Before we even dive into things. I just want to say that I completely understand that
this video seems a little bit out of place considering that travel is totally off the table for all of us right now.
Basically, I shot this in the last week of February,
and by the time I had finished editing it a couple of weeks later, they no longer felt appropriate to share with, you know,
everything going on right now. I think we can all agree
we live in a bizarre world when after waiting a couple of months,
I wanted to post this and just laugh at the absurdity of it. "Oh, hello. Yes. Thank you. Okay, what flavor is this?"
"Ummm...ma'am?"
"Ma'am?"
It's kinda like opening a time capsule. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I hope you guys are doin' okay.
I'm not sure there's anything like packing your bags and moving to a new country.
To this day, it creates a feeling in me that is as thrilling and as poignant as ever.
If you don't do stuff that scares the shit out of you, from time to time, how do you know what you're made of?
The world is messy and unpredictable.
- "What are your thoughts on me leaving?
- "Sad."
- "Yeah."
- "Excited for you. I'm very excited for you."
- "We gotta go places. I wanna go places, too."
Saying goodbye is hard, I've never been good at it. We all cried.
- "Time to go."
It doesn't matter what you use to document your experiences, whether it's a pen and paper, or a microphone, or a camera.
But make an effort to capture them.
It's always nice to look back and see how far you've come and the things you heard and saw.
This entire video, by the way, is shot with my phone. So, you don't have to have pro gear. I promise you.
(Flight attendant) - "Hi!"
(Nathaniel): - "Gotta document every step!"
There's something about being on an airplane that puts things into sharp perspective for me.
I don't know. I guess flying above the clouds in a giant metal cylinder is a concept that my brain cannot fully grasp.
It doesn't matter how many times I do it, it feels like we can all plummet from the sky at any moment,
and yet we don't.
Memento mori- remember that we all must die
It's a humbling reminder and not something to be afraid of,
I think. It gives me a little bit of urgency and immediacy to my actions and decisions.
There isn't always a tomorrow, and you won't get very far if you don't trust anyone. Soon, in a matter of hours,
I will be landing in a place where the people communicate with each other using a different set of sounds,
sounds I find both beautiful and fascinating.
Everything from what they read to what they drink is different.
They have a different history, a different set of experiences and traditions, and I get to learn how they see the world.
And how little we understand of our own world.
Memento homo- remember that you are only human. I don't think we're here to be anything else.
You can't run from yourself, nor should you try. This trip is to continue the work that I've already started.
And who knows, maybe I'll meet a girl, or I'll be inspired by things I could not even imagine right now.
It's impossible to know, but the thought alone makes my heart jump into my throat. I think about all the things
I'm going to encounter, the things I'm going to create. It's exciting.
None of us really know where we're going, which is something I've said before, and yet, it's an idea that continues to astound me.
Rain began dumping out of the sky, just as I made my way out of the metro.
A man wordlessly helped me up the stairs with my luggage. I turned to thank him, but he had already disappeared.
Thankfully, the bus that I was waiting for arrived quickly.
Exhausted, I turned off the lights.
So, it's almost 8 AM,
my first day here in Paris, and when I think about all the stuff
I need to accomplish, all the things I need to do.
I gotta get a SIM card. I've gotta... get groceries. I've gotta unpack my stuff here,
I've gotta begin the apartment search, I've gotta start meeting people.
There's SO much stuff that I gotta do. I get a little bit overwhelmed.
Uhhh..
Actually, very overwhelmed, but because I'm a one-trick pony,
I'm just going to approach all this like it's a big experiment.
This is an adventure, okay, I'm lucky to be able to do all this, so...
no bitching allowed. Here I am.
[laughs]
One thing at a time,
It's gonna... it's gonna... it's gonna work out. I think—first things first—I'm starving.
So...um..
Food.. food is.. food's usually my top priority.. anyway, so..
[upbeat music]
Moving to a new country is,
like, a big endeavour, it can feel very overwhelming.. um, what I've learned is you need to do stuff that will boost morale,
even little things.
So, one of the very first things I've done is buy some food, and for whatever reason, that's very comforting to have that.
So, I feel better.. already. You really have to take everything with a grain of salt because.. I think
moving to a new place that you don't know can make you feel like you don't know anything.. that you're really dumb.
Even the simplest of things is difficult.
Um..
It's frustrating, and it can really, like, knock your confidence. But, it's also, like, a very humbling sort of experience
to start fresh and to admit that, like, "You know what? I don't know what it's like to live here,"
"And I'm here to learn."
Okay
So you definitely have to be, I think, in problem-solving mode,
and..um, just not complain about stuff. I just cleaned out the fridge, it was disgusting, and you know
that is something that would normally, like, really bother me. But this is just a temporary Airbnb,
so it's not the end of the world.. I cleaned it out..
whatever,
just.. focusing on moving forward when you go to a foreign country
it's like you don't know anybody. Even though I've been in this country in the past,
I don't know that many people here in Paris,
and so, it's like completely starting fresh without connections and contacts. The word friend is kind of sacred for me,
I don't use it very lightly, um..
and so it takes me a while to build up the kinds of relationships that I want.
