Hey everyone, if you don’t know me I’m Chloé. I am an 23-year old Los Angeles native who decided to leave the cozy California coast in exchange for the bipolar west coast of France in La Rochelle.
I say bipolar because some mornings you’ll wake up and it’s sunny but by noon (when you’re finally actually awake and motivated to do something) it’s pouring rain outside. Someone told me one time that the west coast of France had a similar climate to that of LA. I don’t know why I decided to believe that person and not do any further research on it but it’s easy to say that I was slightly surprised when I moved here, went to the beach and proceeded to be rained on while trying to tan. But enough with the weather smalltalk (that can get redundant when you’re actually trying to meet someone, I can imagine it’s just as annoying if not more over a blog). For those french people that were flabbergasted when I told them I moved here from LA, here’s why I moved. I wanted to learn and be able to speak the romantic language of French (without a shitty accent that would ruin the whole sexiness of it). I wanted to study and get a degree for cheaper. Yes people, french universities are way cheaper than American one’s. I wanted to live in close proximity of many different countries to give me the opportunity to travel for cheaper. I wanted to be immersed in the culture and expand my social network. Lastly, I wanted to live on my own. But, when I moved here I realized that every possible thing was different than how I’d been living in LA and it was going to be way harder to do everything I wanted to do. For instance, I went to the pharmacy in search for some Pepto Bismo and they didn’t have it. How did a pharmacy not have Pepto Bismo and what was I supposed to do?! Btw… If you’re thinking, “C’mon Chloe, Tums!” Yea… No Tums either! Luckily, I became homies with the pharmacist. He’s a cool dude. But that’s a story for another time. The Pepto Bismo incident was just one of the times I realized that my life was about to change completely. People always told me, “Chloe this is going to be way harder than you ever imagined.” And while I hate for all of those people to be able to say, “I told you so.” I give them all permission to say it to me, (once and only once people, you’re not that special).
I am now 23 and back living in LA before finding a way to start traveling again. I have tons of stories I want to share about my time France, my time abroad, and my experience being back home. Good stories, bad stories, funny stories and sad stories. So here we go.