Hi there, welcome back into my weekly diary. In this diary I want to show you what an eco-positive lifestyle looks like on a daily basis. Every day, I try to minimize my negative impact on the planet and make my positive impact as large as I can. The past week I ate a lot of fancy vegan food, contributed to an interview of a fellow student and donated some plasma! Want to read along?
Thursday
Thursday is my day off from school, but I need it to do a lot of school work. So today I slept in late (ahhh, I love those mornings). The rest of the day I spent on school work. Mostly preparing a poster for an upcoming exam on Tuesday. Having no obligations for which I have to leave the house, these days are sooo comfy.
Friday
Today I have a partnerday, organized by the company my boyfriend works for. It was in Amsterdam and I forgot my raincoat. So once there I was soaked. Not such a good way to start the day. Ug, I need better preparation when it rains! Once there I met everybody and it was lovely. We had a full day of activities. At first, we went to Artis, which is a big zoo in the middle of Amsterdam. I never visit zoos, because I don’t support their practices as a vegan. I won’t go into detail with this because I am planning on writing a blogpost about the topic ‘zoos’ soon. Anyway, there was a family trip planned to the zoo in a few days as well, but I refused to join. I don’t want to support zoos. But today I had no choice since I didn’t even know we were going there (all the activities were a surprise). So, I think this was the last time in my life I visited a zoo. Afterwards we went for a good lunch and my boyfriend told them I eat vegan and so they cooked something vegan for me. I had a lovely curry! Unfortunately I was the only vegan but I do think there were some vegetarians too. During dinner some people asked about why I am vegan (mostly why I don’t eat eggs or milk) and it started a really lovely conversation. At the end some people told me I really made them think about their choices and that’s always amazing to hear. After lunch we went with a boat through the canals of Amsterdam, which I had never done before, so that was very cool! We stopped at a location for a lecture about sustainability, just what I like! It was lovely and afterwards we went out for dinner. There they cooked 4 courses vegan for me too, luxurious! It was a great day!
Saturday
This week must have exhausted me, because today I slept till 13:30. My boyfriend had already left in the morning because he had plans all day. I just needed to do a lot of homework, so I had no alarm. I spend the day preparing a presentation for an upcoming test and I didn’t really leave the house anymore.
Sunday
Today we got up a little earlier to go to Utrecht! We have family living there who just moved and so we came to see the house and hang out. We went into the city centre to do some shopping (as a minimalist I didn’t buy anything haha). Also, we went for drinks and tapas as well. At the first place I drank a kombucha. Whenever that’s on the menu I have it. Kombucha is basically fermented tea and fermented food is healthy! It’s good for your gut. After that, we went to WakuWaku, a plant-based restaurant in Utrecht! I was so excited for this, oh my. Vegan restaurants are a-ma-zing! I can choose whatever is on the menu and that is such a relief! And it’s hard too! Normally I don’t have that much choice, so this is basically too hard. I want it all! We chose a sharing platter, a cheese platter and sushi! I was astounded by the vegan cheese, it was so good! Now my plan is to test different plant-based cheeses at home, so I can enjoy them at home too. The sharing platter contained olives, tempeh chorizo, bread with sauces and bitterballen (a Dutch snack). We also had the samosa’s and sweet potato fries. And even after that I had to have the Snicker Dome. A dessert which was soooo good. I was blown away by this restaurant, oh my god. I want to go to vegan restaurants more often, because now I barely do it. I don’t really have that many vegans in my family/friends so that makes it hard too. One of the family members we went with today was vegan as well (yes!) and then these things are lovely. Luckily, my boyfriend is always open to it as well. You’d think that I’d had enough food. But nope, once back home we also ordered pizza. Mine was quite good as well, with some vegan cheese on it. We drove back home and it had been a lovely day!
Monday
Monday and so back to school. I had one class. It is the last week of school before the exams as well. After school I stayed a little longer, because a student from the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht had asked me if she could interview me about food waste. I always like doing interviews and helping others. If I was searching for people to interview, it’s very convenient if they say yes. I’ve also had to look for people to interview during my thesis. It feels good helping others. And talking about helping others, after the interview I hopped onto the bus and bike to Haarlem. There I had an appointment at Sanquin, because I donate plasma every 5 weeks or so. The last time was 12 weeks ago due to some overlapping appointments, but I try to go as much as I can. From plasma they make medicines and treat people with severe burning wounds. You are literally saving lives when you donate. It took me about one hour and it’s nice to have some me-time while you wait.
Tuesday
Exam day! Today we had to present our scientific posters for 30% of our end result. Mine was about pluvial flooding (extreme rainfall in cities) and it went okay. Could have been better but it’s over now. The presenting went great but the questions afterwards, pff, they were tough. Back home I prepared the next presentation, for tomorrow! And I went to handball training as well. The first work-out of this week and I hope it won’t be the last one. It feels so good to work out! This week I also forgot my divacup and so I had to buy some tampons. I chose organic ones, which are better than convential ones. A box of 16 cost me 4,20 euros and so I realized once more how much money I save by using my divacup. Saving waste and money, that’s always good!
Wednesday
The last day of official class before the exams, with a guest lecture. This first class was on the 13th floor and I always take the stairs. Move that body! It’s always good for your health to take the stairs, but it saves energy too. Double win! Also, today I had another presentation for another course. Again about pluvial flooding but more complicated. I did it voluntarily, because the teacher asked if anyone wanted to practice in front of the class for feedback. I always try to take those opportunities, you can only learn from your mistakes. It went very well! I also got some nice feedback and so I can improve my presentation for the actual test deadline on Friday. At home I processed the feedback and tomorrow I can do the final presentation and submit it hopefully! Yes!
How has your week been? Did you add any positive impact in any way?
Yours sincerely,
Romee