Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

December 16, 2009

Yesterday night we arrived in Chile. I had the same experience boarding the plane that I’ve had before. This is a scenario which invariably ends with me screaming in my head, “LINES, PEOPLE, LINES!!!!! It’s NOT THAT HARD,” and maybe shedding a tear or two before simply resigning myself to the fact that, “asi se hace*,” in Chile.

Maybe it’s just because we’ve been back and forth so much in the past year, but the culture shock/reverse culture shock for both countries hasn’t been that strong this time around.

Small talk still gets me. At the bank, a simple “Kyle, that’s an unusual name for a girl,” put me into a socially awkward shame spiral that I stammered and stuttered my way through. I forgot how to say, “Yep, it’s unique, thanks!” the way I used to, without missing a beat. In Chile nobody knows that I have a male moniker and the only name problems I ever encounter are when the people at Starbucks spell it, “Kiaeyulo.” I kid you not, on more than one occasion, Every. Single. Vowel. in the alphabet has been involved in the spelling of my name. Today I was simply, “Kale.” I wanted to tell them, “But Kale is a gross leafy green vegetable that no one actually eats, not my name, EW!”

And in the supermarket, perusing the pop aisle, I was still overwhelmed by the millions and millions of choices. While I do recognize that it’s nice to have more than Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Diet Sprite, Fanta or Diet Fanta available, I have to wonder — does having 67 soda choices really enrich anyone’s life? Do all these options ever overwhelm normal Americans who live in the U.S.?

Today we went to Parque Arauco to purchase a Mac (yay!). As we stopped at the machines to pay for parking on the way out, there was a girl at the machine next to us who didn’t have change. Seba stopped and forked over a few coins so she could pay. We walked away and he said, “Wow! I’m such a nice guy when I’ve just gotten back from the U.S.!” It’s true. He’s nicer to people, mostly because I’ve drilled into his head, “In my country we DO NOT let the door close on pregnant womens’ faces as they’re entering a building behind you.” Ok, well, it does happen, but at least in the South, only assholes do that, it’s not the norm. Then later on today, he also held the door open for a lady walking in somewhere, because he got used to doing so in Miami. This women didn’t even look at him, let alone thank him. And that was that. I’m pretty sure Seba’s considerate to other people in Chile streak is over.

In other Seba’isms, we had a funny conversation on the way back from the mall:

Me: I hope we can find a nice South facing apartment**. I like it to be dark and cold where I live. Well, except for Florida, I actually like the humidity.

Seba: You’re a fungus.

*That’s how it’s done.

**Facing South means you get less sun, and in Chile, where there’s no air conditioning, that’s a must for me. I hate being hot.

16 Comments

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16 Comments »

The name this is getting to be ridiculous. Not only have I permanently become BrenDa, I've also been called Prena, Blena, etc…. NOT THAT HARD PEOPLE.

Glad you got back to Chile safely, happy holidays

Comment by bloury — December 17, 2009 @ 4:12 am
67 soda choices DEFINITELY enriches my life, especially now that I'm back in the US visiting. I went specifically to score some A&W cream soda, yet I was met with about 10 different types of cream soda. YAY! Orange cream, black cherry cream… seriously? yes please.

that convo is hilarious, and the spelling of your name

Comment by lydia — December 17, 2009 @ 8:27 am
Now you know how I felt living in the U.S. all these years with a first name like Ximena … I can't tell you how many times THAT was butchered until my sweet, dear mother decided I would be Andrea forever more in Gringolandia. )

Comment by Andrea Gonzalez — December 17, 2009 @ 9:06 am
I'm in expat in AUSTRALIA and they still misunderstand my name at every chance they get – er my real name – it's very awkward and I dislike it greatly.

Comment by Decoybetty — December 17, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
Puchas, que esperas? Estamos en Chile, poh! Heh, I've been living here for fifteen years in this “pais de m… mm… mmm…. maravilla” (you have to wait for *them* to fill it in for you) and guess what, I leave… I come back. I leave… I come back. What is it? The water? I haven't a clue. BTW, did you get your Mac?

Comment by rust — December 17, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
Don't you sometimes just want to use a Chilean name? But I actually told the girl at Starbucks once that my name was Maria Jose…she just raised her eyebrows at me and then bust out laughing!

Comment by kyleracine — December 17, 2009 @ 9:01 pm
Haha, but it enriches your life because you're normally in a place where you don't have 67 choices…maybe.

Comment by kyleracine — December 17, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
Crazy, I can't even imagine calling you as Ximena.

I feel ya. People in the U.S. love to call me Kylie or Kyla or find any way they can to feminize the name Kyle.

Comment by kyleracine — December 17, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Isn't it funny to find language barriers…even when you're speaking the same language as someone?!?

Comment by kyleracine — December 17, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Ahhh, I do know what it is. It's my husband and now my business too. Definitely not the water.

And yep, got the Mac, pretty exciting stuff! Still figuring out how to use it though!

Comment by kyleracine — December 17, 2009 @ 9:04 pm
Coolness. Even though I have been in computers for… 25 years(!) I only had one opportunity to touch an Apple, back about four years ago, when a Danish lady dropped off her Power PC — a 630 I think it was. Totally in Danish. The mouse drove me crazy for days (what, only ONE button?) but it talked to my network just fine. It was just too foreign for me. But, that's ok. I have an iPod Touch that I brought back from civilization, but it's really a Unix environment underneath all that stuff.

Comment by rust — December 18, 2009 @ 11:09 am
This post has had me laughing out loud. And reading it to Rich, and my parents, who also laughed out loud.

Comment by elizaclaire — December 18, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
This is why I don´t like Santiago. Cause the people there is so rude and foreigners get the wrong impression of Chile. I live in Talcahuano, Región del Bío-Bío and the people here is so nice. That´s why people of regions call Santiago, Santiasco. Is just a city where you have to live and not choose to live. If you go to the South of Chile you´ll realize that people there is so muc nicer I recommend you Puerto Varas, Frutillas, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and of course Chiloé!

Comment by Brian — February 1, 2010 @ 10:04 pm
This is why I don´t like Santiago. Cause the people there is so rude and foreigners get the wrong impression of Chile. I live in Talcahuano, Región del Bío-Bío and the people here is so nice. That´s why people of regions call Santiago, Santiasco. Is just a city where you have to live and not choose to live. If you go to the South of Chile you´ll realize that people there is so muc nicer I recommend you Puerto Varas, Frutillas, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and of course Chiloé!

Comment by Brian — February 2, 2010 @ 6:04 am
[...] one of the things I find positively absurd about the U.S. is the overabundance of choice. See my last post on grocery stores in the States — I find the pop aisles to be paralyzingly [...]

Pingback by Kyle Hepp Photography — May 6, 2010 @ 8:57 pm
What is pop?

Comment by nicklpadilla — May 7, 2010 @ 4:05 pm