Christmas, Christmas, CHRISTMAS

This Christmas was a bit of a bittersweet one, one the one hand, I am in Italy spending it with my amazing Italian family. On the other hand, this was my first Christmas away from home and I got a bit homesick. My family has this tradition where we go to my Grandma's with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins and I missed that, a lot.

My Italian family also includes extended family in their festivities but, it wasn't my family so I was still a bit sad. I am going to take this time to explain the differences in the Italian Christmas to my American one! Firstly, here in Italy they open all the presents on Christmas Eve, this was pretty cool. We also had a dinner with My host dad's parents and my host mom's brother and sister-in-law, which excluded meat because apparently Catholics don't eat meat on Christmas Eve. That legitimately blew my mind, and I still can't really fully comprehend. Lilja googled the reason why they don't and I still don't get it. It is my firm belief that Jesus would want me to enjoy myself on the eve of his birth and, to enjoy myself I need Tashia's chicken salad and some Ham.

After we opened all of the presents we got ready and went to Midnight Mass, which I feel would have been cooler if I could have understood everything that was being said haha. Then, when Christmas morning came around (I say morning but I woke up at noon) and we went to Lunch with Ugo's extended family. That was...interesting. The place we went had horrific service, everyone got food at different times and it wasn't even that good, the dolce was on point though so, props for that. I only cried a little bit on Christmas Eve because I was homesick but as a whole, I kept it together! Yay me!

Now, let me tell y'all a bit about my 'murican traditions! Back in good ole Northern Virginia lives my family, my Grandma and my mom's Brother Jason and his lovely wife Tashia and all their super adorably amazing children! On Christmas Eve we all head over to my Grandma's and the fun commences! First we usually hang out for a bit eating Tashia's delicious chicken salad, which has me drooling right now just thinking about it, and other food that has been made. Then we get corralled by my Grandma into the living room where we usually all read one Christmas story each. From there my Uncle Jason reads from the Bible and Savannah and I usually tear up a bit because we think of my Grandpa who used to read it. After that we usually open one present each, from the cousins, then we head over to the music room and sing songs for the rest of the night until we all leave for our respective homes! This tradition is simple but is something very close to my heart. Christmas morning at my house can be a bit chaotic, especially when we are trying to drag my parents out of bed so we can start opening presents! In our family stockings are a big thing, we always open them first, youngest to oldest. Then we start with the presents and do the same order as the stockings, it is usually nice and loud and full of thank yous hugs and laughing. I missed that this year but, since I won't be in another country next year, I will be able to partake!

This year has been an amazing one full of adventures and opportunities and I couldn't be more thankful. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be able to live in a foreign country, or learn a bit of said country's language. I have been able to go places I never thought I would go and meet people that I know will be friends for life. I am excited because in less than a month my mom will be here and she will get to share in my adventure. After that I will be home and starting a whole different kind of adventure, university, with my best friend, I am also excited to be close to my older sister and her husband and get to know them better. I think 2015 has a lot of potential and I am very interested in seeing where it leads. I hope y'all had a very Merry Christmas and I hope you have an amazing New  Year!

Love Y'all!

Rachel

World Traveler

Mantova

The one thing I have been super super SUPER excited about for the last 6 or so months is, my mom coming in January. Yes, you read that correctly, my mama and her best friend Sister Price will be joining me in Europe for two weeks! It is getting closer and closer to that time and I am really freaking excited, so excited in fact, I created an itinerary and a spreadsheet of all the estimated costs. We will be starting in Roma, then heading over to Pompeii and Napoli! From there we will head to Firenze and Pisa and then go back to the Mantova area (where I live), there we will spend the day with my host mom as she shows us around. From there we will head to Verona and Venezia and then finally Milano! Then, the part I think my mom is most excited for, we will get on a train and head to Paris!

Milan

The Italian places I am not that nervous about because I have a decent knowledge of the language and can communicate, France on the other hand, not so much. Once in choir we were singing some french song and Ms. B always had us attempt to sing with the accent to the corresponding language, well, I failed miserably at French. This girl leaned over to me, and so kindly pointed out that I sounded like I was from Iraq haha. That experience has kind of scarred me when it comes to speaking French, so, I told my mom she has to brush up on her's.

