Chile Forum

Victoria wrote:The obvious things that allow a family with children to move to chile?

1) A good relationship between parents and kids that allows them to work together as a team.

2) Having no debt. Can't leave if you have to service an upsidedown mortgage.

3) Having practical skills relevant to the situation in Chile. For example, if all you know how to do is operate a nuclear power plant, your skills will not be needed in Chile.

4) Having no fear. If you are scared of change, you'll never make the first step.

5) Having no shame. You have to be willing to look a bit silly for awhile to move to another culture.

6) Loving adventure and realizing that adventure is hardship viewed from a distance...

1 - I like to think that my family is pretty close so that isn't one of my major concerns. However, my wife having friends apart from myself and the kids is a major concern for me. She isn't very outgoing when it comes to meeting people - even around places she is familiar with.
2 - Not a problem, I figure if we were to move down there it wouldn't be for several years and unless the market in our area drops another 25% I think we will still be good on our mortgage. Other than that we have no debt.
3 - Not so sure about how practical my skills would be in Chile. I am finishing up my MBA next week (1 class night left to freedom), but from what I hear it is basically useless since the culture is so different. My skills all reside in IT - mostly linux and I am fairly confident that there are plenty of IT people there since several of the people I am still in contact with are in IT and have mentioned it is a pretty tight field to be in.
4 - I think this is probably my biggest problem. I fear anything that I can't control (don't worry I am not controlling to my wife), which is what lead me to post in the first place. I have been contemplating for a while about how other people manage to pull off the transition, convinced that they had it under control. I finally had to throw out the question to see if people are just more spontaneous than I am, or if I was just missing the boat.
5 - The shame part for me isn't too big of a deal. I have dealt with it before and I think I can handle it again. Again back to #1 I am however concerned about my wife. She doesn't yet speak Spanish, I do enough to converse about every day things, but I would probably struggle in a business environment. However she has known about this dream for a long time and will be enrolling in Spanish classes at the local community college once I finish my degree. Not that I am putting much trust in the college Spanish teaching system, but its a start.
6 - I love adventure, but like I said before, I have a problem with fear of the uncontrollable. I think that is the main purpose of my ramblings is that I am looking for some way to plan for a transition over the next couple of years so I can do it without going broke and having a horrible time.

To respond back to a few other posts, if we were to vacation down there every couple of years it would be for a week at a time tops. Any place that I have visited in the past for just a week never really brought out the reality of the place I have visited. Half of the reason I love Chile is because of the natural beauty, the other half is the people I met while there. It is too hard to meet people in a week to really show the country for what it is.

On the other hand, my idea of relocating there isn't for a lifelong permanent location, 1-3 years would suffice (probably just 1 unless I had an amazing job). Then I could return to see grandparents and cousins - until the next time the opportunity came up. My hardest part is figuring out how to make that opportunity come up.

Sorry about the ramblings. I guess I am on an imaginary goose chase hoping to find a solution. In this case I have to be the one to create the goose in order to catch it.
-Brent

dfjordan wrote:I agree with others, that first a vacation and if the wife likes it ( even though a vacation is totally different from actually living here) then you make the move, but only if you speak Spanish and have a profession that is in demand. Apart from that, it´s just a matter of taking the risk, jump into it and see what happens. I´ve done it on various occasions to different parts of the world with young children and in fact that´s the best time, as once they get near to teens, it can give problems.

I think the wife part is extremely important as if she´s not happy here then there´s no way it would work. Also remember that Chile is not like it was say 25 years ago. Like everything, there are changes for the better and changes for the worse.

I am curious if you had a job lined up before leaving, or if you jumped in with a profession that you knew was in demand and sorted out the details after moving to each locale. As for how long ago I was in Chile - it was after 2000, so I am assuming that only normal change has taken place since then, so hopefully I would find it close to what I expect.

Thanks
Brent

No need to apologize about rambling Brent. Helps people to get to know each other. Everyone has an interesting background worth sharing. As well, it allows people to give better answers to your questions. Don't sell yourself short. Top notch IT skills and native English speaker are not a bad combo. Maybe you could undertake a mission to rid Chile of it's obsession with Flash.