Expat Interviews: Edition 3

For more in this series please check out:
Expat Interviews Edition 1
Expat Interviews Edition 2

Rachel Feldman is one of my good friends in Chile. She's also one of the few young women I know who live here permanently or semi-permanently and did not originally come down for a man. Rachel managed to score a completely amazing job working for a crazy South African guy. I think you'll agree that her life here is pretty fascinating. Read on, enjoy her story, and leave her a little love!


1. Please give us some background on you and your situation in Chile. How old are you, how long have you been here, how long do you plan on staying, where are you from, are you married, what part of Chile do you live in? Tell us your story! What originally brought you to the country?


I first arrived in Santiago in December of 07, after having graduated from Goucher College (small liberal arts school near Baltimore, MD) the previous May with a B.A. in Management with a concentration in International Business and a Spanish minor. I had been to Ecuador for a month when I was 16 and did a semester abroad in Salamanca, Spain, but I always knew I wanted to go back to South America at some point for some more abroad experience and to really make Spanish a second language. A classmate of mine from Goucher is ½ American, ½ Chilena, and grew up mostly in Chile, so knowing her but almost nothing about Chile, I thought, “Ok, I’ll go to Chile!”

I arrived with a round trip ticket for a total stay of 4 ½ months, with only my first 3 weeks planned with classes at a language school (Tandem, in Bellavista, Santiago). I already spoke decent Spanish but thought it would be good for the transition, and give me something to do and a place to meet people for my first few weeks while I figured everything else out. My plan after that was to find some sort of work/internship experience that would help me improve my Spanish and add value to my resume (for me that ruled out teaching English). Originally I had tried to plan something from the States before I left, but that proved challenging and I was lazy, and deiced it would be much more fun to just figure it out when I got here.

As luck would have it, I ended up meeting Kevin, a man who had just arrived from South Africa, sent to Chile to open the South American regional head office for a publishing firm based in Dubai. Kevin was also taking classes at Tandem, because he actually didn’t speak any Spanish at the time. As soon as I heard him mention his plans, I basically saw an opportunity and jumped on it. I asked him a million questions, told him all about myself and everything I could offer, etc… After meeting a few more times and talking it over, he decided he did in fact see a role for me in the company (he later told me he was quite shocked/impressed with my forwardness, which is why he even considered hiring me). And that’s how I “planned” what I thought would be my next 3 months in Chile.

As it turned out, Kevin had not even begun to set up the company, so I began my job by helping do just that, and we dove head first into figuring out how to legally create a company, find lawyers and accountants, plan the year, find an office, set up phones and internet (which turned out to be one of the biggest challenges due to the complete incompetence of Telefonica), and hire additional staff, etc… As we were setting up the company, we also began work on the first publication which is scheduled to print at the end of the year. I quickly realized that walking away from the project before seeing it completed would be difficult for me, and Kevin offered me the opportunity to stay through the year, so all of a sudden my “trip” went from 4 month to almost a year.



3. What do you do here? Describe a typical day in your life.

Originally my function was “translator” but as I learned the ropes of doing business in Chile, I proved myself able to handle responsibility and accomplish things other than just helping my boss communicate, so I took on the role of Project Manager (official title General Manager as this translates best for working in Chile). Now that we officially have the company set up, my job currently entails about a million different things. Kevin and I work together on a lot, but part of my role is still translator as his level of Spanish is still quite basic (although he is learning), so by default I end up dealing with the majority of day to day business.

I help with general office communication and manage the staff (4 more other than Kevin and myself), and I deal with the lawyers, accountants, and Telefonica (again, such incompetence means unfortunately this is an all too frequent and quite unpleasant experience). I have also been involved in finding a printer, identifying potential clients, setting up meetings, going to meetings both on my own and with Kevin; rallying support (successfully!) for the publication from governmental organizations and important business chambers, and going to meetings and maintaining communication with them. Then there is managing the process of actually making the book: gathering material from clients, bugging clients for material, a lot of translating both from English to Spanish and vice-versa, bugging clients for money, communicating with our design and editorial team which is actually in South Africa, working with our printer, and anything else that’s part of actually putting together this massive publication.



4. How does a typical day in your life differ from what life used to be like for you in your home country?

There is almost nothing about my day-to-day life in Chile that at all resembles what my life used to be like in the States before I came. The obvious difference is living in a foreign country with a different language, but more than the language are the daily challenges of the cultural differences, which I couldn’t even begin to explain (if you read Kyle’s blog and those of other gringos living in Chile, you might begin to get an idea).



5. How much do you spend on living costs, i.e. rent, groceries, bills, etc.

Coming from a relatively expensive part of the United States (Greater Washington D.C. area), I find Santiago to be slightly cheaper than the cost of living back home (although I have noticed the increase in cost of living since I have been here, which from what I understand is happening pretty much everywhere, the States as well).

I pay $125,000 CLP (+/- U$250.00) per month for my room and own bathroom in an apartment I share with 3 other Chileans (my rent includes monthly expenses, cable and internet) + 3,000 a week for someone who comes and cleans every Saturday (normal to have a “maid” here).

I would guess I spend roughly $4,000 pesos a week on Transantiago (there is a bus that goes pretty much between my apartment and my office, which is nice). Plus an additional $5-10,000 on (non-work related) taxis.

Food is getting expensive! I probably spend somewhere around $15,000 pesos a week on groceries etc. and another $20,000 a week on food out at restaurants. (I have recently started to go home for lunch to save a bit of money and actually eat better)

Social life/miscellaneous can run me anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 a week depending on whats going on, but if I had to guess, probably a monthly average of $100,000. (does that seems like a lot?)

I’ve actually never added it up before, surprisingly enough, but that puts my total monthly expenses at over $400,000 pesos, or $800.00 US (which actually sounds like a lot to me, and I think I might start monitoring my expenses more closely).



