i moved to paris on my own

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

Don't make me go on the street. Hello from Paris. There's a lot to talk about, but a quick overview is I'm I've made it to Paris. I'm staying in David's apartment for the next like two and a half months. I'm slowly getting settled in. If you're wondering like why the hell am I here and you missed some of my last videos, I have been wanting to try out living in Paris for a while now, like for a longer stint. I actually applied for a whole ass visa to be able to stay here for a long time.

And this is kind of my trial run to see if I would want to live here more permanently. And I'm going back to school. I'm going to French school, but it is 5 days a week. It's kind of intensive at IOUS. I felt like it was time for me to just try something really different, do something that scares me. I was like, why don't I move to Paris by myself for a little while and have a bit of a solo adventure. I only know a couple people here and some of them are gone.

Like Damon and Moya are not even here. RP. And so I feel like I'm kind of like starting from scratch a little bit. I'm 26. I'm going to turn 27 while I'm here. And I feel like I'm leaving behind like all my usual comforts to really experience a completely new city and country and culture. Sometimes you have to just be like, "Let's do this thing." Because life only gets trickier and more busy. And I didn't want to wait around until a friend or maybe a partner or whatever would do it with me.

I'm like, if I want to do this thing, I just got to do it. And so now I'm here. I'm having a quarter life crisis if you can't tell. The classic, let me move abroad. So from Par. My French is absolute mad. But I'm excited to learn and be here, put myself out there and meet new people and kind of experience a different way of living, you know? So, back to being little miss independent and figuring this out. Let me give you a tour in case you somehow haven't seen this apartment on the internet already.

Here's Damon's beautiful apartment. Not a bad little work view. So nice in here. I already picked up some books that I want to read next. I'm excited about. Got this gallery wall and extra mattress if some friends come. Already went and ordered myself some 4 kg weights and some workout bands so I can still get my workouts in as traveling. Just recently unpacked and got all my goods in here. You don't need to see all that. Um you got the bathroom, you got the kitchen, and then above the kitchen is bedroom.

The sun is out. I'm so happy. It's been straight rain and gloom. So, taking myself on a little sten walk trying to get that vitamin D. Maybe I'm bleeding and I wonder if you really plan this all along. I don't know how Damon does this all the time. I'm going to fall to my death one of these mornings. It's like my feet don't even fit on the steps. They're literally too big. I do it sideways. Okay. Anyways, good morning. Hi. I actually signed up to go to a red club this morning, which I'm very nervous about.

Um, a sweet subscriber named Charlotte DM'd me about it. I was like, I should try this out. Putting my money where my mouth is cuz when I feel like talking about making friends, I'm like, it's good to go to like a sporting activity or something like that. Problem is though, I ran a half marathon in May, like almost June, and I have barely run since, like maybe twice a month max. I have been working out consistently, so I'm hoping that helps, but I'm a little nervous. Okay, we got to get ready to go.

Let's go run. I'm with Charlotte. Me? And what did we just do? We did we just pull a 7.5K? We did. Yeah. With a group of very fast runners through Paris. Yes. And it was good. I'm glad we did it. I'm impressed. You were like, I'm going to go slow and I was like going to It's not that long of a run, but I was tired. But we did it. Yeah, we did it. Now we're going to go fast. got a good run in and that was so humbling. We only ran like 4 and 1/2 miles, maybe five.

And I was struggling to finish and everyone there was just like, "Oh yeah, it's a chill social run, warm up, but I've barely run since I finished my half marathon." So, it was a bit hard, but I'm glad I went. It's cool to try out a running club as a way to touch with some people you maybe wouldn't meet otherwise. Hey, just getting a little bit of work done here before I head out for a little bit of an exploratory day. And want to take a second to thank today's sponsor, Grammarly.

I love Grammarly. I've had it downloaded on my computer for a while now and it is so damn helpful. If you're unfamiliar, it's an AI power writing tool that basically helps professionals and students across the board. I found it really amazing to help with just being more productive and efficient and have more of an impact like with my work. They've got you covered with all these really helpful features. Like I love having Grammarly installed on my computer. So, when it comes to helping with my work, I found it super helpful with my scripting and organizing different notes and coming up with new ideas.

and it can help me with suggesting different topics and even tips on how to start with different concepts, even rewriting emails. I really love their rewriting feature. Basically, all I need to do is highlighted a text, open Grammarly, and ask Grammarly to make it more exciting or formal, and literally with just the click, it becomes more polished and refined. I found it to be such an amazing resource, and I know it's the same for a lot of my friends who are working as professionals, as well as for students like my sister who's a grad student, loves Grammarly.

And of course, everything will be linked down below. So you can download Grammarly for free and you can get premium for 20% off if you want to check it out. So shout out Grammarly. Love you guys. I'm going to get a little bit more work done here. And then let's do some Parisian exploring. The sun is out, which is a blessing. And so let's explore a little bit of Paris. I think we should explore a little bit of Ro. I feel like I always says and you know I feel like it's generally pretty peaceful over there.

Okay. I'm on a dreamy little Sunday to myself and there's so many people out and about. It feels really good to just be here. also just spent like an hour at a bookstore and got several books which we love. I'm sitting in the stunning Luxembourg Gardens. If you've seen some of my past videos, I feel like this has been a bit of an ongoing theme, but it's something I've particularly really wanted to explore in like this season of life. I think it's so important to explore your relationship and comfortability with yourself and learning to really have fun with yourself and on your own.

