August 31, 2010
Seba’s post, my translation in italics below. Every once in a while he takes over the blog so we can have a peek into his brain. Even I’m surprised sometimes by what he comes up with.
Hace como 2 semanas, despues de fotografiar la boda de Anna y Andrew en Santander, estabamos paseando por Madrid y fuimos al Palacio Real. En ese momento pense “Hdp que me hubiera gustado vivir en el pasado!” Imaginense lo que debe haber sido vivir en esos palacios que son gigante. Es ridiculo el tamano de las habitaciones. Habia una que era la habitacion de porcelana — todo absolutamente cubierto de porcelana, de muro a muro. Definitivamente debe haber sido entretenido ser el rey de algun pais.
Imaginense Papito hubiera sido la mascota real, duena de todos los parques y lagunas!
Two weeks ago, after photographing Anna and Andrew’s wedding in Santander, we were passing through Madrid and we went to the Royal Palace. In that moment I though, “Holy beep, I would liked to live in the past!” Imagine what it must have been like living in those giant palaces. The size of the rooms is ridiculous. In one palace, there was a room made of porcelain — everything entirely made of porcelain, from wall to wall. It definitely must have been fun to be the king of a country.
Imagine if Papito had been the royal pet, owner of all the parks and lakes!
Alguna ves no han pensado en haber sido emperador, faraon o algo asi? Igual suena divertido, pero por otro lado igual fome — sin tele, sin internet, sin True Blood o Jersey Shore…BORING!!!
Have you ever thought about being an emperor, Pharaoh o something like that? It sounds like fun, but on the other hand, kind of boring. No TV, no internet, no True Blood, no Jersey Shore…BORING!!!
Despues de eso me di cuenta que a menudo pienso en lo choro que seria vivir en el pasado. El otro dia me fijaba que todas las empresas famosas, grandes inventos o grandes cadenas se inventaron hace anos de anos. Como que ahora hay menos “oportunidad” de inventar algo revolucionario. Igual la Kyle me decia y tiene razon en que Google se creo hace poco. Supongo que las creaciones e inventos de hoy en dia, las empresas que se inician ahora y que seran grandes en el futuro van por otra linea. Los tiempos son diferentes, y no hablo de hace 50 anos atras, tan solo 5 o 10 anos atras.
After that I realized that I think a lot about how cool it would’ve been to live in the past. The other day I was realizing that all the famous companies, major inventions and big brands were invented years ago. It’s like now there’s less of a chance of inventing something revolutionary. Well, Kyle did mention that Google was invented recently, and she’s right about that. I guess the creations and inventions now a days, the companies that are started and that will be big in the future, are going down another path. Times are different, and I’m not talking about from 50 years ago, I’m talking about just 5 or 10 years ago.
Es interesante como cambian las cosas, las perspectivas cambian — lo que hoy es socialmente aceptado y lo que sera aceptado manana.Hace no mas de 150 anos era perfectamente normal que una mujer se casara a los 14 y que tuviera hijos a los 15. Quizas en 150 anos mas la gente nos va a mirar como unos enfermos mentales y se preguntaran como era posible que comieramos Mcdonald’s y usaramos autos como medio de transporte. Al menos para esas alturas estaremos todos muertos.
Bueno, quizas Papito no, si funciona nuestro plan de clonacion 
It’s interesting how things change, how perspectives change — on what’s socially acceptable today and what will be socially acceptable down the road. No more than 150 years ago, it was perfectly normal that a woman got married at age 14 and had kids by the time she was 15. Maybe 150 years from now people will look at us as if we were crazy and they’ll ask how it was possible that we ate McDonald’s and used cars as our means of transportation. At least by then we’ll all be dead.
Well, maybe not Papito, if our cloning plan works
August 24, 2010
As you’ve probably realized by now, we’re mildly obsessed with Spain and the idea of going to live there at some point — or at the very least try to base ourselves there for a month next year. Brides in Europe, contact me!
So I emailed one of my lovely brides for next year. She lives in Barcelona.
And I did exactly the same thing to her that I hate when other people do to me.
I emailed her gushing about how much I loved Spain, with nothing more than my stupid tourist observations, which probably aren’t true at all.
When a woman emails me saying, “OMG, I LOVE Chile. The people are SO nice!” I kind of want to punch her in the face and say, “No they’re not.”
That’s in part because I’m evil, but also in part because I hate when someone who has been her for a month or two as a tourist, or an exchange student or some kind of short term living, idealizes life in Chile and makes it out to be completely something that it’s not. Then I’m put in a bad position — of either lying, or crushing their dreams.
Anyway, I totally did that to Cynthia (sorry!!!) and she responded basically the same way I respond to people who do that to me — that yes, Spain is very nice, but no, it’s not perfect. She said that she feels like people look at her like a “bicho raro” sometimes, which is exactly how I feel in Chile (a lot of the times). The literal translation for bicho raro is weird bug, but the figurative translation is probably something like odd duck.
In the end no place is perfect. We all know that. But the grass really is greener in Spain. I still want to go live there (even if it’s temporary) next year.
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.
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- @dregonzrob, hahaha, eating wall paper, that's a new one. Dog whisperer dato coming your way :)
- @lanapuckett, when we get back I'll have to introduce you to @gabrielrodriguez, @sebamilla and @sebastiankaulen!
- @dregonzrob, you need the dog whisperer!!!
- Brian McBride is announcing his retirement from the game today. He will go down in history for me as my favorite U.S. player ever. LOVE him.
- Caroline and Tommy should probably stop being this hot or somebody's going to catch on fire. http://tinyurl.com/2feozcy
- Writing w/ @imnotobsessed tomorrow early! Love catching people up on their daily dose of gossip and I <3 @inosherry, my online co-worker :)
