Kyle Hepp

20 Comments

1. 

   GR needs a Jamba Juice too. Awesome oatmeal.

   Comment by Kai Heeringa — January 3, 2011 @ 10:05 pm

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2. 

   Yep, Seba is obsessed with their oatmeal. I like Jamba Juice but I’m not in love.

   Comment by kyle — January 3, 2011 @ 10:08 pm

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3. 

   that makes me sad!! ah, the power of globalization, no? oh well. i suppose that’s where people like you and i can help support the local industries and say NO to the americanisation of everything, everywhere! ps happy new years kh!

   Comment by Christine Pobke — January 4, 2011 @ 2:28 am

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4. 

   Hola te felicito por este blog, pero créeme nunca en la vida Chile va a querer “gringoizarse”, y las buenas conductas como ejercitarse o tener confianza en las personas, no son para nada un modelo estadounidense. Además no veo como los norteamericanos creen que son sus conductas las que se expanden por el mundo, si son un país colonizado igual que nosotros.

   Es por estas actitudes que tienen al mundo entero en contra de ustedes. Perdón pero es como lo veo.

   De todas formas, geniales fotos.

   Saludos.

   Comment by Andres — January 4, 2011 @ 5:31 am

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5. 

   Mientras más gringo sea, yo feliz! Quiero Smoothie King! La diferencia entre US y Chile es que los chilenos tienen alguna apreciación por su cultura y su historia. Por eso te costó tanto obtener tus permisos para construir en el barrio histórico. En US en un segundo demolerian el barrio Paris-Londres para costruir un mega mall ultra moderno y nadie chistaría. No creo que chile pierda eso… por más gringo que se convierta.

   Comment by chiwi — January 4, 2011 @ 6:25 am

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6. 

   Muy interesante este asunto; ¿existe realmente la “globalización”? ¿O realmente consiste en la expansión de franquicias made in USA? Muchas veces se habla de este tema mostrando los McDonalds por todo el mundo, o la CocaCola, pero no vemos muchos usos, costumbres o productos europeos o asiáticos entrando culturalmente como los anteriores. Claro que hay autos europeos y electrodomésticos asiáticos, pero no tienen el impacto de un Wallmart (que revienta a los productores menores y a sus propios proveedores), o la omnipresente CocaCola, que hasta ha influido a la Navidad.
   Coincido (parcialmente) con Andrés, en que hacer ejercicio y saludar en la calle no necesariamente son inventos gringos, de hecho, fuera de Santiago han sido costumbres presentes por mucho tiempo, incluso mientras en la capital estaban sufriendo sus micros amarillas.
   Si difiero con el comentario anterior en un punto, es que no es que el mundo esté contra los gringos precisamente, es en contra de lo que hacen sus gobiernos, que la verdad, se alejan mucho del ideal de “land of the free, home of the brave”. Pero ese es otro tema.

   Comment by Marmo — January 4, 2011 @ 6:29 am

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7. 

   HAHAHHAHAHAH DENNYS???? who was the genius that decided to spread dennys internationally!?! its like a parody of a real restaurant. but the prices are awesome, and thats what makes dennys good. that, and the desserts. i cant imagine they could conserve the prices, even at US value, and if so they will suddenly become verrrry popular here. and if the can bring the same desserts like milkshakes and pies from the US, without super inflating the prices, they will be putting bravissimo and all its competitors out of business.

   Comment by lydia — January 4, 2011 @ 7:32 am

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8. 

