Kyle Hepp

August 23, 2010

I’m about to go all “When I was a kid, we walked to school in our bare feet, in blizzards every day, uphill both ways,” on you.

But seriously. When I first got to Chile, being an expat was…less comfortable than it is now.

For starters, let’s just talk about products. Now a days I hear expat women complaining about how expensive tampons here are (truth). But at least they’re commonplace enough that they’re in every store. When I first got here you could find tampons, but they weren’t in every grocery store or pharmacy. It was hit or miss, back in the day, but they were quickly becoming more popular.

What about Jumbo and Lider? Jumbo didn’t used to have the wide range of gringo food that they have now. Sure, the ranch dressing they carry sucks, but they carry it. Peanut butter has gone way down in price. Swiss Miss hot chocolate is in the coffee aisle. There are taco shells and taco mix and taco sauce easily found. Lider now has an entire section devoted to imported Walmart gringo products.

And. AND. Word on the street is that there are now bagels in Santiago — supposedly there’s some kind of ridiculous super Unimarc on the corner of Manquehue con Los Militares where they sell bagels.

Bagels definitely didn’t exist when I first got to Chile.

But what mostly makes me think that expat life in Santiago now is better than expat life there used to be, is that information is readily available. 6 years ago when I had decided I would come back to live permanently, I started googling for information on what expat life in Chile is really like. This was all I found — one very angry gringo who seemed to hate Chile. Which was ok, because everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and underneath the anger C.hileno often made valid points. Then, a few months later, this blog popped up and I started reading her. She also despises Chile. But when I found Rachel, I was so happy to have met one other expat that I took the train all the way to Linares to hang out with her and her adorably squishy little baby.

Now, try googling anything about life in Chile and I challenge you not to stumble upon a gringa in Chile written blog. It’s impossible. The blog network here is so huge, that not only can you find other women living in Chile but you can also probably find other women who have something in common with you, who are of your same age range, who have kids, who don’t have kids — you name it, it’s out there. Part of that is my fault, as I tell everyone I meet to start a blog

Or if stumbling across blogs and meeting internet strangers doesn’t fulfill your expat needs, you can also just stumble into your local Starbucks and probably find oodles of expats or at the very least, exchange students. I bet you can guess where I’m going with this one…

There didn’t used to be a Starbucks on every corner! There really didn’t! I can remember when they built all of them! Turns out the first Starbucks store ever opened in Chile in 2003 (in El Golf). By 2008 there were 29 Starbucks in Chile. I remember them building the Starbucks on Pedro de Valdivia — which was the first Starbucks that I ever knew existed, mostly because I didn’t frequent fancy neighborhoods like El Golf.

There are now cool bars you can go to in order to catch football (U.S.), basketballs and baseball games if you’d like. There are more expat networks and websites than I know what to do with.

In short, just like life for me was way easier than it was for women who arrived 40 years ago, I think life is easier for those who have just arrived than it was for me 6 years ago. Thank your lucky stars that you have gringa friends, or at the very least, that you have the option to meet gringa friends should you want it.

And yes. I am a cranky old lady. I walked to school barefoot, uphill both ways, every day.