Weekly update!

Hello there friends and family! This weekend I had the great opportunity to go to San Antonia which is a port about an hour and a half south west of Santiago.  My best friend Francisca has all of her extended family there (all the uncles, aunts, cousins and grandpa from her dad's side.  He grew up there).  We went and stayed with her grandpa who was such a sweet and funny man! He has a great sense of humor and lit up having her there.  It was really sweet.  He has a long time family friend who lives with him to help with cleaning and food but he really gets along amazingly for his age and is just full of spunk and life and jokes.  He reminded me a lot of Papa Herb in his humor and manner ha.  We also stopped by her familys' cafe twice where we drank banana smoothies (below) and I tried my first churrasco which is a type of meat served on bread with avocado and tomato,  It was delicious and the cafe was adorable.  As you can see slightly in the background there are old pictures of the whole family on the back wall and it was cool to see all of the history (Dad I still think we should open a restaurant)

Her Grandpa also had this gem at his house and it is now technically Francisca's! Literally my dream car.... it is a volkswagen bug from 1976 and is literally the cutest coolest car ever! We are going back this weekend so that we can visit Tata (What they call grandpa's here) and drive this beauty to the beach!

Here is another picture of my little volleyball team.  We lost really badly but still look happy haha.  It is nice to play again; definitely not the same level as my CAL team but the girls are awesome and we have fun.  Its super strange to do volleyball talk in spanish though haha somehow it came pretty naturally! I just started calling AFUERA AFUERA!

I also included some pictures of the ADORABLE little kids that I work with twice a week at my internship.  Have I told you all about that yet? I must have... if not please let me know ha  But anyway here are some of my little babies that I get to play with.  They are so sweet and just want some solid lovin and I try my very best to give as much as I can to each and every one of them!

Here are Antonella and Daren just chillin

Cata, Hugo and Maxi (who looks a lot like Zach weirdly) are all taking advantage of some car time

This is Hugo :) He has an incredibly smile and also slightly growls a lot.  It sounds a lot like the batman voice that I do and it makes me laugh so hard every time haha its hilarious

This is Fran and I toasting with our PARSLEY tea that we are drinking every day.  She read that drinking a cup of parsley water helps get rid of nasty things in your body and so we started trying it.  Three days strong now. Its pretty blehhhh to be honest but I just chug my glass super fast and get it over with.  We also put a hot towel on our liver before bed because apparently it helps with digestion.  In fact mine is on right now! This is why I just love this girl though because she finds weird things like this and actually wants to do them haha

This is a picture of my little fruit stand :) i finally remembered to take a picture yesterday.  It is about 2 blocks from my house and is owned by this little old man and his sons and they are all SUCH NICE PEOPLE! They are always so sweet and helpful and hardworking and everyone in the neighborhood goes to them.  I know its good because all the locals go there.  And its super cheap... I can buy avocados, tomatoes, bananas, carrots, zucchini, and apples for about 2,300 pesos which is about $4.50.  pretty incredible!

 

Lastly, just wanted to congratulate my mamma again! Congrats to the most incredible woman in my life who also happens to be my mom and one of my best friends and my biggest mentor and my counselor and my therapist and makes me laugh and also apparently RUNS HALF MARATHONS! What a champ.  Not a bad place to run either if you ask me look at that San Diego weather! But really congrats mamma, I'm so proud of you for following through with this and finishing in an amazing time and also slightly enjoying the whole process haha LOVE YOU!  (p.s thanks so much to Grandma Bertie and Pops and Zach and Megan and Julie and Janie and Fajy and everyone else who was there to support her even though I couldn't be) i felt better knowing she was in good hands ;) 

The most AMAZING 6 days!

So I am probably the luckiest person and I just had the most amazing 6 days of my life! So yesterday I got the experience of a lifetime and went to see Paul McCartney in concert.  As many of you know I am a huge huge Beatles fan and my dream since I was about 10 years old has been to see Paul.  I really never though it would come true and had frankly given up.  I still said that if I could meet once person or see one person in concert it would be him but I never thought it would actually happen because he never came to California.  But then he HAPPENED to be in Santiago, Chile, during the 6 month span that I am living in Santiago Chile.  I would call that fate.  I went to the concert by myself and had the most incredible time.  He played for almost 3 hours straight and I sang the entire time.  Every time a Beatles song would start I would get the chills and I have to admit I definitely did tear up at least 10 times.  Half the time I wasn't even moving because I was in shock.  He would just causally start playing Let it Be or Lady Madonna or Lovely Rita and I would be singing along and then realize "I am listening to PAUL MCCARTNEY sing this right now and I am singing with him".  I would just start laughing to myself like a crazy person because it was too unthinkable.  It was unreal.  His voice was perfect and although he struggles a little now with the higher notes (he is 71) he had so much energy and movement on stage and it was just REMARKABLE! One of the greatest memories I will cherish forever.  I also took a bunch of videos and have a gorgeous version of Blackbird recorded but it won't let me upload them.  Oh well!

The venue was pretty tiny in comparison to other's i've been in and this was where my seat was!

