Hi there, welcome back into another weekly diary in which I try to share my transition to a sustainable lifestyle with positive impact. The past week my boyfriend celebrated his birthday, I thought of making my own meat-replacements and delivered another delivery for my webshop Loose! Want to read along?
Thursday
Yesterday night our team lost the handball game again. But, there was another game in the same sports complex and an old teammate of us was playing there. We watched a bit of the game, she plays on a much level higher than us now. Today was a regular school day. I am on schedule and have two more exams to go. After school I raced to work since a colleague needed someone to replace her. I can use the hours. Back home I decided to go to the gym and afterwards I worked on a school presentation for tomorrow.
Friday
Today we started very early at school but as long as it’s not every day of the week I can manage. After school I worked again. I wanted to work out still afterwards but it was rough and so I didn’t go. That’s okay. I watched The Handmaid’s Tale instead, I am addicted.
Saturday
Someone was sick at work and so I worked on the meat department in the morning and the bakery after noon. They start an hour later at the meat-department and so I could sleep till 7:20AM! That really makes a difference. After work I made myself some dinner and I was really proud of the end result. I made some rice with onion, green beans, black beans and a tomato sauce. It was delicious! Cooking vegan doesn’t have to be difficult. After dinner I had planned to meet up with our friend group. We wanted to plan a small holiday together. I am away quite a lot this summer and I hope I can manage that with work. They don’t like it when you’re gone a lot in summer. But it’s the only time I’m free from school for a long time. After we planned the trip we played some Monopoly together, it’s my favorite game!
Sunday
I am free the entire day. No handball, no work, no school. My brother had to play a baseball game today and so I decided to come along with my stepdad to watch. Baseball games take quite long, we were gone for 4 hours. But it was fun! When I decided to come along I had only 5 minutes to get ready and so I forgot my reusable drinking bottle and to put on sunscreen. Stupid, I got burned quite bad on my arms and in my face. Since I forgot my drink I bought a can of coke in the kanteen. Cans are better than plastic because they’re 100% recyclable. Luckily I did mange to bring my own food. After the game I took the food scraps back home to compost. At night I watched The Handmaid’s Tale again, surprise!
Monday
Today I was free from school but I did go to school to work on a project with a group. Eventually it took all day and so I bought some sandwiches at Jumbo in my reusable bag. I also bought the vegan chicken-curry salad again and today I thought that I could maybe make it myself one day. It seems fun and when I look at the ingredient list it shouldn’t be too hard. I can make a bigger portion with less plastic. A friend of mine at school asked me if I wanted to have a piece of clothing from her. She knows I wear only secondhand most of the time. She has the same size as I do and the item was sort of what I was looking for anyway. She’ll take it with her to school the coming days. Once back home I made myself some dinner but I liked it so much that I ate until I had a stomach ache. I waited a while for it to go away and then I went to the gym for a cycling class. Jee, those are heavy! I couldn’t even finish the entire class. I also really want to start rope jumping again too but it was stolen a while back from the gym and they’re still waiting on the new one. Once at home I watched The Handmaid’s Tale again but it was the most recent episode. This means that I have to wait every week for a new episode now. And after this season, a whole year! Sh*t! Today I also finished another Dutch book: Mijn Leven in De Wilnernis (my life in the wilderness). I would recommend it but it’s a bit wordy.
Tuesday
Today school started at 8:30AM and so we were done quite soon. We decided to sit with the project group right afterwards and that’s something I can recommend to all student. Get it done right away while you’re still in the flow. After school I received an e-mail from the minor I will start after the summer holiday. It’s called Health and Performance at work. The e-mail said that I have to find a company for which I can write a report during the minor. I panicked a bit since I haven’t learned anything yet. But I guess I’ll just start approaching companies and do it. It will all be fine. A teacher at school told us today that more and more student are having a burn-out. He thinks it’s because of out phones. I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s because of all the things we do. We have to go to school (which accounts for 40 hours a week), a parttime job to have some sort of income (since the government makes us loan money to go to school), keeping up with friend and family, exercising, the student association. I think that’s the reason but well, I don’t know. At night I worked at my part-time job again and packed my bags afterwards. Tomorrow is an exciting day!
Wednesday
Woohooo! It’s my boyfriend’s birthday. The plan was to go to him yesterday but I had an order for Loose again today. Also exciting! I will deliver the groceries in a bit, then get changed and go to Harderwijk. Tonight we’re going out to dinner to celebrate and I’m going to gift him something (spoiler: I rather gift experiences than stuff).
My favorite song of this week:
All mine
Kanye West
Yours sincerely,
Romee