10 Years in Europe CHANGED Me — Nobody Warned Me About This

When I was in college, I imagined I might prefer living in Europe. I pictured myself twirling around the countryside like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. I even had the apron on! Little did I know, Nazis would be making a comeback on both sides of the pond. Ten years ago, I made it happen. I got a visa and moved to Europe—Germany, specifically, where I live off of free health care, bike lanes, and endless vacations. Okay, not really. But that’s the thing. Americans, generally speaking, tend to romanticize life in Europe. They think it’s all plush train cars, bike lanes with tulip-crested barriers, and long lunches with endless glasses of wine—void of all the stresses typically associated with life in the U.S. First of all, life is still stressful here. Maybe not as stressful depending on your perspective. But whether you’re a temporary expat or immigrant, you’re trading one kind of stress for another. You have to deal with a different kind of bureaucracy—possibly in a foreign language, build a social support system from scratch, and confront some of the American myths about Europe head on. -- CHAPTERS 00:00 - European Dream 01:07 - Bureaucracy 04:01 - Building a social life 05:39 - The growing far right 08:12 - Misleading social media SOURCES: https://withoutapath.substack.com/p/the-dark-side-of-living-in-europe Trail running tours and planning: https://burningriverrunningcompany.com/ Sign up to my newsletter so you never miss a video: https://withoutapath.substack.com/ Get 25% off your first three months with Vert.Run using code Joe25 at: https://vert.run/joe-baur/ Tailwind Nutrition: https://alnk.to/7McmXyf FOLLOW ME HERE: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baurjoe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baurjoe Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/3879178 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/joebaur/membership Substack: https://withoutapath.substack.com/ #america #moveabroad #lifeabroad #leavingamerica