winter nyc diaries | chatty, cozy snow days, future dreams

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

hello doing absolutely nothing this month so there's not a whole lot of content to give you guys i know so you guys just enjoy like chill box at home it's like three o'clock right now so i'm kind of picking up the camera in the middle of the day i have a few calls and figured i'd just bring you guys around for some chill days in my life i like to work in my living room every now and then to make it feel like mixing things up by moving like 15 feet away i know i've mentioned this in past vlogs but this dark living room really gets to me and i kind of hate hanging out here during the day because there's no light and it sucks when it's sunny out but when it's gloomy at night i actually quite like it in here because it's cozy and it feels like i'm mixing up where i'm working at also i've been roommateless for a little while now because of the holidays so i sound like i'm going a little crazy it's because my social reaction has been quite limited but just made myself some more coffee about to hop on a call with the brand getting some stuff done fun fact i used to be obsessed with doing my nails when i was like 14 or 15 it was clearly very cool and i would spend all this time like painting all these like pretty abstract designs on my nails all include some photos and you know i'm feeling a bit crafty today i might pull up some old like pinterest inspo photos and do a little funky nail design that's where we're at with this vlog this is what you guys get in 2020 to get an underwater super 8 camera or to not get an underwater super 8 camera that is the question insert or maybe i'll make a tick tock of myself looking at apartments in new york city literally nonstop people think i'm obsessed with this but i'm okay with it i am obsessed with it and um i think this is an obsession that doesn't hurt anyone oh this is kind of a nice little setup these are the things i would never do if my roommates were here you can see the benefits of making youtube videos when you live alone does anybody remember uh what was that nail polish youtube channel i was obsessed with their videos i used to watch all of her videos and she was so talented earlier today about what i want to have as my winter goals not goals but like things to work on so i think having like a loose idea of things to structure out my time as it gets colder and a bit more miserable i am trying to think strategically about what i want to do with my time these next few months i really do want to think more about focusing on three things and those three things are i want to read more i want to work on french and i want to practice my guitar i have not picked up my guitar much since being back in new york city part of the problem or part of thing i blame it on it i bought like a small amp and this amp wasn't working i got really discouraged and then i tried going the guitar store and the guy was a dick i feel like i've really fallen back in love with reading this year my goodreads goal for 2020 was 3d books and i'm trying to figure out if i want to read like challenge myself to like 50 books maybe in 2021 we'll see and then i really really really want to get myself to practice french and part of that reason which i have talked about in this channel and for those of you who followed along you're probably like girl you're a broken record but quick backstory for those who are newer here i was born in france i lived there until i was four my parents were just like working abroad essentially and they never taught me french i never got french citizenship because i wasn't there long enough but because of that i've always felt this this deep tie to france i was born in paris and then i also ended up moving there on my own when i was 18.