Venice

 I don't know where this post is going other than I am really excited to be able to see my mom after a year. Not only just see her but be able to travel around Italy and France with her, bonding time with my mom and one of the coolest women on the planet! I am excited to see Southern Italy, something I have yet to do, the most southern I have been is Firenze (Florence). So in about a month I will be able to hug my mom again and in about a month and a couple weeks, I will be able to see all of the beautiful faces that are still in VA and attack my siblings with lots of loving. Most importantly though, I will be able to hug my daddy again, and probably cry because I really freaking miss him. A few months after that I will get to see all of you lovely people in Utah :), something that I am pretty excited for, also! I look forward to being able to spend time with my older sister and her husband, and of course with my best friend Sara.

Until Next Time!

<3

Rachel

My family <3

My "Come to Jesus" Moment

Now, as the majority of you who read this have known me all of my life, you know I have been raised LDS, my entire life that is all I have known. I have always been at least partially religious and I have always had a testimony of Jesus Christ, my issue was I never really showed it, I didn't act like a member, and I didn't really care. When people asked me what religion I was, I would answer, "well, I was raised Mormon, but....". I never wanted to be labeled as Mormon, and it isn't for the reasons you are probably thinking. It wasn't because I was ashamed of being Mormon, it was because I knew my actions were not going to reflect well onto the church. I didn't want people see me acting like a fool, and assume that was the way people in the church acted, but at the same time, I was too prideful to stop my actions.

While here in Italy, I haven't exactly acted in the most...righteous manner, and again, I didn't care all that much. I went to church for maybe a month when I first got here and then decided it was way too much work. Between the getting up at horrible hours in the morning, walking to the train station, catching a train that might not even show up, then taking a bus to the church building, it was just too much, I was lazy. It wasn't because I didn't believe, it was because I was lazy. I always have been when it comes to church, if it took and ounce of effort, I couldn't be bothered. In October though, with some divine intervention in the form of two missionaries, I have seen the light.

I went months, like, 6 months without going to church and no one from the branch here bothered me, the missionaries left me alone. In my skewed thinking I saw this as, "see they don't need me and I don't need them", oh how wrong I was. I didn't realize how much I needed them until I went back, begrudgingly at first, but now I am genuinely happy to go, no matter how tired I am. My first Sunday there was a bit weird, I had vanished off the face of the planet for 6 months after these wonderful people had been nothing but nice to me. It was also weird because, while my Italian is better than when I was first here, it still isn't the best. It is nice to have other English speakers in the branch now, though. I don't feel as incompetent because they need translation too haha.

The most amazing Missionaries Anziano Bowman, and Anziano Tymczuk

Now, when I said "divine intervention", I really meant it. A couple of days before I got a call from the mishies, I had been talking to my wonderful mommy. We were talking about church stuff and I told her that I was just kind of done right now, that I was going to do my own thing for awhile and see where that took me. No joke, not even two days later, I am trapped in Mantova (because the trains hate me) and I get a call from the missionaries asking if they could come see me that day. Now, they live in Mantova so, I was like, "well, I'm trapped at the station so, I'm all yours". They came right over and I ended up talking to them for about 45 minutes. They knew nothing about me, I don't think they even knew I was American until I picked up the phone and they quickly realized I didn't speak Italian. Then, because I'm pretty sure they saw my tattoo, they asked "how long I had been a member", cue the awkward pause from me, then spitting out "uhmmm all my life" *embarrassed face*. This encounter led them to coming over every Thursday and inviting me to church, which I would always avoid a definitive answer to. I ended up just sucking it up one morning and went, and I have never been more happy to wake up freakishly early. These awesome missionaries also send me a scripture every night, that always seem to being insanely applicable, like, they should start writing horoscopes ;). They used to make me feel so guilty, but over the past few months as I have been changing my actions and endeavouring to be right in the eyes of the Lord, I no longer feel guilty. The scripture topics have changed recently too, and yet, they always seem to be exactly what I need to hear.