6. How has your standard of living changed since moving here?

I’d love to avoid coming across as snobby and spoiled here, but the biggest changes for me in terms of standard of living are not having my own car, living in a slightly older and less modern apartment (learning how to light my hot water heater with a match if I want a hot shower was quite an experience, having a washing machine but no dryer, no dishwasher, and no central heating), and other little surprises which remind me Chile is still technically a developing country. All in all, though, I can’t really complain.



7. What do you love about living here?

I love traveling, and I love the thrill of learning a new country and culture, even more so by living in it. Life is different here, but having proved to myself that I am capable of living in a foreign country with a different language and culture gives me confidence about myself and what I am capable of. Plus I learn something new practically everyday just about life in general here.



8. What has been the hardest adjustment for you in moving abroad?

The same things I mentioned as positive can also have a negative effect. Sometimes I just want to be able to rely on whatever it is a need to do, and depending on my mood, the unexpected can either be a fun learning experience or extremely frustrating and inconvenient. Again, Kyle and other gringo blogs give excellent insight into this.

Also I miss my family terribly, but by far, the hardest adjustment has been living apart from my boyfriend. When I first came down here, it was to be a quick 4 months to boost my career, and has now turned into 1+ year because of the work opportunity I found. He has been completely supportive of me the entire time, and has considered moving down here with me next year so I can continue the same job and we can be together (he loves traveling and the idea of living abroad as much as I do). Right now that looks unlikely because of some things that are going on with him and his family at home, so we are working it out as we go along, but it has been extremely tough. We have managed to see each other every 2-3 months since January, which has been expensive but worth it, as we’ve done some fun traveling together throughout the year. But I do know I can’t continue to only see him every 2-3 months for a week at a time for very much longer, and he is extremely important to me. I plan on including him in whatever my next abroad experience may be.



9. If you could change anything about your life in Chile, what would it be?

Well obviously having my boyfriend here with me would be an improvement! Also it would be nice if I could see my family and friends from home a bit more often. Of course having more money would be nice! Or being able to travel more, but other than the obvious stuff that would be the same no matter where in the world I am, it’s hard to say I would change anything specific.



10. If you could talk to other women considering moving to this country what advice do you have for them?

Advice for other women wanting to move to Chile? Most important is probably to be open minded. Decide what it is you really want to get out of your experience here and go from there. Realize what you are getting into: Chile is a different country and a different culture, and it’s important to be flexible. And be ready for people look at you/treat you weird if you look or talk different from them, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a million things to love about Chile and the people here.



11. Tell us anything else you want us to know about you or your life in Chile!

Basically for me, this whole thing would not be possible with out the support of my family, who sees the value in this experience for me and is therefore behind me 100%. I am very lucky for that and certainly would not have been able to take some of the risks or make some of the decisions I have without knowing that no matter what, I can always go home and they will be there. That takes a lot of pressure off of me and is one of the reasons why this year has been at all possible for me.




Rachel at the beach house.

Santiago Social Life in Pictures

Here's a quick catch up on some of the pictures I never got around to posting from our trip to the beach with Emily and Rodolfo, plus Tamsin's bachelorette party!




Also, if you haven't seen our group posting on "What Chileans Think of Gringos," you should definitely do so. Including myself there were 15 participants, and a lot of the posts were just added today. So if you haven't checked since Friday you might be missing out.



Beach.


I love this life.



So do Emily and Lola.








Papito, not so much. Actually I'm totally kidding. This photo makes her look like a victim, but she was not. She was actually the bitch of house. Lola is bigger than her but Papito knows how to play mind games. At one point on the actual beach, Lola was having so much fun digging a huge hole in the sand. Then she stopped and started chasing Papito's tail. Papito got pissed off and stole Lola's hole for revenge. My puppy is slightly evil. Oh, and in this picture, they're playing a game called, "Bite face," with each other. They're not fighting, I swear!







Bachelorette Party.

The penis straws and penis candle were my doing. :)






We all pitched in to buy Tamsin some lingerie. I spent three hours running around Santiago trying to find anything that could be considered at all sexy (and not made out of polyester). It was a futile search, but in the end I think her future husband won't care too much.




Seriously, who doesn't love Pina Coladas and chocolate penises?





It was a really fun girls' night out!









This picture post was brought to you by: Papito.

What Chileans Think of Gringos

Ok, last night I was about halfway through my blog post when my computer shut off with no warning. This keeps happening and I don't know why. Unfortunately I was writing in Word, it was 2am and I hadn't saved. Bye bye What Chileans Think of Gringos post. So now, since it's day time and I have actual real work, I'll write mine up as soon as I can. But in the mean time here are other blogger's posts which I am holding off on reading until after I've written mine. Go ahead and paste the group blogging list in your blog if you please!

Carlos
Flo
Clare
Sara
Abby
Katina
Emily
Amanda
Renee
Kathleen
Lydia
Shannon
Emma
Heather
Gus
Tyffanie


Really. Stupid.


This is how I feel many gringos are perceived by many Chileans. And unfortunately there are far too many gringos that do nothing but perpetuate the "weon," or dumb idiot stereotype. As an exchange student I was guilty of having a night out on the town that involved drinking pisco straight out of the bottle, dancing with friends, making a spectacle, puking on the curb, almost getting arrested and finally being carried up to my room at 4am by my host mom where she changed me into my pajamas. I felt like a horrendous person, not only for embarrassing myself but for embarrassing gringos as a whole -- for being just another insanely obnoxious one of them. I learned my lesson, it happened once. The worst part was that when I bought my host mom flower to apologize for the whole incident she shrugged it off and said, "This happens once a semester with every exchange student we host." They had hosted 8 or 9 students before me. That only made me feel even more terrible. Not only was I a bane on society, but all of my people are. So in that aspect, I completely understand why a lot of Chileans just tend to brush off most gringos as pretty socially retarded in general.



