Kyle Hepp

February 23, 2010

On Sunday I turned the big — two six? 26 isn’t actually that big. It’s not a major milestone of anything, but I feel the same way I did when the clock hit midnight on December 31st 2009 — this year is already so exciting and holds so much promise. This year is so much less runned over-y and way more free-Amazon-cruis-y. I like that.

We went out to Algarrobo to celebrate the day with some of our bestest friends in life who made the drive out on a lazy Sunday afternoon to help me blow out candles. I felt so blessed. I always do — it’s just rare that I have so many of my blessings in one spot.

Anyway, I’ll stop being a giant queso-ball now. I’ll put up a real blog post later on today with pictures from an awesome wedding we photographed at the Enoteca on Cerro San Cristobal Saturday, so check back!

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February 18, 2010

“You are the typical american girl who never could find love in america and so had to go south of the border to find it. Chilean men treat women like gringos did back in the 1800s. I am sure you never had success with love in america because you are a prude, shy, insecure etc.. and by dating someone and then marrying them didn’t allow these faults to come to the surface. Running to South america can’t erase your issues as much as you put the chilean men on a pedastle. Now to be fair you may have found a nice chilean man but look at tht statistics. Chilean men and machismo allows for a high rate of spousal abuse which is literally ignored and accepted by law enforcement. When the honeymoon is over look out for his hand coming at you when you have kids and he demands that you cook and serve him. The other thing is chilean men are notorius for cheating on theire women so please use protection for your sake.”

I continue to get random weirdo comments, mostly on my old blog. If there is any shred of coherence/rational argument and the commenter isn’t anonymous, I’ll email back. For the most part though, I ignore them. But sometimes they’re too good to ignore. I think I may start posting the funniest ones for blog enjoyment. Like the above. It comes from an old group blog, though any comments made over at the former JMCS no longer show up on these posts.. Since yesterday was our three year wedding anniversary. I guess I should apparently be preparing myself for Seba’s hand to start coming at me any day. Now might be a good time to enroll in a self defense class, or at the very least, sleep with my pepper spray under my pillow.

Actually, when I went back to link to that post, I found another funny comment. The topic of Chilean men is apparently a goldmine.

** IMPORTANT FEEDBACK ** Being an Australian Chilean (a chilean born in chile who grew up in Australia) I feel there is a lot of misconceptions out there..

Firstly, chilean really don’t want to spend their lives with a “gringa” they just want to have a sexual relationship with her (from experience). Chilean men don’t really have a liking of their ways just their different looks (try a blonde).

I have a friend from chile who just arrived in australia about a year ago. He is happy with his chilean-australian girlfriend but wants to try a “gringa” in the same way someone wants to drive a different model car.

We chilean men can never really be happy with a “gringa” because they are generally as dry and critically indifferent as their male counterparts. “gringa” women are generally better at grabbing our attention (being blonde helps) but don’t understand us in the long term. White women are as cool to “hang out with” as a dry leaf branch in death valley.

You are some disillusioned ladies out there..

Oh anonymous internet commenters, how dull our lives would be without you. What are some of the most ridiculous comments you’ve ever gotten on your blog?

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Helloooooooo, Santiago Hyatt! For FREE. We cashed in some of our (U.S.) credit cards points to take a little mini mid-week vacation for our third wedding anniversary. I normally wouldn’t even blog about something as mundane as a hotel stay and an anniversary. Pretty sure the only person who cares about those things is me. And maybe Seba too. But this was such a nice get-away I felt it deserved a post.

This came at the perfect time. Wedding season is about half way over (in Chile) and I’m feeling it. I needed to recharge my batteries, escape from my email and generally relax. Two days by the pool with the big cascade did the trick. I don’t think there’s anything more soothing than the sound of water falling. I actually managed to turn off my mind, which is not easy for me to do. Which is why it takes me at least an hour to fall asleep every night, no matter how tired I am. But at the Hyatt, I slept like a baby — helped significantly I’m sure, by not having internet. I might like to celebrate my anniversary like a baller, but I am WAY too cheap to pay 11,000 pesos for internet access (around $22 USD).

As I write this, I’m again realizing why I thought writing about a hotel stay would be mundane. Ummm, we ate. We slept. I took 6 showers in the three days because the super strong water pressure felt so good massaging my shoulders. Sorry, environment.

On our actual wedding anniversary we went to Anakena, which I’d always heard is one of the best restaurants in Santiago. The food was delish and Seba made the best toast to us he’s ever done. I felt so blessed to be married to him, just like I do almost every day. Looking back, I can’t help but realize how young and stupid we were when we got married. It was 4 days before my 23rd birthday and Seba was 26. Maybe I should have thought it over a little better, but I can’t say that I had any doubts walking down the aisle. Now, with a little hindsight, it only makes me all the more grateful that while we’ve both changed so much since back then, we’ve changed together. And man, are we lucky to live the life we live. Sure, we live with the in-laws, but we’re working on that. Sure, we make less than half of our old (absolutely ridiculous in Chile) salaries, but we are in our second year of business and able to make a solid living. We have seen more of the world than I ever though I would at this age, and we’re not done yet. We’ve been together for three years and we’re making our own way — together. I’m happy.

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