Back a few months ago I wrote a post on marriage, which was inspired by the mass amounts of marriages and engagements on my Facebook timeline. I am now removing the foot from my mouth and admitting, I wasn't exactly correct. In this post I said, "Another thing about my views on marriage that are different from what I was taught at church my entire life is this, I don't care what religion he is. If I love him and he loves me why should it matter? I will say that I am jaded when it comes to LDS guys, I have never had a good experience with then and my worst experience was with a 'good LDS boy' who turned out to be the world's biggest tool. I know for some of y'all reading this that this will be controversial but I just can't make myself care. I just want to be happy and what if the guy who will do that for me isn't LDS? I should immediately brush him off because he isn't? That just sounds very illogical to me, I want to be happy and so I will be with the person that makes me the happiest." Those are no longer my thoughts, while I do believe you should marry someone you love, I now know, and feel that I will be happiest with a temple marriage. An eternal marriage to someone I love, a marriage that won't end when I die. Just thinking about the possibility of not being with my loved ones throughout the eternities terrifies me. Not just my future companion, but also my parents and siblings, the thought of it just makes me so sad. Which also makes me want to repent because heaven knows they are better behaved so if I want to be in the same kingdom, I need to whip myself into shape ;).

Anyways, I really just wanted to tell anyone who wants to listen that I am a new Rachel. I want to fix everything in my life and be obedient. I now have goals, the biggest one is to be temple worthy, that will take some work but I am willing and wanting to do that work. The other goals are ones I have already set in motion, like, reading the Book of Mormon for the first time all the way through. The other is praying, I have always had a hard time praying because I felt like I didn't deserve it. I felt like, why would God want to listen to me, someone who has figuratively spat in his face on multiple occasions? Why? I said this in passing to my mom once and she about smacked me through the phone, she then said something along the lines of, "that's when you should pray the most, is when you don't feel worth". I mentioned the story to Anziano Tymczuk once and he basically said the same thing, I just didn't feel that he was about to hit me, like with my mom :P. 

That is really all I wanted to say, I am glad to have gotten that all off my chest. If you made it this far, thanks for reading! A new Rachel will be coming home from Italy in Februray so prepare yourselves ;).

 

Update on my Life

So first of all, I know it has been longer than forever since my last post but there is a good reason, kind of. I haven't really been doing anything...at all. My life lately has revolved around church related things and hanging out with missionaries, if that doesn't tell you something about how boring my life has become, let me tell you. Usually I go out, party a bit, hang with friends BUT since all my friends decided to leave me, I'm alone. Going out by myself is never fun but here it definitely isn't fun, especially when even when I'm out with people I get harassed and sexually assaulted by gross European men. Now, I though American guys were tools but they look like perfect gentlemen compare to European men.

Now on to the church topic, I have a love hate relationship with church. A very strong one. While I generally do like the feeling of happiness I do get when going, I also have a strong urge that is ingrained into me to be rebellious. I don't like following rules and I like to do my own thing but, as I have realized in the past, that never really works out for me. Ever. It is like when everyone else got the full free agency thing, I only got partial agency. It seems like no matter what I do, or how rebellious I get there is either something in the way of fulfilling said act or ,something goes terribly wrong after I do things I'm not supposed to.With the help of some of the coolest missionaries ever, I have finally come to the decision there is no use fighting anymore, because in the end I'm only hurting myself. Plus I have a ridiculously intense Patriarchal blessing to fulfill ;).

 Speaking of cool missionaries, one of them I am convinced is my twin. We are 99% the same person, the main difference is our genders, it is kind of creepy if I'm being totally honest. It is also somehow satisfying haha.

Slightly church related (mostly because this is the lesson we had on Sunday), Family History! My birth mom has been on a kick recently and it inspired me to want to do more, specifically on my birth dad's side. I was talking to my mom about it and she told me some really cool news, if you are a member of the church you get a free account on ancestry.com! All you need is a family search account that you can link up to it, and if you already have an LDS account then you have a family search account! If not, it is super easy, all you need is your record number! :) So, while doing all this family history stuff I have traced my birth dad's paternal line to the 1600's and everyone was from Norway, like an insane amount of Norwegians in my family! So basically I really am Anna from 'Frozen' ;P.

