this is the story of why i left the
united states and why i have no
intentions to live there it's a scary
decision to leave the country that you
grew up in i was lucky to be born there
but i had the choice to leave and so i
chose to go
in my search for a home i ended up in a
tiny country that i knew nothing about i
want to tell this story for anyone who
doesn't feel satisfied with the place
they were born in to all the people that
are curious to see more of the world
there's a world out there waiting for
you and it's full of surprises
[Music]
let's back up a little bit
this is me
i would describe myself as a little
tornado unable to stay put in one place
i think i had a hyper active imagination
that led me to create entire worlds in
my head as a kid i invented languages i
knew very early on that i had to chase
adventures adventure is what makes me
feel alive one of the things that drives
so many of my adventures nice
dude is this obsession that i have on
learning about how other people see the
world
learning about other societies other
world views other perspectives
when i was in high school i went on my
first trip abroad without my parents and
it was to spain and that was a quite
eye-opening experience for me because
for the first time i was seeing
first-hand
how different life could look from what
i had gotten to know growing up i
absolutely loved how different the
spanish sounded when they spoke how
different their cities looked from the
town that i was from i say this a lot
about travel abroad but for me it felt
like stepping into an alternate universe
where even the most basic things looked
different like the food of the street
lights when i returned to the united
states i could not stop thinking about
the world that existed out there you
know it had captured my imagination and
returning to my town felt like
re-entering a bubble and i've spent a
lot of my life since then trying to
expand my bubble seeing and experiencing
things that i would never be able to see
or experience otherwise to help tell
this story of expanding my bubble i want
to take you on a little journey to a
micro nation in the heart of europe
called luxembourg
a place that for a dumb american like me
seems like something straight out of a
fiction novel
i want to take you to this place because
it represents something very important
to me uh that i can't get in the united
states which is a different history and
a different vantage point of the world
spending time in places like these is
how i am expanding my bubble
for whatever reason i just didn't take
too many
typical american traditions i didn't
play american football or baseball i
never watched a super bowl final i
didn't go to prom i didn't attend my
high school graduation i didn't go to
university and join a fraternity i've
never cared about spring break or
halloween for whatever reason i just
never felt super connected or tied down
to the united states honestly this
country is full of
little surprises somehow in the same
city right now i'm sitting on stairs
right by this river passing through this
is so nice so lovely and then you just
see the
the very luxembourgish architecture
everywhere these very impressive stone
walls
this is nice and so i felt like i had to
find or create rather my home somewhere
else
i've met a lot of people that have told
me that learning english for them has
opened up all kinds of doors and
opportunities for them it has been a way
to escape what felt like their own
little bubble of whatever little town
or country that they're from and i have
experienced the same thing just in the
opposite direction i found that learning
other languages has opened all kinds of
doors in my life giving me access to
different ways of living and different
perspectives on the world and different
people
luxembourg incredibly is just two hours
away by train from paris where i live
currently
this is something that i love about
europe you can take a short train ride
and be in a place where the food and
language are completely different
peanut butter latte did you just you
just you heard those words right peanut
butter latte
luxembourg style i've never tasted
something like this before
for starters i'm amazed that a place
like this can even exist squished in
between three very powerful neighbors
belgium germany and france
despite changing possession many times
over the last centuries it is currently
a sovereign state and what impresses me
the most about this is that despite its
imposing neighbors it has its own unique
culture and identity to be luxembourgish
is to not be french or german or belgian
so i'm wearing right now clothing that
has been upcycled by a lovely
luxembourgish woman by the name of
debbie where is she hello right now
we're in this like little square
music was playing earlier i don't know
what happened but
uh it's amazing this is just a lovely
little secret corner
i love this
yeah
i'm getting pictures taken of me right
now as always i'd like to ask a few
questions to the locals
to better understand
the luxembourgish identity do you feel
like luxembourg has successfully like
created its own sort of identity if you
will or does it get kind of squashed by
these super powerful countries that are
nearby no i do think that we definitely
have like a strong own identity but i
mean we have our own language we have
our own
food
we have our own culture but we learn
about so many cultures growing up we're
so familiar with the german culture and
french culture and different languages
and
i mean we feel very strong about our
identity but i think the moment you
leave luxembourg nobody really knows
about it but it's very very
this by the way is also my guide in
luxembourg to help me better understand
the country she's french but grew up
here i already have a feeling i'm gonna
like this country a lot
partially because almost everybody here
if i'm not mistaken is a polyglot
so many different languages are spoken
here four right basically english
german
french and luxembourgish can you rank
them
okay
okay is there a culture in particular
that has more of an impact like is it do
you feel like it's closer to french
closer to german