On the other hand, I feel many Chileans perceive gringos as stupid in another sense of the word. They think we are all weones because we come from a society in which we trust our neighbors and the system and pretty much everybody we know. So you arrive in this country, you go to a Starbucks, you sit down, work on your computer for a while...and then you get up to go to the bathroom and you leave your laptop unattended for a minute. The next thing you know, there's a guard in your face speaking to you like you're the densest person to have ever walked the planet, "What were you thinking! Why in the world would you leave a computer alone, someone is going to ROB you!"



Leaving my computer unattended in public places, going jogging at 2am by myself, not locking the doors at my house, asking any random person on the street for directions, leaving my car running and unlocked while I run in to a gas station really quick -- these are all normal parts of my life in the U.S. that never gave me a second thought until I moved to Chile.



In a way I actually feel fortunate that I was assaulted on day number 5 here because it wisened me up pretty darn fast. Otherwise who knows how long I would have gone around obliviously without ever once thinking of my own safety and well-being. Chileans call that stupid. I call it being naive. How I was supposed to learn that there are thugs waiting to rob me around every corner (or so the Chilean media would have you believe. It's actually not that terrifying in Santiago at all, but the news is full of paranoid reports, like everywhere in the world) if that was something I had never dealt with before?



When reading about living in Santiago before coming here, guide books and things tell you the same thing I'm telling you right now -- it's a very safe city but you still need to be careful. I took that to mean, don't go to bad neighborhoods and avoid talking to creepy looking men. To me, in the U.S., that's what be careful meant. In the U.S., locking all my doors all the time and holding onto my purse so tightly that you'd have to pry it from me with the jaws of life means paranoid -- so I didn't do that, until I learned that in Chile if you don't you're a weona.



So, I do think that the stupid gringo stereotype applies to many of us when speaking of obnoxious non-culture sensitive behavior. But when it comes to the stereotype that all gringos are just idiots because we aren't careful with our safety, I think that it's more misunderstood naivity than anything else. I can also back this observation up throughout various conversations that I've had with S. over the past couple of years. I know for a fact that he used to perceive me as stupid (not in general, just with safety) and now he still perceives me as naive (I disagree. I'm not as naive as I used to be but I do still try to always expect the best of people, which he continues to see as naive).



Alright, now that I'm done writing my thoughts on one small sliver of this topic, I'm off to check out what you guys had to say. :)

Group Blog Reminder

Hey everybody! For those of you that missed out on the last post about group blogging, we're going to do it this Friday and the topic is How Chileans Perceive Gringos (or how we think they perceive us). If you want to participate, as always, just leave a comment on my post and I'll put up a link to your blog.


And if you're living in another country feel free to change the topic so it fits for you. I can't wait to see what everybody writes...especially the Chileans! I have a feeling they are ready to get their revenge after hearing all the things we had to say about them. :P

Expat Interviews: Edition 2

I'm so excited to present Helen Conway as the JMCS interviewee for the 2nd edition of Expat Interviews (if you're interested, you can find the first edition here). Helen has a love for Chile that I've never been able to muster, as well as an optimism you just don't find every day (especially in a Brit :P). Aside from that she's smart and motivated, and like many of the amazing women that move to this country, she has an entrepreneurial spirit and a knack for survival. Check out her translation business online here!

Please give us some background on you and your situation in Chile.

How old are you? 41.

How long have you been here? 4 years.

How long do you plan on staying? The rest of my life.

Where are you from? Britain.

Are you married? Divorced, now living with someone.

What part of Chile do you live in? Concón

2. Tell us your story. What originally brought you to the country?

I am a 41 year-old British woman who came to Chile as a tourist in early 2004 and was struck by the unexpected and seemingly irrational urge to come here to live. At that time, I was recently divorced and looking to put down new roots somewhere but never, even in my most fanciful imaginings did I think that Chile would become my new home. When I went back to the UK, I sold most of my stuff, left some boxes containing my most precious possessions with my mum and headed here on a tourist visa, hoping to find a way to make my living.

Almost four years have passed and here I am, living in a sleepy, windswept village on a headland in Concón. I live in a small, flimsily built house with the most awe-inspiring sea views. I share this space with 7 street dogs, who drive me spare with their antics but give me the most incredible, unconditional love I have ever experienced and, touch wood, have protected me from break-ins, so common in this area. Recently my partner, Wolfgang, came to live here too. He’s a 48 year old lawyer, a lifelong batchelor who has adjusted slowly and with difficulty to having a gringa in his life.

3 What do you do here? Describe a typical day in your life.

I have a translations company which is just starting to be successful after two very hard years where I worked very hard, spent most of my savings and supplemented my income with some English classes.

It’s difficult to describe a typical day, as they vary a lot. Typically I get up at 7 a.m. and check my email straight away, as a translations company in Germany is one of my most important clients and with the time difference there are usually emails waiting for me. I rarely finish before 9 p.m. My business is at that stage right now where I really need to hire someone to help me but don’t have enough profits yet to pay them.

Right now we have in four very big jobs, where work has been split between different translators and I need to project manage very carefully, which takes up a lot of time. I also send quotations to customers for jobs, proofread most of the Spanish to English translations and I translate myself too. There is a lot of administration and there are always some trámites I have to do, which means hours away from home queueing up in some office or other.

On a good day, at some point I go out for at least a little walk with some of the dogs, but often I don't make time even for that. Lunch is something quick and easy; I get an organic box of vegetables every week so I eat pretty well.

4 How does a typical day in your life differ from what life used to be like for you in your home country?

Well, about 100%! In the UK, I never had a dog – now I have 7. I lived many years inland, though I yearned for the sea – now I can see the sea even from my bed! I lived in the city - here I am far from the madding crowd I always had paid jobs working in offices but thought about being self-employed and working from home. There I was a super-organized woman, had my whole life in a filofax, had everything planned months in advance. Now I live with a man who resists any attempt to organize him and rebels against plans! I used to go away a lot and now I barely leave home but then, living in such a beautiful place, I don't feel the need to!