What else, hmmm well, I only have roughly 2 months left here! It's kind of insane to think that I have been here for 10 months! While I do love it here, I am starting to feel the itch to be back state side. I am mostly ready to start being a full fledged adult and starting at Weber with my best friend! I am also excited for what this next year will have for me, I feel like good things will be coming my way!

 So basically, that's really it, not a lot going on. Mostly me being cold and miserable. Mostly miserable because I despise being cold. So it is just a vicious cycle, really. Anyways, I'll try to be more up to date on these blog posts!

Until next time

<3

Rachel

Why Music is Important for Everyone.

Music is something I have always had in my life, something I have always valued above a lot of things. Without music I don't know what I would do with myself, whether it be singing, attempting to play the guitar, playing the violin or simply just listening to it, I always have music around me. Like right now, writing this post, I am listening to Sam Smith and wondering how someone can have such a perfect voice. My mom always wondered how I could sit there and listen to music while doing homework when honestly, it helped me. When I would go to school the next day for a test, I could sing the song in my head and it would trigger whatever it was I had studied. Or put what I needed to remember to song, to this day the only Scripture Mastery I remember are the two we put to song.

There have been many studies on music and its relation to brain function. In one I was reading earlier, it says that, "In one study, researchers found that musical training at a young age may strengthen the brain, especially regions that influence language skills and executive function."* I personally think that is very very true. My family is very musical and I've had music around me since birth, my mom plays the piano and so does my older sister, my dad listens to really good music (I credit him for my love of classic rock). Consequently my older sister and I seem to have an easier time with learning other languages. Even though my grades in Spanish II and III were less than stellar (I blame that on an incompetent teacher who hated me and was later fired for unsavoury things) I retained a lot. I was able to conjugate quite easily when others were struggling with it. It also helped in choir, my teacher liked to have us sing in MANY different languages some really weird (Estonian) but I always found it not really that hard to pick up the sounds or words. Don't get me wrong though, it doesn't only help with languages, it is also proven that it helps with focus and memory function. It heightens it and makes it easier for the person.

This makes me wonder why music education in school isn't more important to school boards. When there are budget cuts, music is always the first to go which is so sad to me. It was either my senior year or the year after I left the Orchestra program got cut down in size and instead of three orchestra classes, freshman, advanced and concort, there was only advanced and concert. Meaning all the freshman went in with the advanced kids. When I was a senior I was taking Music Theory I but, for reason I can only assume were money problems, they decided to make Music Theory I and II one class. That was rough for both classes because the II kids were bored and the I kids were very very lost with rushed teaching. Nothing against the teacher though because he was a very cool guy and tried his best to accommodate all of us.

Music in schools is also how I got through some of the hardest periods of my life. One of my worst years in my short 22 year history happened when I was in high school, I was 17 and my grandfather died. Now, I'm sure I have mentioned before how close I was to him, he always support me in all things but especially music. He went to every single concert or play I was ever apart of, even the severely painful ones (Once on This Island as preformed by Graham Park Middle School). He always encouraged me to continue on with music and with singing and that will forever stick with me. He died on a Saturday and that next week I had 8 performances with the choir I was in, I only made it to I think 3. With that, I would like to say thank you to Ms. B who understood and didn't penalize me for not going to these performances. After he died I found it really hard to sing but, some of my biggest support getting me through this time was my fellow choir students. I hadn't really realized till then how much I cared about my fellow choir member or needed like minded people until I was in crisis mode. Having that support system is important and I would encourage any of y'all with kids or even people still in school, find something like this. You never know when something hard is going to come up and when you are surrounded by friends, it helps a lot.

Whether I am happy or sad I always know I will have one thing in my life to keep me going, music. Whether it be Mozart, eminem, one direction (usually it's One direction), or Miranda Lambert, I know I will always have music that speaks to me and knows exactly how I'm feeling. Knowing these songs exist, the ones that describe my life perfectly, help me know I'm not the only one going through the problems. That is actually a lot more helpful than you would think. I have a friend who once told me, I don't understand why music is important, it's just a bunch of  noise. Now, although he sounds like an 80 year old man, he is my age and he completely baffled me. Maybe because I was brought up around music and 99% of my friends are musical I had a skewed view of the world. I did not know people like him existed, people who couldn't see the beauty of music at all. Those people need to be fixed and shown the light haha.