it's very interesting question because
i've thought about that quite a lot i
think it used to be closer to french
because our grandparents would speak
more french but i think nowadays a lot
of kids feel more related to germany
because for example we don't have like
much tv so a lot of people watch german
tv growing up we don't learn we don't
know how to write luxembourg
okay this is this is not the first time
i've heard of this it's like it's more
of a spoken language it's not taught in
school we don't you have i think we have
14 years of school and you have one year
where you learn luxembourgish and the
west you just speak here so for example
when you go to store a lot of places you
speak french but it's most with your
friends family where you speak language
do you see what i mean i find that
incredible these people had an utterly
different experience of childhood than
me
people outside sometimes think
that luxembourg is just all about bags
and it's nice
music entrepreneurs yeah and we need to
break these stereotypes and i try to do
my part by sharing cool content about
luxembourg say something in
luxembourgish
what does that mean super pretty
super pretty valencia being in a place
like this free from the pressures and
expectations of the society that i grew
up in i find it liberating i get to be
an observer i get to learn about the
things that this place does well and not
so well where are you taking me elsa
whoa
so before i dive into part two and why i
may never return to the united states i
wanted to talk about the sponsor of this
video which is musicbed
and i am over the moon over the fact
that they're sponsoring this video
because music is extremely important to
my storytelling and creative process if
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record all the music that i'm using in
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has played a major role in helping me
create a certain feeling that i i'm
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one of the first steps of my creative
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helping make my travels a reality i
would not be able to do it without their
support
okay
into part two
why i may never return
there are three reasons why i may never
return to live in the united states and
i guess it's important to make that
clarification because i'll probably go
back to visit friends and family but in
terms of spending my life there at this
stage in my life i don't see it as very
likely and these are the reasons why the
first is that i never felt culturally
american i might be the least american
american you will ever meet i honestly
think we should be using the word
usonian instead of american because
american really should be a word that
describes people from
all over the americas i probably say
that because my parents are from south
america if you look at my family tree it
spreads across five different continents
over the last five centuries so i'm a
total mix of different things
i
am liking the city more and more
by the second it's kind of weird there's
like an old part of the city and then
there's this like super futuristic stuff
look at these buildings over here too
just very
21st century
i've mentioned the idea of home and
belonging somewhere several times
already i think it's a deep human desire
and something i felt myself longing for
for so long
and after a lot of looking and a lot of
kind of wandering
i think is the right word to use to
describe it i think i found that place
i feel quite
connected to
france and paris in particular and have
started to create a sense of community
here after meeting people and spending a
lot of time here and i feel like even if
i leave for a while i always end up
wanting to return here it's a place that
i feel comfortable in you know i really
like the lifestyle and the mindset it's
fun living here and people eat so well
and it's so beautiful and again i love
how a beautiful country like luxembourg
can be so nearby
i feel very lucky to be able to say
those things and i recognize that
there's a level of privilege that's a
part of all of this the second reason is
the freedom that i mentioned a little
bit earlier on
of being able to sort of be whoever i
want to be not having that kind of
pressure and expectation that i felt
growing up it's like i have a chance to
start over and i don't want to give that
up this
sunday is quite stormy tons of rain
coming down
loving it we're playing cards here
somebody's singing over there i get this
beautiful view
water and it's good i'm just chilling
okay new update like
i don't know two minutes later it's like
really really going right now there's
rain
all over
oh my god
okay
it's getting really intense
oh my god no seriously like this is out
of nowhere i can't even see anymore
we're refusing to move we're gonna stay
here we're playing cards this sunday
here you go i'm gonna distribute
and the third is that i feel like
there's still so much world left for me
to see
and at this stage at least in my life i
like the challenge i've always felt like
adventure has voided me in unfamiliar
places there's something about the
process of decoding and coming to
understand things in a way that you had
never seen them before that i'm like
addicted to so i hope that that provides
a little bit of clarity i have no idea
where things will go from here but i
hope that i can continue this trend of
expanding my bubble because what i found
is that it has led to a deeper more
dynamic experience of life
it's like i can't go in the other
direction once you do that you have that
forever i give up a lot of what might be
considered as traditionally successful
in the pursuit of this lifestyle and in
my previous video
i think i covered a little bit
the hard times you know on the way to
getting here where i second guessed a
lot my decisions
because i wasn't sure if things were
going to pan out and i know for a fact
that in the eyes of some people i'm
uneducated or
irresponsible for doing things this way
and to that i say there are many ways to
get an education and this is mine thanks
for watching
i'll see you guys soon
[Music]