what's it like being an american in paris | a week in my life in paris

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

to feel a little bit more local to Paris and to have a personal challenge I signed up for this 10 mile or 16 km race from Paris to Versailles and it's in like a week and a half so we have to train let's go do a long run around Paris I of course also love to run for my mental health and the sense of relief that comes after running and creating the mental space that like working out and moving your body and sweating gives you that's genuinely one of the main reasons why I've exercise for years consistently is for the brain me Zoom you in a little bit let's talk about today's sponsor accredited debt relief if you're also looking for relief when it comes to Financial Freedom and feeling better about your finances it's great to learn about accredited debt relief and how it might be able to help you if you're feeling stuck in your own life when it comes to financial difficulties like paying the bills paying off debt if you're living paycheck to paycheck reduce your monthly payments by up to 40% on eligible debt and help you get out of debt in 24 to 48 months there's also no out fees and you can finally have that sense of relief knowing you don't have to work to pay the minimum on your bills or to credit card companies and lenders and if you want to learn more about getting some more potential Financial relief in your life I will leave them in the description below so you can check them out for yourself and on that note let's get some mental relief and get outside and run I think it's going to be a pretty sunny run in Paris and this is going to be a long run for me I haven't run this far in like a year and a half so we'll see how today goes I'm hoping for the best and uh let's get out there I'm so this race it's going to be a struggle I'm M late I'm beautiful at later oh God time for my very average and normal morning routine of making eggs I've recently been thinking a lot about the uh quarter life crisis I experienced in the last two years I feel like here in Paris my friends are from very different ages I have a pretty close friend who's 21 I have a close friend who's 35 having people in such different stages of life can be very eye openening for one I was talking to my friend yesterday who's newly 25 and I'm 27 and just hearing her talk about how stressed she is about the future reminded me so much of me at 25 not that it's really that long ago it's literally 2 years ago you've seen my last content you see me really uh go through it in terms of having this like quarter life crisis of feeling unsure of feeling confused about my identity about where I'm going and what I'm meant to be doing and I've realized this year I haven't been feeling those things as much and it's not because I haven't figured out I think it's because I've just accepted that I don't know and I found a lot of Peace in that I think turning into those ages where you felt like oh I will definitely know XYZ by then and realizing oh I still don't know that's actually really okay most of us don't really understand where we're going or fully who we're meant to be this lifelong journey and I think once you accept that oh my goodness the amount of anxiety that has then relieved I think when you truly Embrace a combination of acceptance of the unknown and also an understanding of the Free Will that you have knowing oh I don't have to do it the way that I always thought was necessary everyone's path looks so incredibly different I think the only thing for me that's been a bit tricky is wanting to have Roots somewhere I think if you've lived between two places where you moved abroad it's hard when both kind of feel a bit temporary in my head I've always been like I'm moving back to New York but of course of course the longer I spend here the more friendships I make the more people I meet the older I get the more I'm like oh I want to like have a place that feels like an established home I'm very Tor between two places like loving Paris a lot more than I expected I miss New York but at the same time New York had made me feel so anxious and unbalanced and burnt out and that's a very complicated relationship but that's something I've just been thinking about where I'm like I'm really enjoying Paris but I'm like if Paris isn't for forever does it make sense to stay here until maybe I'm like 29 and then like start over again but I think I'm a lot more okay with just being like you know what we're figured out as we go anyways that's enough yapping for me I just want to show you guys a few little days in Paris you saw a few Vlogs ago I need like a little break from vlogging so I haven't vlogged as much but I really want to pick it back up so if you do want to see more Vlogs let me know what you like to see so okay let's get on just did my little pastry class this to sleep in theory I learned how to make a little pce three in actuality I understood maybe 10% of what he said so fun but also a little painful language wise but I made a friend at the end I love this little quarter here by the RIT so Prett hello from back in my cozy little apartment oh that's close hi um I just went to this cute little cooking class at the Ritz which was so cool making me feel like Emily embarrassed whole time I was like excuse me as the outsider who doesn't speak the language I expect like nobody to like automatically speak in English just to help me hard because I want to make friends and French women are not particularly warm most of them some are it's just a bit challenging cuz I feel like whenever I'm in a social situ sitation I always like try to see who's on the outside and like standing alone and like bring them in like I'll invite them to the conversation I'll clue them into what we're talking about so they're not