Kyle Hepp

21 Comments

1. 

   Awww that laziness that is allowed only on weekends. I can’t wait!! I have nothing really planned for the weekend, but not having to wake up to the alarm clock makes me happy enough!! have a great weekend!

   Comment by Shannon — March 27, 2009 @ 12:52 pm

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2. 

   I am so happy for Marcelo. I wish him luck with the math. Corrinne

   Comment by Anonymous — March 27, 2009 @ 3:15 pm

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3. 

   Loved this story so much I shared it with my office. It makes me really happy to think that I’m part of a whole group of people rooting for Marcelo.

   Comment by Emily — March 27, 2009 @ 3:39 pm

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4. 

   Shannon, you too, enjoy the sleeping in!

   Corrie, thanks for the good wishes for Marcelo! He is willing to put in the hard work and studied so I think he’s going to do fine. But, I definitely understand why he’s nervous. I would be DEAD if someone quizzed me now on the math I learned in high school.

   Emily, YAY, lots of things today to make you not mad at society anymore.

   Comment by Mamacita Chilena — March 27, 2009 @ 3:45 pm

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5. 

   Wow…that is such a great story and so kind of you and S. That is really nice though when you can see the fruits of the blessing you give instead of via an organization where you usually don’t know exactly where your money is going.

   The turbulence comment is really funny. It seems in that area of the Caribbean it always gets bad- I start looking around to see if anyone else feels as mortified as I do. Everyone else seems calm or is also hiding it well so it calms me too. Next time I’ll think of S’s comment.

   Comment by Cincinnati Chile — March 27, 2009 @ 6:44 pm

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6. 

   Dear Kyle

   So great to hear about Marcelos progress….Listen I still owe you money for Marcelos classes – I haven’t forgot at all! I really hope we can meet up sometime soon both in order to pay you as well as to finally meet you!
   Have a great weekend!
   Caroline

   Comment by Anonymous — March 28, 2009 @ 5:29 am

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7. 

   It was good to get an update on Marcelo’s progress. It’s cool that he has so many people rooting for him.

   Comment by Ritamae — March 28, 2009 @ 7:53 am

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8. 

   It’s just a mental thing. I always get excited for weekends

   Here’s an insight into behavioral conditioning. I haven’t worked in nearly 4 years. I STILL get giddy on Fridays! WTF?

   Comment by John Evo — March 28, 2009 @ 1:43 pm

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9. 

   HAHA, John!!!! We’re like Pavlov’s dogs…

   Comment by Mamacita Chilena — March 28, 2009 @ 1:45 pm

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10. 

    Hell yeah, we are. And it’s the elephant in the room that few people are talking about re: the world economic crisis.

    We’ve been conditioned to think we should have the newest, fastest, shiniest, coolest material goods even though the ones they are replacing are FINE! And with modern technology, the “newest” comes along about every year now. In some cases we are actively replacing things every 2 or 3 years that our grandparents would have kept a lifetime and passed down to their children when they died.

    Ah, we conspicuous consumers….

    Try to de-program 2 billion people.

    Comment by John Evo — March 28, 2009 @ 2:10 pm

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11. 

    Please, I don’t wanna be misundertood… read carefully…

    Well, I’m not like these well-educated guys who certainly are fooling around you; actually, I’m poor but I studied some English in my fucking poor high school, and I reached A+ at languages… The fact is I speak Italian, Swedish and English, that’s because I can write some words for you (I hope you visit my web site and put some words on it as well). By the way, why you don’t put down also some words in Spanish? I hate people who live years in another foreing speaker country which their achievement, by instance, doesn’t even help to put down an intelligible, damn foreign word on their bloggs.

    Well, I wanna say that I’m not the upper-class chilean dork who “speak some English”; instead, I’m living in a gettho (“una población”, “población callampa” or whatever you want to call’em) where nobody understand a word in English… It would be quite weird for you, indeed, but that’s the truth. Actually, I considered myself as the only poor chilean who watch American TV with no subtible. Weird, isn’t? So I’m just wondering if you husband has ever read “The grapes of wrath” or something like this. I’m pretty sure he hadn’t ever read “MAD”.

    What’s my point? Well, I knew a girl from Norht Virgina for a long time ago and since that I was curious in languages as you, certainly, are…
    I don’t know what I have to say… I’ve drunk beer as an ashole… I wanna say I’d like American girls, they fuck very hard… Double nipples and more, much more…
    what the fuck, I’m drunk and internet is still democratic, isn’t?

    Comment by Oscar — March 28, 2009 @ 8:10 pm

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12. 

    Great quote, and it’s true!!! But let me say some planes have worst seats than some buses (like thoses buses travelling from Santiago to Viña and vice versa).

    I have a theme for you, I’m interested personally: What kind of reasons could make that a foreigner girl can resign from to her country, family and culture and come here to stay with her loved man. I konw it sound quite obvious, but I will try to explain. Look, if I’m going to another country and I meet a girl, how can I convince her that she could live close to me in this (okay, ugly) country, what kind of powerful reasons could produce the miracle? don’t say “only love” because I think it’s not enough!

