i returned to nyc...productive days in my life

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

Hello. I'm back, baby. Hi, friends. How the hell are we doing? I'm in New York. This feels very full circle to be back almost a full year later. It's March and I moved out of New York last April, which is crazy and I've been living in Europe ever since. But, we are back for the month. Basically, my sublet ended in Paris and I have a new apartment starting. You guys are going to freak out. She is amazing. It's in like my favorite part of Paris. I searched so hard to find it.

It's furnished. I ended up having to use like a agency that rents to foreigners because it is so hard getting an apartment as a non-French citizen. So, I just ended up having to go this route. But, thankfully I found this place because the pickings were slim and then I found this in like the second and what up, I was like, "You're mine." And I wanted to come back to New York cuz it's been a while. And so, I'm here for a few weeks. Part of it is just to kind of be back and get some work done, see how the city feels.

I still feel like I'll eventually move back to New York. Like, that's the long game plan. I wouldn't say I'm not ready. I'm very excited for this Parisian apartment. I'm living in Williamsburg for this little small chapter. And oh my goodness, y'all, how did I live in Manhattan for 6 years? I can never go back. Downtown Manhattan at that point? Oh, hell no. Hell no. I was in the East Village for 6 years and even just being in Brooklyn for the last week, I am a changed woman. And of course, Williamsburg is bougie and is an extension of Manhattan and there's a lot of complexities within that, but just at face value, the difference of energy of living in the thick of a big urban downtown center versus living just slightly on the outskirts in an area with just a little bit more space, a little bit more greenery, a little bit less noise, a little bit more peace is game-changing.

Like, oh, no wonder I was going slightly crazy getting burnt out living in the East Village for almost 6 years. Like, that that'll do it. That'll do it. How are you? How's it going? Curious, do you prefer my New York content versus my Paris content? Where do you think I should end up? And if you missed tomorrow's past videos, I just did 6 weeks of intensive French, so like 28 plus hours a week. Then it was straight into Paris Fashion Week, which is amazing because I love Fashion Week. The little 15-year-old me just dies at it.

And then, straight into flying to New York. So, I'm excited to see friends while I'm here, but actually also just need to be productive. I'm going to get a little bit of work done and then we're going to go meet Ashley because it has been gloomy the last like 4 days, like quite rainy. And the sun is finally out. So, we need to make use of the blue skies because sometimes it's far too easy to just stay inside the whole day. I think we should get out there. But first, let's tackle the to-do list, shall we?

Hello from my kitchen. And I always start with my little to-do list. This cracks me up. Can you read that? It says Chomps. I love Chomps. I got a Chomps PR package, so you best believe I've been using this every day. Like, just wait. Prepared at all times. And I'm such a pen-to-paper kind of gal. I always like writing out everything I have to do. I'm actually going to Vietnam in a few days, so stay tuned for that video, which I'm so excited about. So, I'm just trying to make sure I can keep track of everything I need to do.

And I wanted to talk about this new bad boy in my life, the ASUS ZenBook 14, that they're sponsoring this video, which I am very excited about. This is one of my first times properly trying out a PC, and this is 100% the computer that's coming with me on my trip to Vietnam, and what I've been using here in New York for a variety of reasons. Like for one, it is so light. It's literally only like 2.2 lb, or like less than 1 kg. Because of the weight and the size, it's just so versatile if you want something that's like easy on the go if you're traveling a lot like me, but you want something with a lot of power, that's very high performance.

Like I'm becoming a changed woman with this laptop. Cuz I'm so lucky to get to try out this computer, let's get technical for my tech nerds out there. It's one of the lightest artisan AI PCs out there with ceramic aluminum, which means it is three times stronger than regular aluminum, but while also feeling just so light and so easy to carry around. It also has this matte finish that is really resistant to wear and fingerprints and scratches and things like that. So, it lasts a long time and has that durability.

It has cutting edge AI capabilities and overall provides just a powerful performance. It also has this full-size keyboard, which we love, and up to 32 hours of battery life, which is so long. There's also real-time live captions in over 40 languages, and it's powered by Snapdragon X series processor, so the speed is just unmatched. Basically, if you need something that's easy to carry around, that's very powerful, and has all these different capabilities, as well as having a very sleek design, ASUS ZenBook 14 has you covered in all of it. It's just the ultimate choice for premium computing.