5 How much do you spend on living costs i.e. rent, groceries, bills etc.

Maybe CLP$400.000 per month. I haven’t analyzed recently.

6 How has your standard of living changed since moving here?

Good question. Well, on the plus side, I live in a more beautiful place, the climate here is wonderful, I love the fruit, the vegetables, the wine etc. We are privileged to have access to such a tremendous range of ingredients. I live a simpler life, partly by choice.

On the downside, like most people here on the coast at least, it’s a struggle to earn enough. Travel, especially abroad, means saving hard for a long time. The houses are not well constructed and get very cold in winter, which I find difficult.

7 What do you love about living here?

The weather, the sea, the dunes near my home, the pelicans and sealions; the fruit and vegetables, especially avocados, chirimoyas, cherries….

8 What has been the hardest adjustment for you in moving abroad?

I miss my friends. And making friends here has been difficult.

I don’t like the whole philosophy of distrust. Nobody trusts anybody, so they don’t extend themselves for instance inviting people they don’t know well to their homes, that kind of thing. And, for whatever reason, more people behave dishonestly here than in the UK, so in the end we all become more careful. I hate that, that I've become more cautious, more selfish and closed.

9 If you could change anything about your life in Chile, what would it be?

I’d bring my friends here.

A huge shake-up of the banking system and all state institutions so that only necessary bureaucracy was left.

10 If you could talk to other women considering moving to this country, what advice do you have for them?

Beware of Chilean men; they seem to have a magnetic effect on gringas. Give it time, it's not easy adjusting. Everything takes longer here than you think, so take it easy, give it time. And don’t be shy to ask for help, advice, company from others.

U.S.A. Christmas

Our tickets are booked and S. and I are headed to the U.S. for Christmas! Here are just a few of the things I'm looking forward to for this trip:

• Hugging my family
• Catching up with old friends
• Roller coasters at Busch Gardens amusement park
• Chili's boneless buffalo wings
• Spending all day (actually I'll probably need a few full days)at Barnes and Nobles reading photography books
• Lying on the beach
• Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico
• Buying clothes that are actually in style, reasonably priced and decent quality
• And then returning them, hassle free if I so choose
• Taking pictures of my owncountry, which isn't something I get to do often
• Long walks at night on Bayshore
• Visiting my alma mater
• Stocking up on Cheezits and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• Shots
• Driving places (not after taking shots)
• Making conversation with random strangers in line at the supermarket
• Line dancing and listening to country music radio stations
• Actually traveling with my husband rather than away from him
• Road trips
• Wendy's frosties
• Doing a third photo session with one of the first families that ever hired me as their photographer
• A surprise party for a family member
  

I just hope we have time to fit it all in. It's been a long time since I've been back (I think I last went in May or June of 2007) so the list of things to do, places to go and people to see just gets longer every time!


What are your favorite things to do when you back that you just can't do (or eat in some cases, hahaha) in Chile?

My Two Loves

The time we spent in Algarrobo was so nice and relaxing. It was the perfect get away -- no computers and yes, there was a TV, but we didn't watch it. I loved being able to unplug for a while. But now I'm back, editing photos and writing stories again. I just put up a couple more artsy fartsy style photos on my photography blog and check back again soon because I'll be posting Emily and Rodolfo's not-really-engagement photos this week.

But, for now, here are S. and Papito, the two loves of my life, and me at the beach house. I spend a lot of time taking pictures of other people, but not necessarily of the people I see on a day to day basis so I was really happy to grab these shots while we were away on our little mini vacation. Some of these were taken with my new 40D, while others were shot with our Canon point and shoot. Tomorrow I'll post pictures with everyone who was there!

September 18th in Chile

"Disaster is inevitable, the sky is falling and our whole world is going to crumble!!!"

Ok, so the newscasters don't say those exact words. But, each year I'm reminded that the 18th of September (celebrated as if it were the 4th of July, although it's not actually Chile's independence day) is around the corner by Reportajes Especiales or Special Reports on local TV forecasting doom and gloom based off of the rising price of the empanada.


Literally, every year since I have been here (3 years), around this time of year, nightly on the news there will be at least one program dedicated to talking about inflation and how much the asado (obligatory celebration barbeque for this holiday) is going to cost compared to last year.


Inflation totally sucks, and I know it can be a sign of disaster for some economies. Alarmist newscasts, year after year, continue to make it sound like next year empanadas will probably cost a million dollars each and the Chilean economy will crumble. But, it never happens.


Like always, the Chilean people continue on their merry little way, buying their meaty delights, asado'ing to their hearts content and consuming pisco like no other time of year. To give you an example of just how much people actually drink, on September 18th last year as I was walking home to my house in Estacion Central, I saw at least 5 people passed out cold in a drunken stupor on my way home. And I lived 2 blocks from the metro. One guy's legs were actually up on the curb and into the sidewalk (because there is none of that grassy space in poor people's neighborhoods) while the other half of his body was in the street.


Moral of the story: Dieciocho is craaaaaaaazy. And the way Chileans don't let empanada inflation get them down reminds me of the way U.S.A'ians consume, consume, consume as the economy goes down the tubes. They just know that shopping is the patriotic thing to do.


That being said I'm off for a mini vacation at the beach. I won't be online for the next couple of days and I can't wait!!!!!!!


So for those of you who are in Chile, drink, be merry, don't drink and drive or I'll hate you forever, and have fun! And for those of you who aren't in Chile...have a great Thursday. :P

Cloud Nine

I. CANNOT. BELIEVE. THIS.


Right now, I'm beyond excited!!!!! The U.S. Embassy here in Santiago just bought 11 of my photos to hang on their walls. Unfortunately the general public won't be able to see them, but the important people who go into meetings with other important people (like, ummm, the Amb-freakin'-assador) will.