But, as a short-term way of trying to make things a little bit better,
you know,
I really always recommend being as nice as possible to the people you're interacting with. Wherever it is that you're getting coffee, or buying your
groceries or whatever, just put a little extra effort,
like whatever! Just say whatever, make a little bit of conversation, people will usually light up,
they're maybe not having the best Wednesday morning of their lives, but
being friendly and being nice just creates sort of a better energy, and
something about that makes just feel like you're a little bit less in a country full of strangers. I found that, in my experience
my first month in any given country is always a little bit more expensive than what it usually ends up being
because.. you know, you don't know where the best places are to shop, um,
you're stocking up on stuff, you're figuring things out. And so I tried to..
kind of build that into my budget, give myself a little bit of buffer,
so that things aren't more stressful than they need to be. I realized that I'm just learning as I go.
You can't possibly know what the best way to do things is just upon arrival.
Let's have some breakfast!
So one of the things that, I think, freaks people out about
moving to new place, and all this change, is that it represents a lack of
control. You're essentially.. you're essentially in foreign territory, starting over on most things. And look, there's no
way around that, like, I'm not even gonna say that this is easy or straightforward,
but.. I think you can kind of reframe things and
look at it as a totally clean slate, a fresh start.
How often exactly do you get chances to completely start fresh and
take a look at your life and think about the ways you want it to improve.. or change?
It's so much easier to do that when you're starting completely fresh
than when you have so much... so many established habits, and then established rhythm,
that's it's harder to break. If I think a little too hard on all the things I have to do,
it does feel a little bit like I have a mountain to climb, but
One thing at a time.. one thing at a time.
[enjoying the food] "Mmmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!"
"What is in this?!"
One thing I didn't mention earlier, but that I think is incredibly
important, is not just getting, like, a metro pass and a way to easily move around the city
with tickets, bus tickets, whatever..you know, some sort of monthly pass
that probably is the most economical, but it's getting to build the system.. *well*..
feeling comfortable with it, understanding it. Because every country, every city, works differently. And Rosario,
when I was living in Argentina, they had an incredibly intuitive bus system where every other street would go in the same direction,
so even if you didn't know where you were, you could very easily
guess what made sense and worked, you know, what kinds of buses and where you needed to go, essentially. In Mexico City,
I never took the metro at all
Uh, people told me it was generally pretty unsafe, uh, and so, I did a lot of, like, bike sharing and
the scooter system, and
Uber-ing, believe it or not- it's incredibly affordable there. It's just important so that you can feel comfortable and at ease getting around the city.
[music]
This is gonna be useful.
[music getting gradually louder]
Okay, so...
[laughing, out of breath]
Ughh..
I'm very impatient as a person, in general, so I'm.. I don't want to sound like a hypocrite giving this advice.
Obviously this advice is as much for me as it is for anybody else, but..
it's so important to be patient when moving to a new place, like, you cannot have everything
solved within a few days, or even a few weeks, like, it takes a while,
um..and so I'm in the thick of things with the apartment search...
Um..I literally just got off the phone with the first person who is interested in
letting me go visit. I very strongly believe that moving to a new place is..
it takes a long time to adapt. It's not a question of days, it's a question of weeks and months.
It's.. you have to make friends with being in limbo for a while. And that's very scary,
I think we all like security and stability, and that's certainly something I'm looking for,
but I also, just, want to embrace
what's going on right now. Without patience, you can totally wear yourself out, and..
really just not get anywhere, waste your energy.
So, I just got off the phone with the first person who's interested in letting me visit their apartment, uh...
so we'll see how things go, I'm gonna keep my expectations realistic because it's *the* first apartment I'm visiting, and.. I'm picky.
So.. we'll see how things go.
[music]
There's been almost two weeks since I arrived in France, this is the final little update for this video.
I've managed to find an excellent apartment option, at least..
you know, it's one that I'm happy about. I pulled it off in like.. 8 days.
I think that's pretty unheard of.. as far as I'm aware,
it's not typical in a city like this one. That's called intensely going after something. I'm very excited.
I'm gonna be moving in in a couple of weeks.
It's going to be my home for the next six months, and.. it's just starting to dawn on me that
my new life here is beginning. I think longer term, what I'm looking for are..
friends and.. just like, a sense of belonging. It's tricky.. It's tricky when you're a foreigner. I will always be considered a foreigner here.
I will always have my little
American accent when I speak French,
And..
I'm just going to have to accept that that's a part of my identity while I'm here
I don't even know what to say. I guess.. big things are coming? I'm excited. I get a good feeling about this year.
There's just so much going on right now! Even one year ago, this.. would've seemed
..SO impossible in my own mind. I can't believe I'm here. I actually *still* can't believe I'm here.
[softly, but incredulously] I can't believe it...
[relaxed (but bright and steady) jazz variation of "Someday My Prince Will Come"]