Hi there, welcome back into my weekly diary in which I try to show what an eco-positive lifestyle looks like on a daily basis. I try to reduce my negative impact on this planet every day and at the same time I try to increase my positive impact. The past week I received some sustainable underwear, went to a symposium about sustainable food and had a secondhand room-makeover! Want to read along? Here’s weekly diary #103.
Thursday
Yesterday evening I went back to my hometown Enschede because today I had to work at my part-time job. But beforehand I went to a UPS pick-up point to pick up a delivery for myself. I barely buy something new, so this is an exception. I ordered underwear from OrganicBasics. The past week I have worn and I will write a review about it soon! Then I worked from 11 am till 9 pm at my part-time job.
Friday
Today I wanted to attend a symposium before class and so I got up at 5:30 am to go back to Amsterdam. By public transportation of course, since that is the most sustainable option for me. But, because my impact from public transportation was quite high last year, I am a bit scared that this year it will be massive too. I did have a good reason, a symposium about sustainable food. In general, there is no conclusion from all the talks. They’re scientists sharing their knowledge and research. However, for me, all the papers and research keeps repeating the same message: we’d be so much better off if everybody went vegan. There would be enough food and water to feed everyone, we can restore forests, we’d attack the obesity problem, cut methane emissions and live compassionately. Yet, none of the scientists specifically say this, even though their research does imply it. Anyway, after school I went back to Enschede for a delivery I had for Loose, my webshop for package free groceries. The client wasn’t home last Sunday and so today I’ll try again. Luckily, they were home and another family was provided with package free groceries!
Saturday
Today is such a good day, since I only had to work till 3pm and so there was a lot of time left on this Saturday. After school I went to a salad bar, called ETN in Enschede. They have a vegan bakery and so I wanted to order a cake for my birthday. They have so many vegan flavors and options, it’s delightful! I chose the vegan cheesecake with raspberry and I am looking forward to Thursday. The owner of ETN offered me a little place in her shop to sell some items from my own webshop Loose a while ago, which I am still doing. The stock is going empty and so I need to refill the items. I sell toothbrushes, straws and produce bags. All zero waste items! Once back home I did some work in the garden. This year I had tomato plants in my garden, but the yield wasn’t so good due to the weird season with massive heatwaves (climate change). Since the season is over I took out all the plants and now it’s ready for the next season. I still have to see what I’ll plant. In other news, I am getting a ‘new’ bed this weekend! The bed I have right now is secondhand which I got from my parents in law who didn’t want it anymore. However, my boyfriend can’t sleep that well in it and so it’s not the best thing for him. Another family member of my boyfriend, his uncle, wanted to get rid of a bed too and asked if anyone could use it. I did! And so, I’m getting another secondhand bed. Today it was time to take apart my current bed so that for tomorrow everything will be set for the new one!
I also made a Youtube-vlog of this video which can be found here!
Sunday
Time to get up early since I wanted to a lot today! First, I went to the gym. It’s the second time this week I work out, which is waaay less than I’m used to. During my thesis period I worked out about six times a week. Anyway, no time for comparing situations, I just try to make the best of the time I currently have. My school has 15 floor and we have class on the 13th very often, that’s where I compensate by taking the stairs. Anyway, after the gym I worked at my part-time job for 2 hours. Around 2 pm my boyfriend came over, with the ‘new’ bed. We lifted it to my room and tried to put it together! We struggled a bit but in the end it came together and I am very happy with it. Secondhand things are the most sustainable option for when you want something else, that’s why I always try to choose secondhand. The bed looks amazing in my opinion but I won’t show you yet since the old bed in still in the room and needs to be picked up by a secondhand store. I am giving it to them and hopefully somebody else will be happy with it. We barbecued at night, since it was a very sunny day. I don’t do the groceries, but my dad always made sure there are good vegan things for me. It does however suck to see everyone around me eat so much meat since I know what the consequences are. Anyway, it was a lovely day!
Monday
Back to school again. But beforehand, I went to the gym again. Whenever I have time, I’ll go. It had been raining all morning in Enschede but still I take the bike to the train station. Wherever I can bike, I will. I just put a raincoat on, laughed at myself for a moment because it looked funny and went off in the rain. Nothing can ruin my mood these days! At night after school I did a lot of reading since that’s necessary for university. That’s really a big difference with a University of Applied Sciences. However, I do like the reading subjects so I’ll be fine.
Tuesday
Normally I am free till 13:30 pm, but today we had a group meeting to work on a project. I had class and afterwards I did some reading again. But also, I watched Beau, a Dutch tv-show, form yesterday, which I normally never do. Yesterday (16th September) there was a part with a vegan athlete I have been following for a while. She mentioned she’d be on the show in Instagram. It was about The Gamechangers, a documentary which is out today. It’s about vegan top-athletes. Lewis Hamilton, Serena Williams, Lou Smith, Novak Djokovic and even more. They’re all vegan! Did you know that? I think it says a lot. I want to watch the documentary soon. At night I had the second handball training at the club I now go to in Haarlem.
Wednesday
A long day of school and afterwards I went back to Enschede. It’s lovely to see how everybody at school learning about the effects of meat and dairy products on the environment slowly. In the beginning I felt like nobody was vegetarian or vegan, even though I’d expect that in our class. I learned that some are vegetarian, but most didn’t know about the massive impact of animal products. Now that we all study Environment and Resource Management people are hearing it repeatedly, we can’t have a planet if we don’t stop eating animal products. That makes me feel good, people are waking up, I can tell! Also, today I saw something passing by about The Dolphin Project. If you’ve seen The Cove, you might know this organization. They try to stop the capturing and killing of dolphins in Taiji. It’s a place where many dolphins are captured to be transported to marine parks around the world (for example SeaWorld, Dolfinarium in the Netherlands etc). It’s horrific and I urge you not to ever visit a marine park (or a zoo). Today I just wanted to share some facts about dolphins living in captivity, it’s horrific.
How has your week been?
Yours sincerely,
Romee
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