ItaTube Adventures

Conventions are something I never thought I would partake in, mainly because while I am a huge nerd/fangirl I try really hard to hide that side of me from the everyday world. Now, don't think I am totally against them, I am most certainly not, they just never seemed to be my cup of tea.

A month or so ago this fantastic girl named Alice posted in a facebook group for Au Pairs, about the convention and asked if anyone else would want to go with her. For some reason I was like, "hey sure, why not?" even though for years I had sworn to myself I would never go to one. This one wasn't like a comicon or anything though, it was a YouTube convention and I LOVE YouTube, I spend a little too much time on it to be completely honest. I have a few YouTubers I watch religiously like Danisnotonfire, Amazingphil, Tyler Oakley, and Marcus Butler.

 

Sadly for me only 50% of my favourites were at this specific convention but, that's okay because Marcus and Tyler are fantastic. 

So my weekend in Milan for ItaTube started on Friday when I took the train from Mantova to Milano Centrale at 13:55. The train ride went well but this was the first time travelling by myself and as a girl that can be scary. I was definitely hit on more than I am when I travel with friends, I did that whole "I can't hear you because I have headphones in" thing most of the time and a couple other times I just awkwardly smiled because, lesbihonest, I am quite the awkward person. Once I got to Centrale I had to take the metro to Garabaldi to get to my hotel, the ever so fantastic Holiday Inn (and honestly I can't say the name Holiday Inn without singing the song). While walking to the hotel I realized something very important that I forgot back at my casa. My passport. Who the HECK forgets their passport while they are abroad? Rachel that's who. I had my VA License on me but I had a sneaky suspicion that that would not work and alas I was correct. Luckily for me the people were very nice and waited for my host family to send me a photocopy of my passport so I could check in to my room. While waiting my friend James came and he proceeded to learn and then demolish me in my favourite Italian card game,  Briscola. I felt so stupid because for weeks prior to this I had been telling him I was going to slaughter him at this game, which I do to everyone else, by the way literally no one beats me at home. But of course he just HAD to win. It was very frustrating, you could feel his smugness throughout the hotel. That night Alice met up with us at the hotel and we proceeded to go out to eat and then walk around that area of Milan and being special people, that includes playing on a playground at 430 am. Twas quite a good night if I'm being completely honest! 

The park Alice, James and I played in during the wee hours of the morning

Saturday! Alice and I had planned to get up a little bit earlier to eat breakfast and and get ready to head over to the convention but, we didn't get in until really late the night before so we were a bit slower in the morning than planned. When we got to the venue, as we suspected there was a massive queue with 100's of teenagers, we got in fairly quickly though and it was fun to be around a ton of like minded people. Once in we immediately game planned to see who we wanted to go to first and then who to go to after that and we thought we were set. First we went and saw Oli White, that went smoothly and was pretty cool. Then I wanted to see Tyler Oakley, like literally everyone else in the building, I got up really close to the beginning, like I was almost on stage and they cut off the line and they said no more. I was so sad but Marcus and the YouTube boy band were still and option so I queued up for that and waited for a bit but had a bit of a claustrophobia induced panic attack. I went and sat down for awhile where there weren't a ton of people and calmed down. By the time I decided to get back in the queue Alice was at the very front and they (once again) cut off people going up to see the boys. They relented and let a handful of girls on the stage, (including Alice) but there was no way I was getting on, SO

FRUSTRATING. That night there was an after party at a club that we got all dolled up to go to and once we got there we were queued up again *sigh*. This queue was also ridiculous and just a cluster of people (Italians have no idea how to queue) we eventually decided it wasn't worth it and went back to the hotel and watched YouTube videos and then went to bed. We are such crazy partiers.

 Sunday! The final day in Milano *insert super depressed face here*, anyone who has talked to me recently knows I have an extreme love for Milan, almost as much as I love pandas and trust me, that's a lot of love. We got up later than we planned (again) and headed on over to the event just like on Saturday. This time when we got there the outside of the venue was queue free and we just got to
waltz right in. There were way less people there than the day before and the organization, at the beginning of the day, seemed to be a lot better. Alas I was wrong, it went downhill fairly quickly and I didn't end up seeing anyone that day because I had another panic attack and my feet were killing me. I literally wore the worst shoes possible and now my pinkie toes are torn apart, I would add a picture but it really is just so disgusting. Alice got to meet Louise though and promptly had a meltdown after she got off of the stage, it was so cute! haha To be fair though I would probably have one if I met one of my favourite people ever. We ended up leaving early because we were just so frustrated with everything, we went to McDonald's for lunch *barf* and then caught trains to our respective towns.

In the end am I a little blown about the event? Yes. Do I regret going? No. Why you may ask? Because I made an awesome friend and got to stay in Milan again for the weekend! Anyways I don't have anything really exciting coming up so if my posts won't be as long. Sorry if this one was ridiculously long and boring! 

<3 Rachel

Easter, Chocolate and a Sick Rachel

This week had a very good start, has had a crappy duration but will have a phenomenal end.As every single one of you know Easter was this Sunday! This was my first Easter away from family and it was really weird, I didn't think being away for such a small holiday would effect me like it did. I didn't cry but some homesickness set in that I wasn't prepared for! I miss my family, you know I thought it was going to take me months before I was going to miss them because lesbihonest, I was SO ready to be out of my parent's house. I was on the verge of committing murder some days when it came to my siblings so this sense of homesickness is weird. I guess though that this shows that I really do love them, it just took moving to Italy to realize it ;) . I'm joking of course, I definitely love my siblings all 500 of them and I miss them like crazy but moving out was the best possible decision for me!

