Unemployment in the U.S. and Chile

January 31, 2009

I learned an interesting tidbit of information today. As you know, we were previously worried that S. was going to lose his job working in construction here in Chile. And then, as I vlogged about, he did not!

But, things are still precarious on the work front. His company didn’t have any new contracts coming in, until recently that is. This week they found out that the project they’re working on at the airport is being expanded. They’ll now have work out at Santiago Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport until 2013, thanks to the government.

Unemployment hasn’t yet hit dire straights the way it has in the U.S. But, the government of Chile feels it coming on. So they are bumping up projects that originally weren’t scheduled for completion so soon, because they want to try and keep unemployment down.

However, in the private sector, things aren’t so bright. Cencosud (who also owns Jumbo, Easy and Almecenes Paris, amongst other business ventures) halted construction on the Costanera Center, which would have been the tallest building all of South America, and the second tallest in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

People keep telling me that the recession hasn’t hit Chile. Nobody seems too worried. But, I have this strange sense of calm before a storm. Chile has had a great economic run, but just like the U.S. they’re not impervious to crisis either.

A few months ago I wasn’t feeling the recession at all. I asked readers about it and most comments said they were fine as well. Now I know that one good blog friend’s husband has been laid off, my own blogs are cutting back, and several people I’m close with are job hunting with no success. So let me ask again — are you feeling the recession now?

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The Importance of Social Media

January 30, 2009

Really, I would love to tell you that the Travel Channel contacted me because I have the coolest Chile blog under the sun. But, that’s just not true. In reality, it was a mix of social media and luck that allowed me to have such a cool day filming with them.

See, back in the day when I didn’t have a job and had much more spare time on my hands, I spent hours on Flickr, commenting on people’s streams, making contacts, reading information in groups. The possibilities were endless.

I’m also on Twitter, which is sort of a mini blog. You update your status regularly, telling people what you’re doing at that exact moment, using 140 characters or less.

As it just so happens, Shira Lazar, the girl who contacted me from the Travel Channel is also on Twitter. She tweeted when she found out about her trip to Chile, asking if anyone knew of any bloggers/personalities in Chile that she could touch base with. One of my old Flickr contacts, who I hadn’t spoken with in ages, tweeted back to her with a link to my blog, and the rest is history. The coolest thing about that is, I had no idea that my old Flickr friend even read my blog!

I’ve also had people contact me about my photography services through facebook, and my first wedding actually came via this blog! So basically, my point is that while social media may seem like it’s a bit silly, truly using your social media contacts can help you profesionally.

So, if you want to hang outline here I am on:

Flickr
Twitter
Needish
Facebook
Vimeo (just joined yesterday)

Ps. In yesterday’s vlog, Lori guessed right…I didn’t even notice Mila, our nana, walking by!

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Update on the Travel Channel

January 29, 2009

First of all, George, you win a 12X18 inch photo of your choice, so email me: kylehepp at gmail dot com. Congrats, and thanks for the great suggestion! He was the first person to suggest La Piojera, which was one of the places we ended up going.

Today was my big day with Shira Lazar for the Travel Channel. She’ll be covering the whole trip for another website as well, so if you just can’t wait to see what the TC special, “Confessions of a Travel Channel,” is all about, you can check out her impressions of her first time in South America over at Jaunted.

I vlogged about the day above, but in case you’re at work or something, let me just sum it up for you: Filming something that’s sort of reality TV but not really, is WEIRD. Shira and I would have a conversation and then someone would be like “Wait, actually can you go stand over there in front of that tree and do that exact conversation again?”

I had a mic on me pretty much the entire time and they filmed for the whole afternoon that we were together, but the show is 7 days worth of footage cut down into an hour, so I’m not sure the odds that you’ll actually see any of me on TV are very good. However, it airs in June. Someone will have to tape it for me and let me know!

We went to la Iglesia San Francisco and Barrio Paris/Londres, not necessarily because they’re the coolest places in the world, but mostly because I wanted to be able to explain a little bit about the Catholic church’s influence on the country as well as the dictatorship.

Then we hit up la Piojera for a terremoto. We got a standing ovation when we walked in the bar, then the cameras which had been filming us from outside came in and the crowd got even rowdier. There were 2 camera men with a TON of equipment, a producer, a coordinator and a driver with us so we were quite a spectacle. We got hit on by a wasted guy who told us he was a painter and wanted to make art with us. Shira was curious as to why so many people were wasted by 5pm on a Thursday afternoon, so I got to explain yet another side of Chilean culture to her. :)

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