Happy Birthday

Cooper Wesley Burningham

October 8, 2013

This guy is finally a grandpa!

Aaaand....this is why I was homesick.

I love this baby boy and his parents so much. 

Can't wait to meet him in a few months.

peace and nephews

aunt rachel

vienna, austria

My creative juices aren't quite flowing right now. Today the homesickness hit. And it hit hard. If you're reading this, sitting in America, and know me better than just as an acquaintance, chances are you crossed my mind more than once today.

Especially my family. Dang Gina. I miss them.

So if you know any fantastic cures for homesickness, let me know! For right now I'm sticking with eating all the snacks my mom sent with me and looking through photos of home. I'm sure to feel better by doing this, right!? (sarcasm intended) Oh, and as a heads up for advice that is sure to flow from you, going home isn't an option. I will not return to America until the middle of December. Case closed. (Aaaand that was me giving myself a pep talk. I'm super self-supportive. And I don't know even know if that makes sense. Like I said. No juices flowin')

So for now! Pictures.
*surprise*

After Budapest, I was a little bit doubtful that anything could be better. And then I went to Vienna. I didn't take as many pictures, but maybe that's because I was just having too good of a time.

 Hofburg Winter Palace and current office of the Austrian president.

Also the balcony where Hitler gave one of his most famous speeches.

One of the biggest shopping mall areas I've ever seen. I wanted all the things.

Including attractive European man in the cardigan.

Biggest regret? Not buying and eating all of these.

St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Whenever I see a flower shop I think of my mom. And then take a picture.

Not sure what this building is, but hey.

Thumbs up for Vienna.

Vienna City Hall. Also known as The Rauthus Building.

 These colors are furreals people.

And then we found a stone table and sat at it.

Votive Church. 

Which H&M is currently using as an advertisement during construction.

#bummer

 Parliament Building

 Apparently the second level of the fountain is where you throw your coins in order to find love.

I missed.

#singleforlife

I mean, who doesn't love a fluted Corinthian styled column?

#shoutout #motherwood #arthistory

And this is a full on, cheese infused, foot long, bratwurst hot dog thing.

I wish I could tell you more about the history of the places I've seen. But...the tour was all in Russian. Yeah, this might seem like a major oversight. But hey, I was still in Vienna. Eating dairy filled meat.

Can you beat that?

peace and princess sissi
look her up. she was super major in vienna a couple hundred years ago. and completely intriguing to me.

rrw

ps. For the record, I still am so happy here. Just missing the people who mean most to me. Which, you know, is kind of a good thing if you think about it. Ok. I'm done.

meet the family

So I've been here in Ukraine for a month. Can you believe it? I know, I know. You woke up this morning thinking, "Man, Rachel has been in Ukraine for a month. I wonder what her family is like. I hope they treat her well and feed her breakfast...mmm...breakfast. I think I'll go eat some Lucky Charms..."

Yeah? Those your exact thoughts? Well, I can't help you out much with the Lucky Charms, but I can tell you what my family here is like. I realized that basically none of you at home know anything about the people I live with. For all you know I'm living in a park somewhere with a clan of hobos. Or with the mafia. Which would be so cool. But I guess if I were living with the mafia I wouldn't really know it...

Anyway. I don't know for sure whether I'm living with members of the mafia or not, but I do know that I'm not living in a park with hobos. What a relief, right?

My family here is hilarious and kind and resourceful and grateful and completely hospitable. They try to teach me Russian and every night that usually just ends in laughter. They teach me Ukrainian and European history and give me perspective on what others really think of America-both the bad and the good. They share and they compliment and they tease. They sometimes teach me slang terms, take me thrift shopping, and show me around town. They demand that I put on warmer shoes to go the park, which made me laugh for an hour because it reminded me so much of my mom. #illneverlearn

I scored, right?

Two nights ago my family invited me to go for a walk through the nearby park. Aka, GIANT FOREST IN THE MIDDLE OF KIEV. Seriously. It was so cool. There were ponds and rides and ropes courses and paved trails and dirt trails and little fires and a babushka with goats. The air was the cleanest I've smelled in over a month. I convinced my mom and sisters to go on the Ferris Wheel with me because sometimes I'm a five year old.

Do you see how endless this park is!?

We found a squirrel and fed it walnuts that our babushka had grown herself at her home in the village. (aka country.) My 8 year old sister held my hand the whole way through the park while my 16 year old sister told me how we can go ice skating on some of the ponds during the winter if they freeze over. I had brought my camera and they love it so naturally a little photo session went down. Dang man. If I could look like a Ukrainian...

I obviously really knew what was going on here.

Are we Ukrainian, American, or Asian?

And then this happened and I'm still not sure about it.

Upon returning home, I found that I wanted to eat everything. Which is normal if you know me. Exasperated, I said, "Man! I have the munchies so bad!" Curious, my 16 year old sister asked, "Munchies? What are munchies?" I explained that the munchies are a state of being in which everything salty, sweet, and nice must enter your body, despite the fact that you are not actually hungry.

She chuckled and translated for my family, who looked at me curiously. All of the sudden my host dad jumped up from the table, went to the fridge, and pulled out a full on cake with chocolate, whipped cream, and peanuts. He held it out to me and said, "Munchies?" I tried to refuse, but it was too late. We all sat down and ate cake together, them laughing and repeating "munchies" over and over again and me smiling and eating cake, proud that I had successfully introduced them to my way of life.

These are the type of people I live with. They understand the munchies. I am being taken care of.

peace and peanut cake

rrw

budapest, hungary

Dear Budapest,

Hi. Remember me? I was a member of that giant tour group of Ukrainians that recently visited your beautiful buildings and bridges and baths. No, I didn't actually go to the baths due to my lack of swimming suit, but you still did not disappoint. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

Our relationship started off a little rough, didn't it? I have to say that the guards on the boarder between Ukraine and Hungary weren't the most pleasant people I've met. But then again, it was 3 in the morning, I had been on a cramped and sweltering hot bus for the last 17 hours, and then forced to stand in the freezing cold for another half hour. At that point I probably would have looked at the Easter Bunny and seen an unpleasant rodent carrying diseases and hatred to the world. So I bet the guards were actually quite nice.

After the adventure in "U-Hungary" (which we dubbed the border as) I found myself wandering with friends around your old and magnificent buildings, parks, monuments, and streets, taking pictures of everything and trying to figure out which of the five currencies in my wallet would help me buy a ring from the huger-than-huge flea market.

Maybe you could teach America a few tips on how to throw a real yard sale? Because we're obviously not doing it right.

"This is the best! I'm in Budapest!"

 #whatsinyourwallet

#mastercardgotnothin

 i mean...it WAS selfie-sunday

There must have been something magical in your air, because for spending a day, evening, and night on a bus, we didn't look as terrible as I expected. But I might have had my expectations lower than low when it came to my appearance...

But when I ended the morning sitting on the lap of a creepy looking statue in order to make a wish, I felt that you had done right by me...

...and then you up and outdid yourself with that dang Fisherman's Castle! The view of The Parliament Building, the bridges, and the river was outstanding. The castle itself was beautiful as well. So now I'm trying to figure out what that fisherman must have caught in order to have such a place constructed. I mean, like, I'll take up fishing if that's what it takes.

I mean I even did a back bend pose in your honor.

That never happens.

Really.

So hey Budapest. Let's be friends. I'll come see you again and I'll bring my suit. Then it'll be a real party.

peace and castles

rrw