We had a meeting today so they could look at my portfolio and decide which, if any, they wanted and what sizes they were going to want to hang. Let me just say, that when people look at my work while I'm present I feel physically ill -- that's how nervous I get. I was shaking the whole time they were going through the pictures I brought. But, in the end it worked out because they loved my work and had such a hard time deciding which ones they wanted since they liked them all!


I've put 4 years of total obsession into photography and my hard work is starting to pay off. It feels so good to have people (other than my mom, no offense Rita)like my stuff! AHHHH, I'm so happy right now I just want to scream!!!! I KNEW the bird poop would bring me good luck!!!!!!!!! :P

Crap Sandwich

Today started off wrong with an annoying car rental company. We, of course, being the (not) cheap semi-Chilean family that we are wanted to rent the least expensive thing that this place had. They offered us an automobile so crappy that we probably would have had to run it with our feet like the Flintstones. Anyways, we reserved it, thought everything was great until a few days later when they called us back and told us we were going to have to upgrade (read: pay more) because they didn't have any of the Flintstone-mobiles left. We thought, fine, we'll pay a few extra dollars and rent a bigger one. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Well, a few days after that they called to tell us they were now also out of the midsized cars too and we were being forced to upgrade again. Now this was starting to smell a little fishy so we found another rental company and reserved a small car as well. They have our credit card. They charge it. We breath a sigh of relief. Until lo and behold, yet another rep calls this morning to tell us the same dealio...mandatory upgrade because they're out of the small sized cars. So we did they reserve it for us in the first place if they didn't have that size, you ask? We have no idea.


Anyways, then, because on Mondays the universe enjoys torturing me, I needed to go to the bank here to pick up a new debit card since my old one was broken. I'm not even going to get into the story but it's the same ol', same ol'. If you've ever visited Chile, you know the rigamarole...you're sent through one useless line after another of people telling you contradicting things. You waste hours trying to chase down a debit card that they could easily send in the mail, but won't.


And on top of that I had to call Bank of America to tell them for the umpteenth time that there is no "suspicious activity" on my card, could you please unblock it, I need that money to live...the suspicious activity in Chile is me, yes, and has anybody even checked for the fact that I've called you only like 20 or so times since I've been here in the past three years to tell you that I live in Santiago permanently and my monthly statements are even sent to my apartment here? *Big Sigh*



So all these things have me a little bit annoyed today, but I thought, "Honestly, the sun is shining. I won't let a few idiotic tramites get me down." I put my favorite upbeat music on my iPod and set out to take Papito on a nice long walk and enjoy the weather. We're walking along, about 30 minutes away from home when I feel a big raindrop on my head. Except wait -- the sky is blue, there are no grey clouds even threatening to blow over, it can't possibly be sprinkling. I touch my hand to my head and let out a groan when I see -- a bird crapped on me while I was walking!


While it was hard to walk the two miles or so back to myself maintaining any shred of dignity since I had shit on my head, I actually didn't mind. In Asian cultures they say a bird pooping on you brings good luck, so I'm just going to go ahead and believe that. And fortunately for me, Chileans are on the short side, so most people passing by probably couldn't see the crap sandwich on my head -- unless of course they were on a bike, making them taller -- in which case I was just shit out of luck.

PS. Posting will remain slow this week again since it's the holidays in Chile, YAY for the 18th of September!!!!!!!!

PPS. Group blogging will resume on Friday the 26th, with the topic tentatively set as "How Chileans Perceive Gringos (Or How We Think They Do)."

Meme

A meme is a total cop out post, for lazy writers with no inspiration -- like me, right now. Work has been a little more hectic than usual, and trying to keep up with my 4 paying blogs has pretty much drained me. So I'm taking this opportunity to meme and discuss a few things about group blogging (below). Tell me what you think about my idea, and feel free to say it sucks. I won't be offended.


I AM … happy.
I WANT… to always feel this good about life.
I HAVE … the best apartment, husband and dog in the world.
I KEEP … pepper spray in my purse, just in case.
I WISH I COULD … own my own business and become a millionaire.
I HATE … when people assume I'm cuica.
I FEAR … flying and catastrophes happening to my family or friends.
I HEAR … voices in my head, all the time.
I DON’T THINK … I'll end up permanently settling in any place that has winter ever again. REGRET … losing touch with some good friends.
I LOVE … helping people when I can, comments on the blog, cuddling with my puppy, hugs from my husband, taking pictures, when the people I photograph tell me they felt beautiful.
I AM NOT … a private person.
I DANCE … like a maniac to Shakira and Michael Jackson.
I SING … all the time.
I NEVER … close the door when I go to the bathroom in my house.
I RARELY … go to bed before midnight.
I CRY WHEN I WATCH … The Notebook, The Little Mermaid, Schindler's List...I could go on and on.
I AM NOT ALWAYS … able to read all the blogs on my Google Reader.
I HATE THAT … I don't have time to spend all day catching up on blogs and commenting.
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … my future. What do I want to do with my life?
I NEED … 35k more in the bank account for our round the world trip.
I SHOULD … eat out less in order to save for the above, work more and workout more...both of which could only happen if there were more hours in the day.



Group Blogging
Rather than vote on the next topic, I was actually hoping we could do something that follows the theme of analyzing Chilean men and women. How about this time we let them analyze us? I was thinking we could write on the subject, How Chileans Perceive Gringos, (Or At Least How We Think They Do). Florencia, a Chilean woman has been kind enough to participate and give us her perspective (in English, nonetheless) in the group blogging so I think it's only fair that we let her analyze us, don't you think?