Anyways, I will step of my musical soap box in a second, just let me say one more thing. Music is healing and should be in every one's lives. Music has been from the beginning of time and whether or not you enjoy the music of today or not, you should still keep it in your lives.

Until next time

<3

Rachel

*http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814540

I Think I'm Gonna Lose My Mind...in Germany

Me and Gabriela

On September 1, 2014 I got on a train to Bergamo, Italy where I would be taking a very short airplane ride to Germany! Germany has always been a country I wanted to visit but never thought I would be able to. Anyone who knows me well, knows I am a hug WWII buff and love learning everything I can about it. Not so much the pacific side of the war though, mostly the European side. Sadly, while in Germany I didn't go to any historical sites but not that I know how much I freaking love the place, it just means I have to go back!

I primarily went to Germany to see my friend Gabriela! I met Gabriela when she was Au Pairing here in Italy, like me. She was actually here for only a week when I got here but, we hit it off due to our mutual love of One Direction. This past summer she came back and spent 4 weeks in Italy and so we got to hang out a lot then which obviously made us realize we were soul mates ;). I had some time coming up so I begged her to let me crash at her place and let me see the beautiful country that is Germany!

Frankfurt

The first day was spent in Frankfurt where we did a mini sight seeing tour! I got to see a cool bridge and some amazing architecture but most importantly, went to Primark. Now I had heard of this magical land called Primark from European friends and beauty vloggers but I had never experienced one! This place reminds me a lot of Forever 21 but has better prices (which is amazing since Forever21 is fairly cheap) and has a wider selection. I found jeans that actually fit me and a cute jacket thingy that is light weight but is still warm. Basically I was in shopping heaven, something I haven't experience since I left the states. I am sad though that the USA doesn't have Primark though, maybe someday.

Frankfurt

Gabriela, Me, Brenda

Next we went to Erlangen where I got to meet Brenda! Brenda is a fellow directioner and is overall fabulous and was kind enough to let us crash at her place until we went back to their village. While in Erlangen we watched 'This is Us' while eating Dunkin Donuts and fangirling, it was very therapeutic. On that Friday we packed up our crap and headed to Sandberg, their adorable little Village. Once in Sandberg we had another One Direction night but this time we also included the game Cards Against Humanity which was amazing. Here I met Marie and Monique who completed our little 1D fan girl circle. Fun fact, we all like different boys so no cat fights needed haha.

Monique and I

The next night we all went to a big party/festival/oktoberferst type thing in their village. This was pretty much amazing, like, no really guys. So much fun. They had a cover band playing and it was legitimately the best cover band I have ever heard. Those singers slayed every single song, I was in awe and jamming up front dancing with Monique like a crazy person! The rest of night was just talking in bad Italian to Gabriela and meeting a handful of Germans. I even debated with one girl that Nsync was better than the Backstreet boys haha.

Now I am back in Italy and suffering from post vacation depression, which is why it took so long to write this post. I fell in love with Germany and want to stay there for forever, well maybe not forever but, for an extended period of time. The people are great, the food is delicious and the atmosphere just felt so welcoming, something you don't really feel here in Italy all the time. Anyways, I am glad to be back with my host family and in Italy but I do hope I am able to go back to Germany before my time in Europe is over!

Until Next Time

<3

Rachel

I Love College

College is something I never though I would partake in. It isn't because I didn't think it was useful, I am just not a school kind of girl. I struggled through cosmetology school, granted I had a lot emotionally going on, but if I almost didn't get through that I obviously made the right choice to no go to college, right? Apparently my brain thinks I am wrong because for some reason I applied to a school. I also got into said school and I will be starting in May 2015. The next shocker? It's in Utah! Now, anyone who knows me, knows how much I abhor Utah with all of my being. Right after I graduated high school (literally 2 weeks later) I was shipped to Provo and forced to live out the worst 6 months of my life. I vowed I would never return to that hellish state but here I am subjecting myself to it again. The only thing that makes me feel better about this is that I won't be in Happy Valley, I might have to visit since that's where my Sister and Brother-in-law live and some of my favourite people go to BYU. Plus my best friend is also going to Weber so I will be able to stay semi sane ;).