At the end of the day, it's you and your little body and your little brain and your little boss that you're going home with. You're not allowed to judge me for this. I'm going to expose myself here. You know that cheesy Tik Tok where it's this guy going to bed and he's like, "Good night to me. I love myself. I'm my favorite person in the world." He's like, "Good night to me. I love myself so much. I mean the world to me. I may have done that the last night or two.

That made me feel better. I'm finding a lot of peace today in particular, being like, "Hell yeah, I got myself. I'm having fun doing my thing." Also, since being here, I will say I've reached out to people I normally wouldn't reach out to, going on little friend dates with kind of just like random people that maybe if I was in New York, I wouldn't have carved out the time to see. And it's been like so lovely hearing other people's life stories and the way they think and have made decisions and, you know, created different life paths for themselves.

I'm kind of starting over from scratch after having built like a pretty beautiful life for myself in another place. But at the same time, I'm like, that's what life is about, y'all. You know, life's short. I feel like you should do those things that scare you. If the opportunity presents itself, if it's just fear that's stopping you, it's worth working through. Hey, back from school. Just finished class. Figured I should do a little update. I'm back at school Monday through Friday, 5 days a week for about 3 and 1 half hours every morning.

And then as of late, I either work at So House after cuz it's not so far or I come back to the apartment I'm staying at and I work for the rest of the evening. And then I've been trying to be social. So that's kind of been my like new routine in Paris. And I think honestly for one, finding a class or some type of routine if you're moving somewhere new is so helpful. For one, for giving you structure and just like social interaction. I've also been like reaching out to a lot of people and kind of just like putting myself out there socially and I think this is like a good muscle to exercise.

I feel like people are always like, "How did you make your friends in New York?" And you know, it took a while, but I'm like putting those tits back into practice now again as a 26-year-old in a new city, which is interesting. I have a date tonight. It's always fun to people meet new people and kind of if anything, just like learn more about yourself with these experiences. So, we'll see about that. But it's still a city. Like no place is perfect. It still has its pros and its cons. Busy and the whole deal.

But for me, coming from New York, it's really, really, really special to be here. And just being in a new setting is so revitalizing. It's such like a refresh of your energy, the way you're thinking and interacting. But I do think just a refresh of some sort is so powerful. Okay. See two hiding. Everything in life feels very frightening. And I love it so much that I long. So, but it's not my own life and they might help you as well. Also, you'll ask there's a difference. Most people take notes for the short term.

It's like they take notes just for Oh god. off to morning class. I'm even more tired than we look. But at least it's not pouring rain today. Little winding so hard. I think life's all about me and it's hardly Hello from the streets of Paris. I finished my French class. Now I have a little workout class. I'm going with an internet friend, Lolita, that I'm meeting for the first time. We followed each other for a while and I was like, "Do you want to come to Berries with me?" And thankfully she was down for it.

So now we're going to go work out together. So good. Hello. The sun's about to set, so let's go on a little evening walk. Take a little work break. Oh my all I need from you to me. Oh my mind is all I need from you to me. Oh my intimacy is all I need from you to me. I'm just having a little night in a little final check-in for this particular vlog of how it's been. I obviously haven't recorded every day since being here and there have been some highs and some lows already.

Overall, my overarching feeling is I'm like, I'm so proud of myself for being here. Do it even when no one else can do it with you and you have to learn to like trust and rely on yourself. I'm not going to like sugarcoat it. Some like highs and lows. There definitely are moments where I'm like, this is tiring. It's hard doing life on your own. And I feel like I've always been independent, even when I don't necessarily want to be. I've just learned to really take care of myself. There's highs and lows.

I maybe was crying a lot last night cuz I was like, "Fuck, I'm tired of being alone." I feel like I've learned to be okay. me, man. And then tonight, I'm chilling. I'm reading my little book. I'm cozy. I'm vibing. Like, it really changes daytoday. I do think in the evenings those kinds of lonely thoughts and feelings can really settle in a bit stronger unless you create some like practices that combat it. And I've gone on a couple dates since being here. There's pros and cons. Even if it's not like a good match with somebody, you learn a little bit more about yourself, but there's also times where you're like, "Oh, that made me feel worse." Sometimes if a date's not great, you come back feeling lonier than when you left.

And you know, it's okay and it's normal to feel tired of taking care of yourself and having to regulate your own emotions and take care of your own completely on your own all the time. Hopefully, this makes sense. I feel like I usually don't talk about these feelings, but I mean, that's kind of the whole point of having a channel like this is to hopefully find community and these weird stages of life and these chapters that some of us are going through. would love to just be a soft girl and a bit tired of, you know, doing it all on your own.

But at the same time, I don't think it should hold you back from doing the things that you want to do. Don't wait around until someone comes along and gives you permission or says they'll do it with you. Like if there's certain things you've always wanted to be doing and you just have to go do them. Life is only going to keep passing you by. And I feel like that's kind of what I'm experiencing as I'm like processing being here and kind of settling into a new experience is there's a lot of like ebbing and flowing of different emotions.

And there's a lot of sitting and marinating and simmering in my own thoughts and solitude. It's a really important practice cuz hey, at the end of the day, even if you have amazing friends you see every day, even if you live with an incredible partner, it's really just you and your thoughts and your little being. You got to learn to like yourself, you know, and it's a challenge. And sometimes you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations to face yourself and be like, "Hey, I like you. I got you. We're going to be okay." Oh god, I hope this reaches the right audience and it isn't too cringy for everybody else.

On that note, I got class in the morning, so I need to put my little ass to bed. Stay tuned for the next video coming soon.