 So... the other amazing days were spent in Pucon.  Pucon is a little town that is a 10 hour bus ride south of Santiago.  We arrived Thursday morning and checked into our hostel and got settled.  Then, us being us, decided we needed to move a little and would go on a little bike ride, which turned into a 4 hours mountain biking excursion and it was through these beautiful hills.  We finally arrived at our destination, a little lake with waterfalls and beautiful water but we could only stay for about 30 minutes because we had only rented our bikes for 4 hours and it had taken a lot longer than we thought to get there ha.  It was still beautiful though!

we found a pig friend while biking :)

the little water falls

beautiful tree roots next to the water

My friends and I sitting eatin some bananas after our bike ride.  We couldn't feel our butts they were SOOOOO bruised it was awful ha. Left to right (Ida- Sweedish girl who lives with Kelsey and Kathleen, Kelsey, Kathleen, Owen- another guy from our group who goes to UCSC, me and my big sweaty hair)

On Saturday of our trip I did one of the most uncomfortable/un Becca Kutlow like things I could have ever done.  I climbed a 4200 meter snowy active volcano.  By about 8 am we had all of our gear on and were at the parking lot of the volcano.  We paid for a ski lift up to cut off an hour of walking on boring dirt and arrived at the snow.

Putting on helmets and gloves and sunscreen we then began the ascent.  We had a group of 25 people and 6 guides who were incredible and knew what they were doing (thats for you Dad ;) ) After 40 minutes we took a break to put on our crampons, which are the spikes you add to the bottom of your boots.  Those were life savers! They just make your steps so stable and I had no fear of falling.  We also had an ice pick/ax which we used as a walking stick.  The ascent was steep and snowy and it just kept getting steeper! They led us at an amazing pace, however, so I never felt like I was really that exhausted.  A little over half way the other agencies started turning their groups around because it was too icy so I thought that we weren't going to make it all the way up.  our guides, however, plopped us down on some rocks and decided that we would wait a little and see if it melted.  15 minutes later the sun popped out and we were able to make it because the ice began to melt.  There was a point in the last hour or so when it got extremely steep and I started having slight anxiety about what I was doing and freaking out because it was so darn high.

When we finally made it to the top I felt so relieved, excited, thrilled, happy and content.  It was incredible  You could see EVERYTHING and the crater was letting out smoke and it smelled like sulfur.  You could also see 2 more volcanos from our view and it was remarkable.  As we started the descent I was freaking out and so nervous but it really wasn't that bad. The people around me helped a lot by talking to me and I think the crampons made a huge difference.  They made me feel like I was so secure and just gave me more confidence.  Once we got to the halfway point we were able to sled down a huge portion! We strapped padding to our butts and used the ice pick as a break and just flew down the mountain.  It was one of the greatest things ever! It was honestly so much fun and again I wasn't even scared! It was just such an incredible experience for me because its something I'll never be able to do again and its something I NEVER thought I would do.  It was crazy.  Crampons and an icepick?!

the crater with smoke coming out!

Kelsey Kathleen and I

Ida and I 

smoking crater!

Kathleen and I our last day sharing a smoothie :)

Wool gloves that I bought!

This is the black sand beach where I journaled the last day.  It was easter so I was thinking a lot about Grandma Carol and had a really amazing talk with myself and her haha.  It meant so much to me that I climbed this amazing volcano the weekend of her passing and was able to honor her in such an incredible way.  She was so adventurous and loved traveling and I felt like she would have been very proud of me :) Shout out to Shma!

Getting into a routine

Hello there everyone! So I had a cold again this weekend which was such a bummer but its ok! I still was able to go to Valparaiso with my housemate/closest friend here Francisca on Friday because she needed to do an interview for her job.  We were only there for the day but it was still super nice to see it and I can't wait to go back and visit again soon.  I am also thinking of taking Mom, Dad and Z there when they come because it is only a 1.5 hour bus ride away and Francisca said that she would be our own private little tour of Valpo because she studied there last semester.  There is actually a huge fire going on there which started the day after we left (crazy to think about) and it is getting pretty bad so I hope you can send some helpful thoughts in their direction.  

Below are some pictures from our day there!

This is Francisca and I :)

Panorama view of the port (Valpo is on the coast to the direct west of Santiago)

There are all sorts of drawings and murals and "graffiti" all over the city!

 These ants are painted all over the city and if you follow them they lead you to a homemade candy store!

a famous staircase that runs through the streets

Francisca looking at some doves

Cute little cafe we sat in that had hanging plants 

Franzie doing her interview, she looks so official and I really liked the wallpaper in this hostel

I also finally got my Cédula, which is my chilean ID. WHOOO! Here is my lovely picture.... the guy that was taking it was super grumpy and told me I couldn't smile so I smiled without showing teeth and he got mad again so then I went a little extreme and look like a convict.  

I also finally found a volleyball team to play with! (I think I mentioned this in my last blog) but last sunday we had our first game and it was really really fun to play again.  It made me so incredibly happy! This is a picture of my little team.  We are actually 12 but only 8 of us were there last week. Also three of them are named Francisca.... chileans don't get very creative with names here.

Lastly, last Friday we had a goodbye dinner for my Mexican housemate MariDelmi because she was working here but had decided it was time for her to go home.  It was a bummer because I really really liked her and got along with her but we are still in touch and I hope to visit her in Puebla sometime! Anyway, the Belgium couple were in charge of food along with Mari so we had brochette appetizers then homemade belgium fries with a dipping sauce which were INSANE.  Then Mari made pozole which is a mexican soup for dinner and after we had hand made belgium truffles! It was so delicious :)

Oh and the picture above is one of the two dogs that we have.  Her name is Chilla

 Ionana (Greek/Belgium), James (Australian) Pablo (Chilean) and Pame (Chilean)

Fries

yum

That is Mari, she had to wear those bunny ears because it was her goodbye dinner... not sure why but I think they were super cheap at the grocery store and Felix thought it would be funny to make her wear them.

This is our other dog, Sol

Love you all and hope everything is going well!