it was truly the coming of age experience that all the tick tocks are talking about these days where i was fully alone it wasn't with the program i didn't speak the language i didn't really know anybody there except for this family it was like kind enough to let me stay with them it was like a turning point in my life where i would say i was quite shy before and moving to paris on my own and having to figure out like life there on my own and i was also there and very close to the paris attacks that was a dramatic time and a turning point for me as well definitely coming of age coming to my own time of experience and when i was there i took a little course that almost says which is like a small language school out there which i really enjoyed it's just been something that's been on my like to-do list my bucket list for years the american as in the usa education system when it comes to teaching kids different languages i would argue is awful at least in the public school system i went to i have that base there so i know like the basics being in paris for a bit i got to a point where i could understand and could piece together different words to kind of understand what person was trying to get across i didn't really learn that much because i like barely knew anybody when i was there and i was just taking this like very small class so but that is top of my list and that's been top of my list three years so i'm like i need to actually commit so i finally redownloaded rosetta stone i will not if i will live in paris again one day i can definitely see myself living there for at least six months to a year and really immerse myself again it's a place i felt really drawn to ever since i was a child i really enjoyed watching like damon dominique's videos there and nathaniel drew and it's just a reminder that i really want to live there again one day i think living there too alone and not speaking the language was an important lesson for really how hard it is to connect with a place or a location without speaking the language obviously you can and i eventually made friends it's incredibly isolating living somewhere and not speaking the language and not having a community of people that speak your language i will go back one day but i want to work on my french in the meantime okay these flowers are going to be a little wonky it's not my best work a little bit rusty i haven't done this in like nine years i've been making the sweet green harvest bowl at home quite a bit add grease goat cheese i add a little avocado sweet potatoes chicken rice and then apple slices if you have them and it's really good do you hear that little punk house mouse that lives under my oven and i've been trying to scare them away by like using something just like oh i told the apartment like the landlord there's a mouse and all he did was just give us this just this like mouse sticky pad and then the mouse gets stuck on here and then what do you do with it i guess it keeps me company hello merry christmas we tried to go to bryant park but that was just an anxiety attack waiting to happen because that's more people i've seen in one place since march so that was a big now so we're just going to go for a nice little he's really strong hello good morning i feel like i'm feeling pretty pretty good today spirits are lifted i was reading through comments on my last vlog i talked a bit about loneliness the difficulties of like deep friendships as like a young adult living somewhere new and so i was really pleasantly surprised with just like the feedback and the comments and the dams i got about it so i figured i'd talk a bit more about it because i've had some really good conversations with some of you guys part of that for myself personally stems from moving around a lot as a kid so i changed school seven times by the time i was in seventh grade but also i have changed my life and started anew so many times since high school which i would say is probably not the average person's experience who kind of just like goes to high school go to college and then like gets a job i graduated high school i attended a university for a year in the la area and i had some really incredible friends that i loved i had a lot of good memories but i just knew it wasn't the right fit and i was also feeling really trapped by the like a system i was really frightened of just going to school getting a job getting married getting stuck in the like average routine that we're kind of told to go down so i was like screw it i'm gonna be an au pair and move to france hence all the stuff i talked about earlier in the vlog there i went to this first university i built this entire life and then i started completely from scratch all anew in france and i slowly started building up life i built a routine i made friends i made connections slowly and then i had to go back to the us to finish up my you know university education probably since my videos there that i absolutely loved it was such a special time in my life i had an incredible experience especially socially like it was just like a really fun time i really grew into my own but then i decided to move to new york without a single friend from college all my friends from college basically stayed pretty much in the same exact area and instead i moved to the complete end of the country like a six and a half hour flight away and for basically the like fifth time i like basically started my social life absolutely from scratch i think doing that so much in my young adulthood kind of like leaves you like kind of feeling like you're constantly on your toes like you don't know where you're gonna go you don't know who's gonna be in your life so you kind of learn to like rely on yourself i had a really sweet friend named aaron and this i remember erin told me this and it stuck with me throughout the years because i was getting on email about leaving i was like wait is this right decision like i really care for my friends in this conversation she's like you know certain friends are meant to be in your life for certain chapters and while it's not like a revolutionary thought necessarily and that message i've carried with me throughout the those people are all in your life for a reason but sometimes there are people who just come into your life for a chapter to teach you something to support you for you to have fun with for you to support as well to learn with to grow with etc and they're just meant for that chapter and that can be a hard pill to swallow but i think it's also very freeing i don't know i just thought it was something on my mind and having so many conversations with you guys i figured i'd dive a little deeper on that thought anyway moving on with the day so i am excited to share but everything is sponsoring this video i love everything i worked with them last year i've worn their stuff for years they're cool sustainable brand so i picked a few pieces from them i'm going to show you guys a little baby haul as we go to the holiday season got a lot of great pieces like sweaters and a blanket or in this case i love their workout gear because it's super lightweight but really really great for like running or exercise classes or yoga they're perform legging here that's under 60 dollars i got their little workout set i think this could be a great gift for my sister don't watch this age a little gift to yourself especially with like the new year's coming around and people having learned new resolutions and wanting to focus on fitness a bit more in the new year they also have a bunch of really great cozy items so when you're trying to snuggle up for the holiday season there's like a lot of really great sweaters i happen to get this corduroy number right here it is super comfortable i love the cut of it i also got this carry-on case because i am going to go back to california for the holidays i'm super excited i am going to get tested and i never have the right size carry-on case for like my makeup and products and toothbrush in the whole deal and i love this one it has little pockets on the inside it's only 30 dollars which i think is a really great value and i love the mustard color this beautiful beautiful leather look jacket i think she is gorgeous california winter is obviously not nearly as cold as the new york winter so i feel like this is gonna be great to keep me warm and then the last but not least i am wearing some jeans from them so i'll show you guys so these are the jeans thanks again to everlane for sponsoring be sure to check them out in the description down below i've been getting messages all day where it's like new york storm coming and it is the most beautiful snow outside snow to me is still such a rarity and it's like it's everywhere i'm so excited it actually feels like christmas finally i feel like we need to go prance up there but i kind of don't want to do it alone all right i'm doing it i want a frolic just you know go for it this is crazy there's nobody out it's snowing so much but it's not too cold it's absolutely magical right now is can you teach me how to make one uh-huh snowball fletch i'm a winter noob and so i don't really know how to make a proper i'm a winter expert you are you lived in colorado for ten years it's a solid one yeah way more than you think you need and then compact it so that it'll stay together when you throw it like really together and it gets firmer and firmer feel that oh my gosh