Catch Me If You Can

I’ve been traveling for a little over a month now and I’m finally getting settled. The first month was much more chaotic than I had anticipated. My first stop was Italy. I had flown from Seattle to Milan to visit my host family that I lived with from high school. Each time I visit them is always a heartwarming experience since I consider them real family. I’m lucky that I have gotten to visit them and see them as much as I have (5 times now including this trip) since I lived with them eight years ago.  Host family selfie (missing my other host sister, Ari) at Duomo in Milan Spending time with my Italian family is always like I never left. I have my room, I take naps on the couch with my orange blanket, I watch the news with my host dad, I help my host mom in the kitchen, I see my host sisters when I can, I bike around my village, I visit family friends and friends from school, and I eat a lotttt. My heart and tummy are so full every time I revisit. _______________________...

Hello! My name is Rachael. I was born and raised mostly in Seattle, Washington (having lived in Oregon for university, and studied abroad in Northern Italy, Peru, and Morocco before). I spent the past 1.5-2 years living and working in Seattle with two goals; to pay off all my student debt, and save money to travel the world. I just quit my job at the end of April and this past weekend marked one month of being on the road.  I have been traveling on my own since I was 16 when I moved to Italy. Some of my interests include languages (Currently only speak English and Italian, but am working on Spanish, French, Mandarin and Arabic), environment, cultures, archaeology, global affairs, geography, history, food, dancing, hiking and the outdoors. I plan to travel for at least a year, but we’ll see where things take me. I was originally going to keep a journal, but I realized it would be far from convenient to lug around multiple journals with me on this kind of journey. Anyhow, the pur...