 

When I go I plan to Major in Business Management and minor in some kind of music related thing. The music is mostly to keep my sanity since Business includes math and well, math and I don't get along very well. Math was almost my downfall in high school, I actually almost didn't graduate but luckily Mr. Cottoms is an amazing tutor. I know, I know I am 22 and JUST starting college but, to be honest, if I had started any earlier I wouldn't have finished and just wasted a bunch of money. I still fully plan on doing hair but I think a degree could also help me in other future endeavours! 

 Right now in Italy, not much is going on but I am going to Germany next week to stay with Gabriela! I am super excited about that and we are going to get up to some shenanigans ;).

Gabriela and I

 

  Also, for those of you who don't know I bit the bullet and posted an original song on YouTube so here is the link for that!

Secrets (Original)

We also celebrated Giovanni's 16th birthday recently at Garda Lake, which was beautiful (even though it rained pretty much all day). He got some gear for his guitar and a yummy cake and then they went to the pool and swam a bit! After, we all played a couple card games and then Gio, Ugo and I headed back to the house while Annamaria, Matteo and Linda (Matteo's friend) stayed at the lake and camped. It was a pretty good time and I think Gio had a good birthday!

 

My ootd (50lbs down)

Until Next Time

<3

Rachel

Marriage

Marriage-

noun

1. (broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage:

 Marriage is something I naively assumed would happen pretty fast after I graduated high school. Maybe that is my LDS upbringing talking, I guess I just assumed that I would find a good LDS boy immediately and live happily ever after. Four years later I am still single and definitely no where near marriage and I think somewhere subconsciously I feel like a failure about this. I think I have 3 or 4 close friends left who are neither engaged or married, it's like a virus or something, right now.  

At this point in my life I am enjoying what I am doing, I might joke and say I will be forever alone but I really don't want to get married right away. I think at some level I think it would be nice but, there are so many things I want to do and try before I settle down. There also is that small matter that I seem incapable of attracting a man haha. My best friend Sara and I have this thing that we say, 'clearly our personalities suck' because I really don't know what else it could be.

Another thing about my views on marriage that are different from what I was taught at church my entire life is this, I don't care what religion he is. If I love him and he loves me why should it matter? I will say that I am jaded when it comes to LDS guys, I have never had a good experience with then and my worst experience was with a 'good LDS boy' who turned out to be the world's biggest tool. I know for some of y'all reading this that this will be controversial but I just make myself care. I just want to be happy and what if the guy who will do that for me isn't LDS? I should immediately brush him off because he isn't? That just sounds very illogical to me, I want to be happy and so I will be with the person that makes me the happiest. 

I have seen a lot of marriage and divorce and unhappy marriages in my life and I don't want to be part of that. I looked up the divorce rate online and found this, ' PolitiFact.com estimated in 2012 that the lifelong probability of a marriage ending in divorce is 40%–50%'. That is a high percentage and I don't want to become a statistic, so I think I will happily continue being single until I find the one person who I can live the rest of my life with. I want to be like my grandparents and parents who have been together forever through thick and thin. My parents went through a very difficult trial early into their marriage that would have ended weaker relationships but my parents stayed together. I want to have a marriage like my parents, that is what I strive for. 

Until next time

<3

Rachel

Ramblings and Cravings

This weekend I took a much needed break and went north east to a little place called Conegliano! I got to realx, see some castles and some beautiful scenery! I have been having a bit of a hard time lately, the depression has been hitting me hard so this was a nice break. I might also be taking a week off soon and going either somewhere around Italy or even possibly to Germany, which would be super cool for me! I love pretty much everything to do with WWII history so this could be a once in a lifetime chance for me to see things up close and personal!

While I might be having a rough time I am still so glad I am here. The host family I have is more than amazing and I couldn't be any more greatful! This past week my host dad got a job offer so we went out to celebrate at a japanese restaraunt! I am so happy to have asian food back in my life, it was like heaven in my mouth. People keep telling me I shouldn't miss American food because I have realy italian food at my fingertips but, i've had that for 6 months! I miss the food I haven't been able to eat, more specifically I miss Chipotle. I miss it so much, I crave it pretty much every day haha. That will be the first place I go, and then Tropical Smoothie, I need a good smoothie in my life. I always get the same one, I don't think i've tried a different one actually. I go for the Sunrise Sunset because it is life and speaks to me on a deeper level. Fun Fact, the only reason I tried it in the first place wasbecause of the name, It made me think of 'Fiddler on the Roof' so I knew it had to be delicious and man, was I right!