Also for the first group blogging topic, I really liked how most people zero'ed in on one specific trait they liked or disliked about Chilean men and went into depth. But on Chilean women, I think most of us, myself included, chose to cover the subject broadly. I don't know about you guys but I sort of like what we all did the first time. I don't want to narrow the topics down for you (like if we had all written on Chilean Men Are Chivalrous, rather than just Chilean Men), but I think this little experiment is a lot more interesting when we all narrow the topic down ourself and go deeper.


Thoughts? Feel free to tell me if you don't think that's a good subject for our next group blog and you'd rather vote on a topic again, or if you think I'm way off base with my observations.


Also, one last thing: Next Friday is during the long weekend for the 18th. I'll be in Algarrobo with my husband and in-laws, probably drinking wine like a lush and in no condition to blog -- and not to mention, we don't have internet out there anyways. I was thinking we could either do the next group blog on Monday or Tuesday of next week or else just wait until Friday the 26th.

Expat Interviews: Edition 1

I am so excited to bring the first edition of Expat Interviews to JMCS! And we're definitely kicking things off right with Eileen Shea. She's a stand up comedian, and I've been lucky enough to see her routine in person. Let me tell you right now that she is hilarious. But, you'll be able to figure that out pretty quick after reading her interview.



Please give us some background on you and your situation in Chile. How old are you, how long have you been here, how long do you plan on staying, where are you from, are you married, what part of Chile do you live in?

When I arrived here in 1988 (it's all a blur – I had 3 small kids) at the age of 36, I took advantage of the move to reinvent myself and do what I had wanted to do for years – become a stand-up comedian. Being a gringa actually helped, because Chilean women have often told me that I get away with saying things on stage they could never say. Also, I used the whole gringa schtick to my advantage, beginning with a monologue about what it is like to move to this country and get to know Chileans. I have lived in Santiago all these years because this is where the work has been.

Tell us your story! What originally brought you to the country?

I married a political exile who had been imprisoned in four different prisons and camps before seeking refuge in Canada, where I am from. We moved here while Pinochet was still in power and lived through the last year of the dictatorship and the process of the plebiscite, free elections and the return to democracy. They were passionate times. The extreme conditions, the repression and the fear translated into a lot of solidarity.

What do you do here? Describe a typical day in your life.

When I first got here, I went around with a list of the things I had to buy and the list included everything you need to set up a house. But a few months later, I was walking around with 2 lists – one of the things I still needed to buy and the other of the things I had already bought but that had broken or never worked in the first place. This turned out to be boot camp for life in Chile. A typical day in my life starts with a phone call to the bank to attempt to deal with an error on a statement, then perhaps a jaunt down to the cell phone company to try and get my cell phone to work (for the 8^th time this month). If I am feeling especially energetic, I might venture over to a repair shop for – oh, I don't know, let's see – the lawnmower, the blender, the front door lock, the car, the fuse box – and then lunch. After Lunch I might meet with a lawyer to discuss how I can collect from the accountant who, I discovered a few months ago, had been swindling us for years, or maybe I will stay at home in case the alarm repairman who promised to come each Monday for a month and never did just might show up after all.

When I complain about all the errands I have to do, my husband says there must be something wrong with me because I have a full-time job running these errands and yet many people manage to work full-time at something else and their lives don't fall apart. I have no answer to this statement – and no idea of how anyone manages to hold down a full-time job AND settle all of the problems that arise and fix all of the things that break and do all of the legwork and paperwork required to live a normal life. It is, after 20 years here, a complete mystery to me.

How does a typical day in your life differ from what life used to be like for you in your home country?

The best thing about my life in Chile is a lady called Rosa who holds down the fort for me while I am out trying to get a phone call to Taiwan I never made taken off my bill. Basically if my husband died I would be terribly sad but if Rosa left, I would kill myself. She goes on vacation every year for the month of February and when she returns on March 1, I get down on the ground and I kiss her feet. Had I known I was going to have Rosa in my life, I would have had more children. This is not a joke.

What do you love about living here?

The best thing about living here is the Chilean people. I love to laugh and I laugh all day here, all the time. Everywhere. Even on the bus. People are hilarious – the whole country is a bunch of stand-up comedians.

What has been the hardest adjustment for you in moving abroad?

The toughest part is the poverty, the class system. the smog and the public transportation system in Santiago. I would recommend to anyone moving here that if they don't have to live in the city, that they don't.

A second-rate education for your kids is also one of the prices you pay to live in Chile. There is no really great school or university here and the level of education is abysmal. On the other hand, the human side is often far superior to anything I had experienced personally in small-town Québec in the 50s and 60s and I don't regret raising children here.

Another difficult thing about Chile is a cultural thing – and it took me years to break the code: Chileans don't, won't or can't say no, even when it is definitely no. If you don't realize that, you end up wasting a lot of time and a lot of energy.

If you could change anything about your life in Chile, what would it be?

Now that we have the Internet, most of the things I used to miss living in Chile are accessible to me here AND I get to live in what has to be the best climate in the world. I get just about anything I want to read, listen to, wear or use on the net. I also read the newspaper from my hometown and watch the news, speak to my friends through Skype, upload videos for the family….

What do I miss? My mother. When you get to my age, your parents are getting old. And maybe they can't travel anymore, and are beginning to have medical problems. And you don't live down the street from them so you feel like you can't help and that you are missing out in that you don't get to see some of the people you love on a regular basis. Some of my friends' parents have serious illnesses such as Alzheimer's…. imagine how it must feel to know that a parent is in an institution and you are thousands of miles away. Tough.



Please check out Eileen's website...and if you decide you want to go see her live, let me know and I'll happily go with you. :) Last time I watched her routine I laughed so hard I cried. If you're bilingual and are married to a Chilean she's a must-see...and I'm not just saying that because she did this interview for me!