    Comment by Psicometodos — March 29, 2009 @ 6:39 pm

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13. 

    Been there, done that. Did work for 17 years before divorce took it all away, and with “all” I mean “all”. I am Chilean and I met a girl abroad that followed me to Chile. Things were rosy while we lived in the south of Chile, however when we moved to Santiago she didn’t like it very much. She never made a female friend in Chile, encountered too much hostility from the local girls. Only my male friends were able to communicate with her.

    I guess what I’m saying is; I don’t know what am I saying…

    Comment by Anonymous — March 30, 2009 @ 11:06 am

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14. 

    Anonymous, sorry to hear of your divorce. However, hopefully it wasn’t the entire country of Chile’s fault.

    But yes, that’s partly why we’d both like to move somewhere else…somewhere we can both be happy.

    Comment by Mamacita Chilena — March 30, 2009 @ 11:07 am

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15. 

    Thanks Kyle. Chile, or the fact we lived there wasn’t the cause of our divorce. That came many years after we moved from Chile back to her native land.

    I had the luck to experience Chile, through her eyes, as a foreigner. Is not that easy to feel welcome there, I can tell you that. We are so brainwashedm conditioned to only see the good side of Chile. Our stare passes through the begger and we only see the beautiful house behind him.

    We, in Chile, are always reminded that Chile is a very family oriented place, while in fact is quite the opposite.

    Friends in Chile are hard to make. The whole country is consumed in the rat race.

    Anyway, I’ll rant more later. Looking forward to your video.

    Comment by Anonymous — March 30, 2009 @ 2:04 pm

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16. 

    “We are so brainwashedm conditioned to only see the good side of Chile.”

    Maybe not brainwashed, but definitely have trouble seeing outsiders’ points of view sometimes. Without fail, EVERY time I get into a taxi someone asks me how long I’ve been living in Chile. When I tell them a little over four years, the next question they almost always ask is…”So…you really like it here?”

    I once made the mistake of saying, no, not really. And that taxi driver got really mad at me. Ever since then I just lie and say “yes, of course, I love it here!”

    Have you ever read Isabel Allende’s book, Mi Pais Inventado? It’s a really hilarious look at Chile. She makes some great observations that sort of remind me of some of the things you are saying.

    Comment by Mamacita Chilena — March 30, 2009 @ 2:22 pm

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17. 

    Yeah, I read Mi Pais Inventado and I thoroughly enjoyed. It felt like I was writing it as I read it, a very funny feeling.

    I know exactly what you’re saying. Chileans can complain to foreigners about their country but you are not supposed to agree. The foreigner is obliged to love it. As a foreigner you have talk about the best climate on earth, best seafood, best beaches, etc. You are not to noticed the shortcomings or better places, even if is not about your homeland.

    Also bugs me the lack of political correctness on people. They talk about other races with no regards of offending someone, people are racist and over all classist. Being a Chilean, I could just listen to another Chilean and I could tell you immediately which part of Santiago he comes from. Put them all naked in front of me and I can still tell what class they come from. Is sad, but that’s the way it is.

    Blah-blah-blah, I hope I’m not boring you…

    Comment by Anonymous — March 30, 2009 @ 3:38 pm

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18. 

    Hahaha! You wanna make it a reality show? That’s so funny. I envision: Guess the class, 100 naked Chileans, class them up! We’ve got them all: Cumas, Picantes, Rascas, Cuicos, Flaites and more!

    “I enjoy hearing the Chilean perspective on things since mostly foreigners comment on my blog.”

    I guess I must of some interest to you as I a Chilean male who was married to a gringa and lived in Chile for a few years. As I said before, I learned to see Chile through foreigner’s eyes and I saw quite a bit more than I what bargain for. Seventeen years later and I’m still seeing it.

    Talk later ma’am!

    Comment by Anonymous — March 30, 2009 @ 7:20 pm

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19. 

    Maybe you should start a blog! I know I am always saying this to people who leave comments here, but honestly I feel like most of the commenters have way more interesting lives than I do!

    My husband has talked about having a man blog to tell his side of the story of what it’s like to be a Chilean married to a Gringa. I wish he would! Like I said, I would love to read more from the Chilean perspective, especially ones who are/were married to Gringas.

    Comment by Mamacita Chilena — March 30, 2009 @ 7:47 pm

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20. 

    Kyle, I shouldn’t be ratting on him, but he already HAS the blog. It’s terrific! He just doesn’t want you reading it… sorry.

    Comment by John Evo — March 30, 2009 @ 8:40 pm

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21. 

    Also, my ex used to hate being called gringa. She considered it offensive altough most of the time is not meant to be. She hated it when my friend’s wives would say something like “Y como está la gringa?”, right in front of her. She would compare it to someone calling you a foreigner! I agree with her and ever since I have not used the term gringo(a). I also don’t use the term Latino(a), that’s a fairly new term in Chile, it was not used in my times.

    Comment by Anonymous — March 31, 2009 @ 10:17 am

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