So we'll start with Sunday! Sunday morning the boys and I opened up our gigantic chocolate eggs and broke up the pieces and put them in a communal Tupperware! Mine was white chocolate with crunchy bits in the chocolate, what more can a girl ask for? Absolutely nothing that's what, I could ask for nothing more. We then went to my host dad's parent's house for an Easter lunch! They did a barbecue and despite their best efforts it was not as good as an American BBQ, sorry Italians! I was already starting to feel ill on Sunday so when we got back to the house I took a nap, I love naps, I really do.

The Monday after Easter is a holiday here so everyone was home and we had ANOTHER bbq at the house with my host mum's brother and his wife and my host dad's parents. It was soooo filling, I haven't been able to eat as much as I used to but darn if I didn't try on Monday. By Monday my nose decided to stop working and I started using more tissues than I had ever used in my life. Fast forward to tonight and I am now snotty, sore and have almost no voice. This is just a beautiful way to feel, the first thing I thought this morning when I heard myself breathe was "you sound like Darth Vader".....gross. 

This weekend though I am FINALLY going to ItaTube with my friend Alice. I have been excited for this for what seems like forever! I am quite sad Danisnotonfire won't be there since he is like my internet spirit animal but I will get through this trying time! I will definitely be posting lots of pictures and how the trip went! Pray I don't sound or feel like I do right now, this weekend! With that I will leave you with a little bit of Dan.

<3
Rachel

Italian vs. Italian American Food

Food. If anyone knows me at all they know I love food, a lot. Granted i'm pretty sure most people love food and if they don't there is probably something wrong with them. Honestly my only incentive to go to social gatherings at this point is the food. If there is no food there is no point in attending, good thing i'm mormon, they always have food at their events.

Now since I was little my favourite food has always been lasagna, and basically anything pasta and or italian related. Moving to Italy was the obvious choice for me, I mean Italian food you guys, so good. Back home, or just in the U.S.A in general we tend to drown our food in sauces and have massive portions of literally everything, I was excited to come here and have eating a ton of that on a daily basis be socially acceptable.

But alas, I was wrong. American Italian food is not the same at authentic Italian food. I mean yeah, they have pasta and they have the basic stuff we have but they use very little sauce, pretty much none to be honest. I was raised with the saying 'would you like a little pasta with that sauce' or anything along those lines, which includes gravy. So coming here I was shocked, but you know it still tastes just as good, if not better. I finally found a lasagna I like just as much as my mom's and it may be even a little bit better (sorry mom) and i'm trying things I have never even heard of, life is fantastic. Another thing I found interesting is I ask about certain 'Italian' foods we have back home and my host family have never even heard of them. Take Stromboli for instance, I love stromboli, when I was in High School fridays were my favourite lunch food day because it was stomboli day. Here I cook lunch for the boys every day and when I decided to get adventerous and make stromboli they were so confused as to what I was making. They loved it and request that I make it a lot but, it's so funny to me that what we call Italian food in America is not even known over here.

My last bit for today is about weight gain. Something I would do a lot of, which is also something I couldn't really afford to do. Everyone was telling before I left to be careful because i'm 'going to italy the food is so good and you're gonna gain a ton of weight'. Thanks guys for that motivation, real kind of you. I have been wanting to lose weight for awhile but I get so demotivated so fast when it comes to exercise and diet plans so I had just stopped trying.

Fun fact though! Since the portion sizes here are smaller and the food I am eating is fresher I have been getting healthier, not turing into an even bigger whale! In fact since I got here in January I have lost 27lbs. That is a lot for me but still not enough, so with the motivation of losing weight without even doing anything I am going to try and do some minor exercise to help tone and speed things along. Who knew all it took was moving to Italy to lose weight? ;)

Regardless of whether I am in Italy or America I will always love food but, what i've learned in the 3 months i've been here is portion control is my friend and that self acceptance is key in life. If you don't feel pretty in your own skin you're never going to have the motivation to change the things you hate.

<3 Rachel
 P.S. my best friend and I started a fashion blog that post modest outfit ideas and the links of where you can get the pieces! Two Closets one Standard check it out and show us some love!

Me Vs. You

So basically my friend Shenna is amazing and has just released a song, and while I may be a little biased I think it is AMAZING. It has such a good message to it and is definitely the type of music we need to be hearing on the radio! So all of y'all should go check it out and like her page on facebook, follow her on twitter and follow her soundcloud!!! This girl is definitely going places and i'm so proud of her! <3

https://soundcloud.com/shennasmusic/me-vs-you

http://www.twitter.com/_2shameless

https://www.facebook.com/ShennasMusic

Milan pt. 2

MILAN! Oh how I love Milan, so so much. Last weekend Lilja and I went to Milan and had a fantastic time! I got reacquainted with working the metro system ( I like Milan's better than D.C.'s much much cheaper) and got to wander around like the tourist that I am. We even found a good Leonardo DiVinci museum which had a ton of his inventions and some original papers from his codex's, it was super interesting! We then went shopping at H&M and went into the Duomo and into the Galleria/Mall. Seriously so in love with Milan.

 

 So while we were there we did not really experience much of the night life until saturday night when we met up with a friend of mine, he showed us a place outside that had a massive gathering of Italian young adults. Sadly I am quite stupid and decided to not bring my jacket with me, it has become quite big on me and it's just uncomfortable, I assumed I wouldn't really need it anyways, I was quite wrong. I'm pretty sure while Lilja and I were sitting on the steps to the Duomo getting hit on by old men I turned into a Popsicle.  

This Sunday we are going to go explore some more, possibly Parma or somewhere close to us. If this wasn't obvious i'm loving life and I love Italia!

Ciao!
Rachel