Anywhooo this post wasn't all that exciting but this is my life right now! I'll try and be more interesting next post ;)

Until next time!

<3

Rachel

My Bucket List

I think mostly everyone I know has a 'Bucket List' of sorts, not all of them have it written down but they definitely have a mental one. Sara (my bestest friend) got me inspired to start mine after she wrote hers. So now I will tell the world what my bucket list/dream list is composed of, some of them might seem silly but if you know me at all, I am kind of a weirdo. ;) Also, this list is a work in progress, I will probably add on to this as the years go by!

1. Volunteer in an Orphanage
2. Learn to speak Spanish fluently
3. Go to England
4. Write a book
5. Write an entire album worth of songs
6. Record said album
7. Become the voice of a Disney Princess
8. Get my bachelor's degree
9. Go to Australia
10. Go on a safari in Africa
11. Learn Guitar
12. Learn Piano (mom, help!)
13. Live in NYC for at least a little while
14. Build my parentals a house
15. Go to a music festival (or multiple)
16. Preform for a big crowd
17. Have my own clothing line
18. Adopt/foster children (older ones not babies)
19. Be on the Amazing Race with my bestest friend
20. Meet the cast of the Hunger Games
21. Meet the cast of Harry Potter

So that so far is my list, nothing super exciting and I know what y'all are thinking, 'be a Disney princess voice? Really Rachel?'. Seriously, yes. That has been my dream since I was little, will it ever happen? Probably not, but, I am a big believer in having dreams.

Until next time!
<3
Rachel

Birthdays and Sunburns

 This past week (as I said in my previous post) I was in Sardinia, Italy. Sardinia is more than I could have ever dreamed, the sea was so clear the weather was perfect and the company was amazing. While on holiday I also had my birthday! I am now the ripe old age of 22, people keep asking me if I 'feel' 22 but since I have never been 22 how am I supposed to know what it feels like? I don't really feel older, and I can't bring myself to listen to Taylor Swift tell me what 22 supposedly feels like.

I will admit though, it wasn't all sunshine and daisies there, I had a complete meltdown on my birthday. I have decided that I truely do miss my family, like, a lot. I used my host mom's phone since mine is broken and I called my mom and just cried to her like a little baby. By the end of the phone call I felt much better but since my phone is still broken, this means I can't talk to anyone in my family. I am still super homesick but hopefully i'll be able to buy a new phone soon and get over that homesickness.

My birthday is not only my birthday, not only is it Lilja's (who was a jerk and left me ;P), it is also my host dad's! We had an amazing tart like cake with tons of fruit, a big south african style barbecue and went to the beach and just generally had fun. I am so greatful I am with the family I am with, they are amazing and are always there for me when I need them. For my birthday I got a beautiful, matching coral bracelet and necklace, a beautiful hand fan and some Kerestase hair product! This will defenitely not be a birthday I forget, ever. My sister, Marisa, was telling me that when she turned 22 she was in Australia. I turned 22 here in Italy and now I think my younger sister Tiana wants to continue this tradition and turn 22 somewhere cool and foreign!

Me, Gio, Annamaria, Ugo, Matteo

Annamaria and I

here you can see a bit of my lobsterness

My nose got hit hard and is still red haha

Now onto the sunburn bit, I obviously forgot how white I was and how hot the Italian sun is because I turned into a lobster. Now though, I  am a nice bronze colour with minimal peeling. The FIRST day though I burned the back of my knees, after falling asleep on the beach. That is one place I can say I have never burned and hope to never repeat the experience. Holy crap it freaking hurts, and then my skin got so tight and it hurt to walk. I really know how to kick off a vacation ;). Anywhoooo this is what's going on in my life right now, tans, slight homesick depression, birthdays and broken phones.

Until next time

<3

Rachel