Chileans Are (Not) Cheap

"Every time we go out to eat with his friends everyone is calculating their meal cost down to the last penny so they don't pay a cent extra. They usually end up paying less than they should because most of the time they stiff on the tip too," a Gringa once told me about going out to eat with her Chilean husband's friends, "Why can't we just split the bill down the middle and call it a day?"


I understand. We've definitely had an occasion or two when we've been out with friends who didn't want to leave a tip and S. and I have had to make up the difference.


And sure, my mother in law has a vacuum that was basically the first vacuum ever invented. A caveman in South America somewhere made fire, then worked a little harder, made this vacuum and it somehow ended up in S.'s childhood home where it's stayed ever since. Every two years or so since I've lived with them they've taken it to get repairs done and even so it barely works. The tube is actually taped on to the body with duct tape and while it's louder than anything I've ever heard it's actually incapable of sucking any dirty up. If you wanted this vacuum to actually clean anything you'd have to just leave it running over the same spot for at least thirty minutes. Why doesn't S.'s mom get a new vacuum, one that works? I suspect the first reason is that she doesn't have to actually vacuum herself since she has a nana so how well it works isn't a huge concern for her. And the second reason is that she's cheap.


When S. and I were debating whether to marry in Chile or in the U.S. obviously one of the factors was if our parents would be able to come to the wedding. He said, "Well if we get married in the U.S. we'd have to pay for my mom and dad's tickets because they wouldn't be willing to pay for him." He made it sound like his parents are too cheap to go to their own son's wedding. That's not the case, they just flat out don't have the money to up and travel to another country, whereas my mom is perfectly willing to get a flight and charge it to her credit card.


Yet, I would hesitate to classify Chileans as cheap, even though that seems to be a common complaint amongst my Gringa friends. I think they were just raised to live within their means, and that's not a bad thing. Sure, since I've worked as a waitress, I'll always say, "If you can't afford to tip when you go out to eat, you can't afford to go out to eat period." But, in general, I doubt that most Chileans grew up in an era of, "You want it? Charge it."



I know a lot of Gringas have grandparents that lived through harder times than our parents did and we may now think they're cheap because they think $10 dollars is an expensive meal out. But, is it really fair to call them cheap when that's just the way they were raised? We have to remember that a lot of them probably had parents who may have been more financially cautious after having lived through things like the Great Depression.


Chile's prosperity is a recent thing and most Chileans are not used to spending like crazy U.S. consumers do. Only in recent days have the people of this country started using their credit cards so much. Now 61% of all households in Chile have some debt. The average household without homeowner's debt factored in has a credit debt of $2.9 million pesos, which is more or less $5,800 dollars, assuming an exchange rate of 500 pesos to the dollar.


I don't think Chileans are cheap. I just believe that my generation has grown up spoiled rotten with parents, that until now, didn't have to worry too much about economical problems like recessions and the home owners credit crunch. We're not used to being around people that actually live within their means so it comes as a sort of shock to our systems.

Chilean Women

Today we decided we would all do a group blog on Chilean women. My post is below. Leave a comment when your post is ready so I can link to you and let the fun begin!

Tyffanie
Lydia
Florencia
Sara
Emily
Shannon
Jessica
Heather
Sheabel
Abby
Amanda
Renee
Clare
Meredith
Leigh

I feel strangely ambivalent towards Chilean women. I'm not angry that the majority of them don't seem to want to be friends. This might be because they assume that as a Gringa I won't be here long enough to get to know -- I myself did that to a group of Gringas the other day. They walked up to pet my dog and started asking questions about my life here. I answered and was polite and friendly, but as soon as I heard they were exchange students I didn't offer them my phone number or feel any real need to put an effort into a relationship that wouldn't last beyond six months. So, assuming that's part of the cause behind the lack of Chilena-Gringa friendships that I often hear about, I can relate to that.


But, I think it may go deeper than that. I don't subscribe to the theory that Chilenas are jealous of Gringas. We're not all blond and cute. There are plenty of ugly Gringas that come to Santiago too with whom Chilenas could make friends if they wanted, yet I don't see that happening. I actually think it may just be the intimidation factor.


We're foreign, we're exotic to Chile even if we're as typical in the U.S. as pumpkin pie and chicken soup. We tend to be loud and when on study abroad, way overexcited about things in this country.


Chilean women most likely look at us and think, "These girl seriously need to calm down. About everything."


And of course, the fact of the matter is that this country has beauty standards that don't match what the average Chilean person looks like -- the ad spreads tell them they should be tall and blond. By nature of our gene pool some Gringas do look like that, thus fueling the Chilean man's lust for foreign meat.


A friend said she thinks Chilena women are no less bitchy than women in the U.S. That may be so in some parts of the country, but not in all. For example on a bitchiness scale of 1-10, 10 being Shannen Doherty and 1 being Minnie Mouse, I would give Midwestern Gringas and Chilenas an 8, while Southern women would rate a 5 because of their impossible niceness. So it depends on the kind of interactions that you're used to, as to how standoffish you'll find them to be.


I think it may also depend on social class. In general lower socio-economic people seem to be kinder, nicer, more willing to open up their homes, etc. High socio-economic people in Chile, often referred to as "cuicos," are snottier. They look down their noses and talking condescendingly to everyone in their paths. The women have a special way of doing this -- they had the dimuitive form on the end of every other word. And as the cuicos popularize this form of speaking, it's spreading and catching on like wildfire amongst all social classes. "Quieres tomar un cafecito en la tardecita? No? Ok, chaoito!"


I think that Gringas may sometimes mistake this condescion as being specifically targeted towards them because they're Gringas, not realizing that a high class woman does this to everyone she meets simply because she's cuica. When you live in a foreign country, it's sometimes easy to blur the line of struggles that you specifically as a foreigner need to deal with because you're a foreigner, and things that happen to all people that live in the country just because that's the way the country is.


