2011 April | Kyle Hepp

April 28, 2011

This is one of those things that I thought twice about posting. Maybe we’re the only ones cracking up over these videos. But I seriously laughed so hard I cried.

First, my brother uses his baby as a machine gun. Then he uses his fiance as a shot gun. It. Is. Hilarious.

I hope you think so too

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April 27, 2011

Sorry for the lack of blog post yesterday but I’ve been having some serious writers block!
Fortunately, the wonderful Roxanne answered my plea for help on Twitter in thinking for a topic to write about for today’s post. Roxanne is one of my favorite people on the internet, she does amazing work in conflict zones and she also generally puts a lot of positivity into the world, so if you have time check out her blog and leave her some love!

Anyway, she wanted to know what kinds of things give me culture shock when we come back to the U.S.

Truth be told, we come often enough that I’m pretty desensitized to culture shock on both ends. But one of the big things that always strikes me, that I don’t think I’ve written about before, is the luxurious lifestyle here. When I say luxurious, you probably think I’m talking about things like Louis Vuitton purses and Mercedes Benz cars. But that’s actually not what I mean. I mean, the little things that you may take for granted every day.

Here’s a list of things that blow my mind because they seem so luxurious when we visit the U.S.

*Giant hot water heaters. OMG, the hot water can get SO HOT and it goes on forever. And ever. And ever. It’s amazing. And also really bad for the environment. After a few luxury showers I tried to start restraining myself a little bit.

*Giant houses. Houses here are just so enormous. Even the “small” ones. Every time someone tells me they live in a “small” apartment or a “small” house I just laugh. The only place I believe people when they say that is NYC. But for the most part what people here would consider to be tiny, people in Santiago would most definitely consider to be grande.

*Central heating and air conditioning. Even the wealthiest Santiaguinos generally don’t have it. Some newer apartments have heating from radiators (or something) that runs under the floorboard. But at least in the apartment where we lived, the building controlled the temperature for everybody, which drove me nuts.

*Fancy cars everywhere. Cars are cheaper here. So people generally drive fancier (often bigger) cars here.

*Garage doors that open with remote controls. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have to manually get out of your car to open your gate/garage door every time you bring your car home?

*Dishwashers. Though in Chile, they exist and they’re reasonably priced, most people don’t use them. I think that’s more of a cultural thing, because most people have maids, so why would you need a machine to wash your plates when you could pay cheap labor to get the job done?

*Indiscriminate use of the washer and dryer. I’m not sure if electricity is a lot cheaper here or if the kinds of washers and dryers in the U.S. consume less (probably both) but in Chile it’s pretty expensive to run a dryer all the time. Most people line dry their clothing.

And don’t take this the wrong way. This is NOT one of those Life is so much better in third world countries where life is simpler, people have nothing and they’re SO HAPPY kinds of posts. If you asked those people if they would want all those fancy things I just wrote about if they had the money, you better believe they’d say yes.

Every year around Christmas time, without fail, someone in the Chile blogosphere writes about how they like the holidays more in Chile because Christmas is less materialistic there. But every year as Chile gets closer and closer to becoming a developed country Chileans buy more presents. People in Chile are not choosing to buy less Christmas presents because they like their simple lives and they have the key to happiness all figured out — they buy less Christmas presents because they have less money.

This post isn’t about criticizing or not criticizing the U.S. Do I think that people here should have smaller houses and drive smaller cars and try to generally consume less resources? For sure. The U.S. can be pretty over the top. After living in Chile, I don’t think I’ll ever need as much living space as I once thought I did. A lot of things here can seem grandiose to me and a lot of times I’m embarrassed for Seba to see the excess in lifestyles of my compatriots, especially during a recession. I’m not guiltless. Not even close. I don’t think anybody is.

At the same time, there’s a happy medium. Being freezing cold all the time in the winter because houses in Chile are made of cement and all you have to heat the damp walls is a gas space heater sucks…and you’re still using natural resources with the gas to light the space heater.

Those are simply the luxuries that to me, once seemed common place in my every day life in Michigan. Now I come back and I’m amazed!

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April 24, 2011

Before we start looking at depressing photos, let’s talk about happier things. My friend Caira is kiiiiiind of amazing. And she’s currently trying to go to Brazil to work on a project that will help better life for those on the lower rung of the ladder — people living in the favelas. Her project investigates how money from the World Cup can be used to transform some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country into livable places, improve infrastructure and resources, and therefor make life safer for everybody. Find out more and help her out here!

Alright, on to the recession.

I know that many people who read this blog have probably been touched by the recession. But I also know that it’s not nearly as bad in a lot of places around the U.S. that I’ve been like in San Francisco and Miami where I have seen people buying up designer shoes like it’s their job.

Michigan, also known to some as Recess-igan, has been hit hard. MI’s two main industries are cars and furnitures, which were pretty much the first to go when the bottom fell out.

Near where I grew up, the recession is visible everywhere you look. I’ve been here for three weeks (and was here in December and during the September through October months too) and I can’t get over it. I keep saying, “Oh my gosh, look! Another closed business!” And Seba says, “I know, you’ve seen like 200 of them since we’ve been here. Why are you still amazed?”

The truth is, I don’t know that many people that have lost their jobs. Thank goodness my family is not down and out. They’ve been touched by the recession — salary freezes and less business opportunities — but they still have work.

However, as a small business owner, I KNOW the literal sweat and tears that go into making something out of nothing. I know how good it feels to have an idea and watch it work. And I know how horrible it feels to have an idea and then fail.

At every For Sale/For Rent sign, I think that somewhere there’s an owner out there who watched his livelihood, and probably a lot of hopes and dreams too, fall apart.

All of the photos but the last 7 were taken on 28th street in between Byron Center and Burlingame. That stretch of road spans less than a mile. We could’ve stopped and photographed a dozen more buildings than what you’re seeing here.

Anybody in my age range from Grandville remembers Studio 28. It was our Jr. High hang out — where we went to watch movies and play arcade games and wait for our parents to pick us up again.

It was also where I dropped my retainer out of the car and my mom then ran it over and crushed it to a trillion pieces. She was very angry because retainers are expensive. And disgusting.