Weekly diary #43: visiting MacDonalds three times in one week

Hi! Welcome to my personal weekly diary. Great that you’re reading this! In these weekly diaries I try to share my transition to a sustainable lifestyle with positive impact. The past week I celebrated Ascension, got rid of some shoes and visited MacDonalds three times!

Thursday

My boyfriend arrived at 00:00 at the train station in Enschede and we decided to have some drinks at a bar. I only had a drink (without a straw of course), but after a while I got hungry. I had dinner at 17:00PM already. There are 3 options in Enschede at 1:00AM. Ji-Nos, De Muur and MacDonals. At Ji-Nos everything is served in plastic so I skipped that one. MacDonalds has a vegan burger and so we went there. I had fries (without sauce this time) and a burger. No drink or sauce and so no plastic. After a good midnight snack we went home to sleep. I took my waste home with me to recycle at home (see the picture below). When I woke up it was still Thursday haha and I have a long weekend ahead. I did a canteen shift at my brothers baseball club from noon till 4PM. Once back home we baked some pancakes. You can just buy a ready to go pack that only needs eggs and milk. You use applesauce and almond milk instead if you want to make the pancakes vegan. You don’t taste the difference. A friend of mine which came over sat at the table and didn’t even know the pancakes were vegan. Around 7PM my boyfriend, a friend and I went to Sprakel in Lonneker. At Ascension there is always a coverband and an open air party. Last year was my first time and I really enjoyed it. It was a great party and I also bought zero waste drinks. I brought my own reusable cup again. It is important to tell the people who work at the bar that you want the drink directly from the bottle though. After the party we were hungry and we went to MacDonalds again. Usually I never go there and now twice in one day!

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Friday

My boyfriend headed home again since I had to work from 1PM till 8PM. Working until the supermarket closes is never fun. 8PM is never 8PM. It’s always 8:30PM or later. I personally never go to the supermarket 5 minutes before it closes because I know how much that sucks for the people who work there. At night I watched some episode of a new show to which I’m totally addicted: The Handmaid’s Tale! A while ago I told you that I had quit with Game of Thrones because I just wasn’t hooked from the first episode. Well, The Handmaid’s Tale has me hooked from the beginning. It is so good! It has won 8 Emmy Awards! I am a fan.

Saturday

Here we go again. Alarm at 6:20AM, work from 7AM till 5PM. Pff, I was exhausted afterwards and wanted to sit on the couch with a good series. And so, that’s what I did. However, I did go the market straight after work to buy some groceries. All the stands were closing but I managed to still buy some things. I bough a cauliflower, mushrooms and portobellos, all from The Netherlands! I was planning on making a vegan pasta with vegan cream sauce soon and so I went to the supermarket as well. Once there I also bought a bag of Japanese Mix (it’s a plant-based snack). Today I made a vegan ‘chicken’ burger for dinner with some of the mushrooms I had just bought. It was delicious and now it’s time to sit in bed with a good series. I do want to tell you this: I got rid of some shoes today, there were so worn out that I couldn’t wear them any longer. I did get rid of them in a responsible way, I put them in the textile recycling bin. The right picture is from when I just bought them, the middle one is now (see the hole?).

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Sunday

Sunday, but not just a normal one. Today it’s Mothers-day! Time to thank and spoil the best mom in the world. I got up early to make her breakfast in bed. But she came down and so that went all wrong haha. I baked her some croissants with cheese and a cake with strawberries. Both not vegan. I didn’t want to press my beliefs on her. But thinking back now I should have made vegan things. You can’t even tell the difference and it’s about the gesture. After noon we went to my aunt where grandma also visited. It was fun! At night I watched The Handmaid’s Tale again, I am hooked.

Monday

School starts again, but the days this week will be short. Today I had class from 10:15AM till 13:15PM. After class me and my boyfriend went to the terrace because the weather was lovely. We sat at de Brink in Deventer, at Sjampetter. They had indicated which dishes were vegan on the menu and that is always such a delight. This way I don’t have to ask. However, the vegan dish was used up (which is a good sign I guess). And so I could have the vegan dinner dish, the veggie-burger. The waiter asked me if I wanted fries with it and I said yes. It was served with mayonnaise and I asked if that was vegan. The waiter said it wasn’t. I was a little confused. I ordered a vegan dish you know. He wanted to give me ketchup instead and throw the mayonnaise away. I thought that would be terrible too, food waste. My boyfriend ate the mayonnaise and I still got new ketchup. I think these things are very normal to me but people who aren’t vegan probably don’t think about those things. The veggie burger was good, not amazing. I also ordered a 0,0% alcohol lemon-beer from Grolsch. Beer is not always vegan but I checked online and it said that the brand Grolsch is vegan. Around 5PM we went to my boyfriends house and he made me a lovely pasta. He always makes a special vegan dish for me. After dinner we went to a terrace again haha. We really enjoy this weather. Biking in the sun, sitting by the water. We sat at Walhalla, a lovely place in Harderwijk. We ran in some colleagues of my boyfriend and we ended up in a bar. But at one point we sat outside and glasses are not allowed outside. And so I got my drink in plastic. I hadn’t expected it and it felt really weird standing there with a plastic cup. Afterwards we went to the MacDonalds again! Third time this week. I don’t really like supporting this company (since it is destroying the planet and abusing animals) but when there are no other options I do go there. I wish there was an organic, vegan alternative for MacDonalds which was always open. But well, at least I eat vegan at MacDonalds. This day was very spontaneous and I love that!

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Tuesday

School started at 10:15AM and we got up at 7:50AM. That’s reasonable. I was free at 13:15PM already. I went home since the homework from this week is so minimal, I can do it at home as well. Around dinner-time I made myself a good vegan pasta with mushrooms, asparagus and a vegan cream sauce, hmmmm. I am bummed we don’t really have whole-grains pasta at home, that would be better. After dinner I went to the gym again for an abs & core training. I am trying to make going to the gym a habit but it isn’t really working yet. Recently I read this report of the World Health Organization which tells a little bit about exercising behavior among youth, very interesting!

Wednesday

I only had one class at 13:15PM today. I slept long and vacuum cleaned the house before I went. Once in class I was regretting my decision of going to class. We didn’t do anything. The teacher sat in front of the class, doing his own work. He said he’s there for questions. I had no questions and so I shouldn’t have gone. He’s one of the few teacher who doesn’t give class. If you want to know something you have to ask. I don’t like working like this. The few other student who showed up agreed with me. I am a little mad though, this isn’t the way you’re supposed to teach a class if you’d ask me. I am now back home writing this weekly diary and tonight I have a handball game. Let’s hope we win and have a great time!

My favorite song of this week:

Nice for What

Drake

Yours sincerely,
Romee