   i whole-heartedly disagree with Chiwi. Santiago has demolished SO many of its old beautiful buildings – Providencia – el Bosque area is the perfect example. I remember Chilean political figures talking about the need to better preserve landmarks in santiago- literally the opposite of what chiwi said. Sure bellavista has always been preserved but that’s not the norm. The US, on the other hand, is the THE PLACE for historic landmarks and zoning laws. Try to build something anywhere near any famous building in NYC. My friend’s house in St Louis is a historic landmark – my uncle’s house can’t be built above a certain height so as not to block his neighbor’s view of the ocean. Now look at Concon and the hideous huge buildings that have popped up there. Sure, there are strip malls in the desolate parts of the Midwest but nobody is knocking down beautiful buildings for shits and giggles. It’s really funny bc i’ve always thought santiago had to get it’s $hit together with organization and beautification – thank god that’s become a trend starting w/the alcalde of providencia who built up pocuro (*which didn’t used to be that pretty) and show’s like “City Tour” on canal UC have made seeing the city as a beutiful place “hip.” Lamentably much of Santiago is quite an eye sore – this is a city where you have a residential neighborhood with a random house painted pink with big bill boards in front that say “salon de belleza”- and don’t get me started on jardines infantiles. have you ever noticed them? they’re everywhere and they’re hideous. and those constructores Paz are single-handidly making the city uglier and uglier – one big building was put up right on my old street las petunias right next to the beautiful little houses. ho hum. i didn’t like that dude’s tone either. ps. and i agree that the running trend isn’t gringo – we’re the fattest country in the world – remember?

   Comment by KM — January 4, 2011 @ 9:03 am

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9. 

   Christine, yeah, I don’t know if I’d call it “power” of globalization. It’s a something of globalization that’s for sure.

   Andres, nunca dije que son caracteristicas que son exclusivamente gringos, pero hacer ejercicios y deportes es una parte muy grande de nuestra cultura. Y si, tambien ser gordo es una parte de nuestra cultura Bueno, como te dije, obvio que no es exclusivo a los gringos, pero en mis humildes experiencias, en las ciudades en los EEUU veo mucho mas gente siendo activa en el aire libre de lo que he visto en cualquier otro lado.

   Chiwi, tengo que decirlo, creo que KM esta correcto. Yo pense lo mismo cuando lei tu respuesta, en los EEUU en ciudades grandes (que son los mas viejos) se protege mucho mas los edificios. Providencia esta hecho un horror por los edificios Paz Fromovich, que antes era casas antiguas y bonitas y ahora se destruyeron para construir este edificios modernos, que son todos iguales. En los EEUU si bien construyen tambien barrios que son puras casitas iguales (y horribles tambien) y mega malls, es porque en las suburbias de las ciudades hay espacio.

   Marmo, “¿existe realmente la “globalización?” ese mismo punto estaba intentando a hacer yo. Me entendiste bien. Y si, suelo poner todo Chile en un grupo con las caracteristicas de los Santiaguinos, eso es mi error.

   Por tu otro punto, tambien creo que muchos de mi propia gente tambien esta en contra de muchas de las cosas que hace el gobierno (me incluyo dentro del grupo enojado). Pero la gente debe entender que hay separacion entre el gobierno y la gente. Yo, por lo menos, no juzgo a todo Chile por lo que hace Piñera or lo que ha hecho previos presidentes, y me gustaria que la gente hiciera la misma separacion entre gobierno y gente de los EEUU tambien, pero se que es dificil.

   Lydia, yeah right. Every gringo business that comes to Chile does the same thing as the Chilean business — inflate their prices to the point of ridiculosity. I went to Applebee’s for the first time here with two other people and with tip, our bill was 65,000. I cannot imagine paying that at an Applebee’s in the U.S. I would be furious that I was spending that much at a crappy chain restaurant. Here, you don’t have many other options. I won’t be going back there anytime soon, that’s for sure.

   KM. Spot on. I was going to type out the same response to Chiwi, but you beat me to it.

   Comment by Kyle — January 4, 2011 @ 1:58 pm

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10. 

    Dunkin donuts in chile? There is no dunkin donuts on the west coast of the US – what is happening here? Although I have to say, that might help with my homesickness occasionally.

    Comment by Deidre — January 4, 2011 @ 2:19 pm

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11. 

    Denny’s in Santiago. Oh say it isn’t so! It is this kind of crap – yes the crap that they serve – that I am trying to escape from here. I am very sorry to hear that.

    Comment by Dee — January 4, 2011 @ 5:26 pm

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12. 

    I’ll definitely be over to visit soon, now I know there’s a Denny’s so I can get my pancakes for breakfast every day

    Comment by Eliza — January 5, 2011 @ 2:18 am

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13. 