left out I just feel like that's like a cool girl thing to do is like be inclusive and like that just doesn't really exist a lot of French culture even on a bigger scale I think a lot of the French stay with the F same friends they've had for a very long time like a lot of people's friend groups are from like their teenage years and while there's nothing wrong with that I think it's something I've noticed that is particularly that is a little bit more like French than it is in like the cities in us in a big metropolitan area like New York I feel like people for the most part are very inclusive and wanting to make new friends but for a big metropolitan area like Paris people are quite closed unless they're like expats or maybe uh some somebody who's like lived abroad so they understand anyways that's fine but it's just an observation I keep trying to really pay attention to the things I'm noticing because I know you guys have said it's helpful for like who are curious of what it's like to like actually live in France so I'm taking notes and I have one more little event tonight which would be cute my best friend Ashley is going to come she moved to like London to be with her boyfriend the same time that I came to Paris so it's really sweet having us just be like one train ride away for how are you how' you sleep i s so well we're awake we're alive like physically awake mentally mentally we going we'll get there questionable morning from Paris it's just a classic little work day have some fashion we events tonight so uh come along fashion fashion fashion surprise good morning everyone I came for a sleepover I was lost with nowhere to go I was on the streets of Paris like let me in anybody do you know the little meme of like an an with his napsack and he's just looking please like the funniest guest appear take your influencer to work day yeah a beautiful day in Paris I think Jack literally brought the sun I think it was you this tends to happen yeah no I'm she from the UK I bring rain wherever I and we dinners we also do a good a me New York Shing my God who is she I have never sliick back my hair I feel like a new Alena I'm going to my first ever Paris fashion week and I'm not going to lie a little bit I'm quite nervous I have aoni event and a long shop event long both which are like pinch me and I'm a little nervous but I'm really excited okay but this is what I'm wearing I need to go we have this little Reformation set very cute these boots that were not made for walking and then this is C's trench because I'm going to be biking there and I don't want to flash anybody slash it might rain let's go to my first ever parion week if we make friends ex you make friends these things hello good morning how we doing time to head out for a branch yes I have worn this sweater like nonstop you know what in the fall I'm a creature habit when I like something I wear the hell out of it this is from seson and it is so soft I will link down below but we're going to a little birthday brunch for my friend Anna which is fun because I was thinking about it I was like I don't really have many American friends or really like any American friends in Paris um I guess besides Damon but he's never here and most of my friends are some are French but a lot of Internationals like Germany or Kazakhstan or morocc I'm excited cuz Anna is American so it's nice to see an American friend here as well as Ally who's Canadian and she's a Mulan Rouge dancer they're both amazing like Instagram girlies also these pants can you see how long these are for my tall girls out there these are like 36 in inseam I haven't heard of this brand until I got to Paris and I saw it on zando I was just like looking up like tall girl pants cuz I'm obsessed with these I will also link these below I think you can only get them in Europe unfortunately but love them this I'm going to give it up give it up give it a up give it up give it up I'm going to give it up give it up hello the gires are out happy birthday avocado toast for my birthday this looks like the most beautiful avocado toast in Paris that I have y'all I feel like getting to the point where you can like speak in really small sentences and understand when people speak to you like you're a child is feasible and you feel the progress as you go but to get to the point where you can actually hold even just a casual but like proper conversation and comprehend when people are speaking very quickly to you just on the Fly you know even Small Talk conversation we're not talking like philosophy and humor at this point just to get from the first part to that part is so humbling I feel like I like can't improve I have to keep reminding myself it's not impossible it's just a matter of time people learn languages constantly and it's just about the amount of hours put down to study and comprehend but if you guys have any tips to Breaking to that next layer let a girl know I think I probably personally need some type of like actual intensive course where I'm going every day I did that for a couple weeks last fall which definitely helped and I just haven't had time this year so maybe maybe in the winter I'll try to do that okay that's another not though I really don't have one those language brains but I'm trying to force it I think I need a boyfriend that's what everyone keeps telling me one thing I will never get over is parisite sunset like it is magnificent it's so beautiful I'm so happy to just be a little single G in her 20s getting to see the world and there's so much freedom and having every evening just be a new experience to kind of like what happens and meet new people and go to fun places I will forever be in love with this balcony I have bonded with this balcony I spent every morning here with my cup of coffee every evening I come and take a little peek and it is just a dream