
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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- @dregonzrob, hahaha, eating wall paper, that's a new one. Dog whisperer dato coming your way :)
- @lanapuckett, when we get back I'll have to introduce you to @gabrielrodriguez, @sebamilla and @sebastiankaulen!
- @dregonzrob, you need the dog whisperer!!!
- Brian McBride is announcing his retirement from the game today. He will go down in history for me as my favorite U.S. player ever. LOVE him.
- Caroline and Tommy should probably stop being this hot or somebody's going to catch on fire. http://tinyurl.com/2feozcy
- Writing w/ @imnotobsessed tomorrow early! Love catching people up on their daily dose of gossip and I <3 @inosherry, my online co-worker :)