    Juan Valdez, the Colombian coffee chain, forced Starbucks out of the country, but we certainly had our fair share of Panera, so I understand why you miss it. Now living in Israel, where I dream of cupcakes, bubble tea and the other indulgences that are not available to me. Quite the staple of expat life…

    Comment by Roxanne — January 5, 2011 @ 6:27 am

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14. 

    Haha, Roxanne, we are lucky enough to have both Juan Valdez and Starbucks in Chile! They’re usually on corners right next to each other.

    Comment by kyle — January 5, 2011 @ 6:33 am

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15. 

    Ugh. I feel like I have ideas about so many of these issues, but my actual knowledge base is relatively low so it’s hard to talk about them without sounding like a conspiracy theorist. But your line about why don’t the good chains come to Chile keeps running through my head, and what strikes me as particularly scary about the gringo invasion you describe is that it has nothing to do with quality — certainly nothing to do with culture — and everything to do with money. Because even in the US Denny’s isn’t cheap, and neither are McDonald’s or Wal-Mart or any of the other names you mention; it’s just that the real costs are hidden behind stuff like farm subsidies, so by the time you go to feed your family you can pay less for a burger than for a head of broccoli. And then of course you’re not thinking about what your medical bills will look like later, you’re just thinking about the fact that you’re hungry now and the burger will fill you up and the broccoli won’t.

    And I guess the real costs are further subsidized by forcing this stuff abroad, stamping it with some insane idea of culture and charging an arm and a leg for it.

    I mean, there’s also the fact that these places can do what they do in large part because of size, and so in order to continue doing what they do they grow bigger and bigger. Scary.

    Anyway, I’m ranting, but I think this is a great post. I remember being in Santiago in 2004 and going to the one Starbucks downtown, and it really did bring a certain sense of comfort to drink a white chocolate mocha that tasted precisely the same as the ones I’d drink in California. But at the same time it wigs me out that my sense of home can be manipulated that way.

    Okay, I’m done now! Thanks again for posting.

    Comment by Carrie — January 5, 2011 @ 12:11 pm

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16. 

    You are right Carrie, the gringo invasion has nothing to do with quality. It has everything to do with profit. If there is profit to be had, then the Wal-marts, Dunkin Donuts and Denny’s will be there. Sad but very true.

    Comment by Dee — January 5, 2011 @ 3:27 pm

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17. 

    You are right Carrie. It is scary. And that makes me feel guilty for loving Starbucks so much.

    Comment by kyle — January 5, 2011 @ 10:28 pm

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18. 

    This is interesting. About poverty, though – even in the US, the official poverty line is way lower than it should be. In 2010 it’s around $10,000 for a single adult, and there’s no way most people could live on that. Most people who study actual poverty say that the official poverty lines should be way higher than they are (ie. the number of people in poverty is actually much higher than any official estimate). Just goes to show that Chile isn’t alone in this.

    (I’m not at all disagreeing that there’s way more poverty & inequality in Chile than in the US … just adding that the US has plenty of its own problems with poverty too.)

    Comment by EW — January 8, 2011 @ 12:05 pm

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19. 

    Emily, I’m not comparing the U.S. and Chile’s poverty levels. The whole post isn’t really about the U.S., just about the U.S.’s influence in Chile and whether it’s good or bad.

    Comment by Kyle — January 9, 2011 @ 12:01 pm

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20. 

    FYI, the EW comment wasn’t me (in case you thought it was). I’m only now getting around to commenting
    I think it’s interesting to see what Chilean society takes on from the US vs. what a lot of expats think is so great about Chile. Obviously not every Chilean loves Big Macs, but I think a lot of people see it as a special luxury to have access to these gringo chains, and I think there’s a certain amount of pride in the idea that Chile may be a small little country far away from everything else, but look, we have all the stuff that the big, bad USA does too! And of course the things that people are aware of are the big chains that show up in movies and pop culture. Whereas I know a lot of expats – myself included – who appreciate the experience of living in Chile because it has encouraged us to eat in-season produce, make things from scratch, buy locally and do basically the opposite of the big chain thing. Except for Starbucks. I think we’re all in agreement that $5 is a good luxury to have.

    Comment by Emily — January 9, 2011 @ 2:00 pm

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