I don't have a lot of Chilena friends. As I've said in previous posts on the subject, I don't think it's because they all hate Gringas. I think that the entire Chilean culture is an extremely closed one. It's a culture made up of total distrust, and there are stats to back me up on that. Chileans, or Chilenas specifically don't want to be friends with Gringas or anybody new, regardless of where that person comes from. Yes, I've had a few bad experiences with Chilenas -- once a girl told me that now that I was marrying a Chilean man, all Chilena women were now obliged to hate me because I "stole one of the few attractive, educated Chilean men out there." But, I've had some good experiences too -- my one and only Chilena friend really helped me out with some family stuff and has been nothing short of awesome in the ways she's been there for me.


So really, my generalization isn't that all Chilean women are bitches, simply that they're very hard to get to know.

All Wrapped Up

Meredith recently wrote a post about how Chileans are obsessed with bundling up their babies. I also remember talking to my dear friend Rachel about (formerly from the very controversial blog, A Chile Tale, now writing pure hilariousness about her life in China over at Living the Hai Life) the subject too. She has a ridiculously adorable daughter whom she failed to properly wrap up when she would take her out on the streets of Linares and Chileans would come up to her in the street and scold for her apparent neglect of her baby.


Now, I want to talk about how it's not just babies they enjoy wrapping up. Many Chileans seem to have a terrifying, paralyzing fear of cold weather (which is not really that cold at all) sort of the way that when it snows in North Carolina, life stops, even if it's just a centimeter.


The other day I was walking home from the gym. I would guess that the temperature was probably in the low 60's or high 50's (Fahrenheit -- while I have mastered the metric system, Celsius always gets me down). My hair was slightly damp with sweat. Unfortunately, I don't happen to be one of those women who "glows," or "glistens." I usually finish a workout drenched. So sure, walking home I was little wet, and yes, I was wearing short sleeves on a semi-chilly night. But, honestly, the temperature was no cooler than Tampa in the winter, which as we all know -- not cold!


So back to the story -- walking home. I step out of the gym. No sooner has my foot hit the pavement when I hear an old man say groughly, "Ay, m'hija, se va a resfriar," or "Oh, child, you're going to catch a cold." He wasn't looking in my direction or speaking directly to me, so I assumed he must not be talking to me. After all, it would be crazy to tell someone they're going to sick because they're wearing a t-shirt rather than a parka, in what is nearly spring time weather.


I got to the corner and stopped to wait for the light to turn green. A young girl looked at me, shivered pointedly and said to her friend, "She must be so cold!"


Two seconds later I walked hurriedly past a group of guys moving slowly. First they piropo'ed me, telling me how much they liked to watch my ass move. I ignored them. They were still walking behind me, and then went into a diatribe of how they were concerned for my health and I need to put on a sweater or I was for sure going to get sick. How did we go from ass-talk to grandma talk?!?


Keep in mind, I live not even three blocks from the gym. Chileans are obviously very concerned for the well-being of a poor little Gringa in short sleeves on a 55 degree night.


A few days later it was hot out. If we had been in Chicago, it was warm enough that people would have been swimming in Lake Michigan and wearing shorts and flip flops to school. I wore a sleeveless knee length dress. Chileans were staring at me as if I had just sprouted a second head. I did pass a giant blond Gringo man wearing cargo shorts and sandals. His smile said it all, "You're from the Midwest too, aren't you?"


Even with my minimal attire I was still sweating a little bit after a brisk 20 minute walk to my destination. As I passed woman dressed in pantsuits made of wool and men in Columbia parkas, I finally realized, this is why people here walk so slow! They wear such heavy clothes in the wrong weather that they can't go any faster or they will sweat like pigs. Everything has fallen into place. Great fear of pneumonia means don't expose the skin on any body part or You. Will. Die. (or so my mother in law, and all Chilean mothers I've ever met, would have you think) in temperatures less than 70 degree. Covered up skin means slow walking and less sweating. Now I get it.


Other signs of Chilean fears of cold weather include, You Must Always Blow Dry Your Hair Even If It's Summer. Wet hair equals death. Also -- Never Go Barefoot, Even If It's Summer. No shoes also equals death.

Expat Interviews

So, this is a call to all of you who answered my survey saying you read this blog because you're thinking about moving to Chile (out of 90 people, almost 15 said that's the reason they JMCS).


If you could ask an expat woman in Chile anything, what would be?


The survey got me thinking quite a lot about you guys (or should I say, ladies as 80% of you are female), the readers and what kind of content would be helpful for you. So, I am going to try an experiment and do some blog interviews with other expats living in Chile to give you all something other than just my perspective. We need to get outside Kyle's box. :)


Depending on how that goes over maybe later I could expand the interviews to be with expats living in other countries, but for now I think we'll start out with just this country. I'd also like to get into interviewing some of our Chilean readers as I think they too add a unique perspective.


So, two things: I would love it if you would leave a comment with a question you'd like to know about the expat life here in Chile. And, if you are interested in being interviewed let me know as well! Also, try to ask questions that are specific to the person's life, i.e."How has your standard of living changed since moving to Chile?" rather than, "How much does it cost to live in Chile?"

Next Group Blog

Winning by just one vote is "Chilean Women," for our next group blogging post. I'll try to write my post for sometime late Thursday night or early Friday morning, so once it's up feel free to leave me a comment when yours is up too and I'll put up links like last time!

I'm interested to see where everybody takes this topic. :)

Help the Peanut Pet Shelter

If you have a minute, please take two seconds to help the Peanut Pet Shelter, which takes in stray animals off the street in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where lots of awesome bloggers live. The shelter is up for a grant from American Express and with enough nominations have the potential to get $2.5 million dollars worth of funding from the credit card company.

The nomination process ends today so go, go, goooooooooo!

Ps. You do have to register with an email address, but it literally takes 30 seconds and they won't spam you.