heels

Ohmygosh New Years was a blast. I have bruises on my feet because I decided to be brave and try heels at an all night dance party. But oh hey, let's give 500 life points to me because despite my footwear I didn't fall or roll my ankle once. While dancing. This is a big deal.

Also,  my little sister is having a party tonight with her friends. I swear, she has more friends in this house than I ever did in all of junior high and high school combined. But you know who I did and still do have?

My best friend.
Shoot dang did we have a riot on New Years.

It's amazing what determination, self timer, and a tripod can do for ya. Aka. I have dozens and dozens of these photos. And I love everyone of them.

peace and sparkling cider

rrw

winter wonderland

I've typed and retyped the opening paragraph for this post about 8 different times. Nothing's working for me. So I'm just going to cut to the chase and post the pictures.

I had a happy afternoon with my co teacher Amanda at the last stop on the metro. We're rebellious. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas/I'll be home for Christmas/Walking in a winter wonderland/Santa Baby?

peace and sweater boots

rrw

varna, bulgaria

Remember that one time me and three other 20-somethings traveled through Bulgaria entirely on our own? Yeah. That was a miracle. After establishing our home base in Burgas, we did a few day trips to nearby coastal cities. We loved them all.

The first we went to was Varna. Now, I haven't recounted all the adventures we had while en-route from Kiev to Burgas because to do so would take more time than Nicholas Flamel has on his hands. But let me assure you that there was some crazy business going down. And I loved it.

BUT. The point of that was that we met and befriended the most wonderful person alive. Iliana. She was our little Bulgarian angel who took pity on the four completely bewildered Americans. It is because of her that I'm not currently lying on the floor, crying, in the Sofia Airport. This angel-woman lives in Varna, so after exploring around the city a little bit, we met up with her again to eat some ice cream, visit her favorite spot on the beach, and talk about gypsies.

Our first stop of the day: THIS GIANT FARMERS MARKET.

Best bananas of our lives.

Whaaa....free water?!

 Andrew decided to become Eastern European.

These boys don't know how to feel about it.

But hey, they wanted to be in the picture so they're cool.

Poor Iliana.

She didn't realize what she had gotten herself into.

ILIANA

 ^^^ It kind of became tradition, ok?

And these ^^^ are the awesome people I got to spend my week with.

And then there's me.

hey boys hey.

These two photos...just make me laugh.

OF COURSE he wasn't looking.

And of course this is how I reacted.

give me back my camera...please?

I just super lucked out with these people.

The day ended with a beautiful sunset and us walking down a sketchy road to catch our bus back home. Which in all reality became a sort of theme of the vacation. Us. Walking in sketchy areas. Good times. GOOD times.

peace and laundry

my clothes are literally hanging on every possible area of our apartment. these ukrainians i live with are way too good to me.

rrw

my name is rachel and i'm a hoarder

"...hi rachel."

The last week of my life has been dedicated to many important things. Reading Harry Potter duh. trekking to Provo for a few days of work, singing to Katy Perry's new single, working out phone and money stuff for Ukraine like a pro, eating Oreos, having dishrag whipping wars with Caroline oh i lost bad. and have the welt to prove it trying sushi for the first time in my life holla!, and sleeping at ridiculous hours. 

I've also gone through all of my possessions at least three times, trying to get rid of clothes that I didn't even remember existed, figuring out just how many different hair softening products I need, and debating whether I will ever want to don that ring from 7th grade that has googly eyes embedded in it. i mean, maybe? I've given away bags of clothes and have sufficiently organized my jewelry into what could pass as acceptable apparel for my age. Maybe.

But the one thing I cannot and will not give away? Notes. Letters. Tickets. Valentines. Birthday greetings. Anything that anyone has ever written me. I will go through my box of cards every year, trying to see what I could throw out in an attempt to streamline my hoard, but every time I keep them all. And it's because I read them all. And I smile and I tear up and I laugh and I remember and I put that little piece of paper right back where it was.

I remember the cards I have thrown out in previous years, when I lost all sense of nostalgia and sentiment for an hour and went on a recycling rampage. I regret those rampages already because I miss all those little notes and encouragement and tokens of love.

So, if you have ever written me one of those things, thank you. Whether you signed it, left it anonymous, wrote on the back of a napkin or folded it into a swan, I kept it. And it still means so much to me.

peace and cheetos

rrw

a look into the galaxy*

*the title of the post was chosen because almost every single thing represented in this post came from my phone, the samsung galaxy. so i thought it would be clever. and i couldn't think of anything else. so go with it?

Happy Monday everyone. I'm not entirely sure what the theme of this post is going to be. It could be the crush of the week, #nomakeupmonday, the events of my weekend, how I'm doing with the Harry Potter marathon I've got going, or the terrible dream I had last night that made me wake up with my heart beating faster than ever, convincing me that I was about to have a heart attack. stupid heart murmur. freaking me out. 

Anyway, it might just end up being all of the above. And you know what? I'm going to make it a bullet list of sorts. Because the whole connecting thoughts thing isn't going to fly right now. Let's begin.


~Maybe we should all meander over to the campus food court. My sources tell me that the new Chik-fil-a there is open for the first time today, and my sources are never wrong because my sources are my tastebuds.

~At one point over the weekend I found myself on the couch watching Becoming Jane by myself. It was quite late. I might have shed tears. And immediately sent a text to my best friend who I knew would understand, seeing as the first time we saw it in theaters she sobbed for almost a half hour after the show had ended.

Here's another conversation we had. This is pretty typical.

We should probably work on our self-esteem huh? We're just way too hard on ourselves and each other.

#worldsgreatest #rkelly

~Speaking of Becoming Jane, James McAvoy is totally the crush of the week. He kind of even reminds me of a friend of mine...

~Last week I decided I needed to reread the Harry Potter masterpieces. My dear friend has the complete set and is letting me borrow them and it's been magical. Literally. Here are a few moments from my reading thus far:

I always thought this was clever and funny.

That awesome moment when you realize the Weasley twins hit Voldemort in the face with snowballs repeatedly.

And this always gives me chills.

~Maybe it's all the Harry Potter in my life recently that's giving me bad dreams. After receiving an email late at night in which Bathilda Bagshot was discussed, I then proceeded to have the worst nightmare of my life. I was alone in a sort of hotel/hospital/jail type place. As I climbed the stairs and made my way down a hall, a hunched figure turned the corner and stared at me. I turned and immediately began running down the stairs which became and endless staircase that kept bringing me back to this:

ererrrghgggghghh

~I don't want to leave off on that ^^^^ note, so here are some pictures from the most recent wedding I attended. Yeah, I'm a moron and didn't get one with the bride and groom, but they looked spectacular, as did the mountains. And I got to do some selfies with this girl so it's all good.

Little Cottonwood Canyon

 Snowbird.

Let the skiing season begin already.

And then this guy tried to photobomb us doing a selfie so we just asked him to join in.

#fatherofthegroom #hemightworkforthecia #wedontknow #uneasyface

peace and water parks

gotta hit that place up all week

rrw