So, if you want to check this out for yourself, it'll of course be linked down below. And now that I know, I need to get a little bit more work done, and then we're going to head out and go meet Ashley. I'm able to do what you want. You think I'm a thinker, but I'm just a singer. Well, maybe I'm crazy, just making believe. Oh, I'm falling, I'm falling, I'm falling, I'm falling, I'm falling. Hi, it's me, Ashley. Hi. Reunited. We just went to this coffee shop called what was it?

Rhythm Zero. Rhythm Zero? Very chic. So beautiful. intimidated. Reminded me of a Greenpoint hipster coffee shop. But so beautiful. Like my dream interior. We're going in a lovely little Greenpoint truck. I'm hungry, so we're going to pick up a sandwich. And then let's go enjoy this beautiful city. Off we trot. Off we go. Should we jump out? The vibes over here are fire. Ooh. Gorgeous. Oh, wow. Ah, we made it to the beautiful bridge off Greenpoint. I don't Does this have a name? It does, but I don't know. Okay, very good.

But it has the best view in the Greenpoint Let me do a little Like look at that. There's the skyline. Really chic. Hello from New York City. I can't believe I'm back. It's a little surreal. And we need to get outside. We need to go see the city a little bit. So, let's go get some coffee, shall we? Hello. Good morning. How are we? I'm headed into the city. I actually have an exciting meeting with this charity that I might be making a video for on YouTube, which like would make me so happy.

I love doing more storytelling projects like that. But we're going to go brave I'm such a Brooklyn girl after 2 days. What can I say? Like look at it. It's so beautiful today. I love stuff like this. What are we doing? We are cracking open Elena's year. So we're doing it. I'm very excited. How are we doing? Exactly. I'm literally just running a muck today. Oh my god, I feel so much better having clothes again. When I moved out of my apartment I was only going to be gone like 6 or 8 months and it's basically been a year and I've had so little clothing and so it was so nice to just grab so many things.

Like there's all these piles of clothes behind me now. That was very successful. I have like 5 minutes to get changed because I have to head out to a Hermes presentation. Excuse me? Me? Little me? I'm so excited and I'm already late because I have so little time today, but let's go. I'm Hermes to the bus. Hello from my tech bro apartment. This mug cracks me up. This is the epitome of New York. My favorite season is earning season. Look at this. This is the most New York thing I've ever seen.

Let's bring you a little closer, shall we? Such a lovely fall day running around New York. Finally cracking open my storage unit. It was like a blast from the past because when I moved to Paris, I only came with two suitcases. So, there's so much in there that I eventually will get to whenever I move back to New York. I think I still have a good chunk of time in Paris anyway, and I'd love to try out London for a little stint. And oh my gosh, if you are in New York, please visit Poilâne and get the chocolate mousse.

I kid you not, I will be dreaming of this mousse. We met the chef, Catherine, who was lovely. And the mousse there is the best mousse I've had in the entire world. I moved here long enough ago that the friendships here have so much history, which is really special. I think it's hard when you've moved a lot, when you moved away from your the town you went to high school, the town you went to college, to have that longevity in in friendships. Such a beautiful thing. That can be hard to find when you're on the go like I am.

Obviously, I've known Ashley forever, but even my friend Allison I've known for like 6 years now. So, it's always really sweet catching up with friends like that. The last book I finished was The Coin, which is very fascinating. I just downloaded a bunch of new books because I'm leaving tomorrow, which is so chaotic. That's part of the reason why I wanted to go to my storage unit so I could get like my summer clothes out. I downloaded Milk Teeth right by Sarah Ether, Things We Do to Our Friends, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote, as well as Hot Milk by Deborah Levy.

So, I am on Goodreads. I'm not good about leaving reviews, but it's nice to just have all my books stored in one place. But, I'm in need for some book recommendations. I'm feeling a little bit uninspired this year with my book selections. So, if you have any great recommendations, please leave me a little comment because I could use some. Now, on that note, instead of reading, I would love to watch a little bit of Severance and just be cozy and enjoy the evening before we head to the airport tomorrow. So, one week.