Weekly diary #88: Celebrating the King’s birthday with flee markets

Hi there, welcome into my weekly diary! On my blog, I try to share more about an eco-positive lifestyle I try to live. And what that looks like on a daily basis, can be confusing. That’s why I write these weekly diary, to give you an insight in my daily life. The past week I celebrated King’s day, took an important exam for my master and donated some plasma! Want to read along?

Thursday
First thing today is driving lessons. If you’re new to these weekly diaries, you can read in this post why I’ve chosen to get my driver’s license, even though it’s not the most sustainable choice. Once back home, I went to the gym. The rest of the day I spent typing out interviews for my thesis, I’m almost done with that. Today is also my dog’s birthday! He’s turning four. Darco is one of the reasons I went vegan, I realized that killing an animal is cruel. Whether it is my own dog, or a pig I don’t know. He made me realize that animals have feelings, emotions and characters too. I feel like I don’t have the right to take a life of any animal, and so I quit eating animals three years ago.

Friday
A long and productive day! First, I went to the gym. After that I wrote a blogpost about a new jeans I bought and went to the city center to get a gift. I bought two beers, which is not zero waste but plasticfree. At least, it was. The woman before me in line had her gift wrapped and it was in paper, so when the cashier asked if I wanted mine wrapped too, I said yes. I don’t even know why, I guess I just automatically said yes. Anyway, he wrapped he whole thing in plastic and I was bummed afterwards. I made a mistake. But, mistakes happen and so I forgive myself. Once back home I worked on typing out interviews again and went to my part-time job afterwards. When I was free from work I went to my boyfriend’s house by train, I had prepared a meal during lunch and so I had a zero waste lunch on the go! I had my last interview scheduled with one of my boyfriend’s friends, who is an online marketeer. It was my last interview. Now onto the next stage of this thesis, analyzing the answers!

Saturday
Today it’s the birthday of our King in the Netherlands, this is celebrated by huge flee markets all over the country, all individuals who go onto the streets to sell their unwanted stuff. Also, everybody dresses in orange since it’s our national color. I’m not very much a nationalist I guess and I don’t care about the King’s birthday, but I do like the flee markets! A great day for me to go out, buy second hand goods and have a good time with friends. My boyfriend, a friend of his and I went to Harderwijk and I bought a few things. I was planning on sharing my purchases on here, but I think I’ll dedicate a full blogpost to it in the future, much more fun in my opinion. The rest of the day we went to a friend’s house, more people joined and we had loads of fun. At that friend’s house I drank my drinks in a reusable glass, I asked him and he thought it was fine. However, when I ordered a drink in a café, it was served to me in a disposable cup and I hadn’t brought my own reusable cup. Shit. When there a big parties, many cities in the Netherlands switch to plastic cups, because it will be very busy. I think it’s a horrible system, but I couldn’t do anything about it that night. I had some drinks in plastic that night, I should have been prepared. Better luck next time. Also, we had some dinner at a burger place, where they had vegan burgers. I asked them if I could get my fries and burger on a reusable plate, but they didn’t want to do that. But, they did promise me not to use plastic, and they didn’t. So at least the dinner was plasticfree. After all, we had a fun day.

Sunday
After we party, we hangover. We did go to a friend that day and got some ice-cream. When I eat ice-cream, I don’t eat that entirely vegan. I choose vegan ice, but I never choose a disposable cup, but get the ice in a cone. It’s zero waste, but probably not vegan because the cones sometimes have butter in there. It’s a personal choice. I would prefer vegan cones of course but the barely ever have those. This is what I do when I eat ice-cream and I haven’t brought my own utensils, if I have my reusable cup and a spoon, I choose that of course. I’ve done it before and the shops are always fine with it. Then it’s vegan and zero waste. That day we also went to a friend who lives near my boyfriend and they have a lot of animals. From goats to horses, dogs to cats. It’s heaven I swear! I want many rescued animals of my own some day.

Monday
Time to go back to Enschede for some driving classes. After that, I had an appointment to donate some plasma at the Blood Bank. I’ve scheduled my next appointment in four weeks, I used to go every six weeks. So, I’ve increased my frequency, to the maximum that is allowed, once in four weeks. I feel good about it and so I want to do it as much as I can. My health was checked and from now on they calculate per individual how much plasma you are allowed to give, considering your height and weight. I can give 520 ml each time. However, I quit at 235 ml today, because I did not feel good. Suddenly I became nauseous, began to sweat and felt dizzy. Sometimes that happens. It was okay, better luck next time. I decided to reward myself anyway and went to the supermarket to get a new vegan product I had heard of, vegan salmon. My expectations were very high, but it wasn’t good at all. Bummer. For vegan meat replacements I made exceptions when it comes to waste, since I can’t resist those. However, this was a waste of plastic and paper. Also, I worked on my thesis and did some taxes. I had a delivery for Loose today, my package free webshop, which is unusual, because I normally don’t deliver on Monday. I rescheduled this delivery because not all ingredients had arrived yet. What a productive day with positive impact!

Tuesday
Another day that starts with driving lessons, this is going fast! After that I spent a lot of time on typing out interviews from my thesis (it takes forever). Before I went out the door again, I ate some scrambled tofu for the first time! Back in Berlin I went to a special vegan store where I bought a spice mix for tofu. It was delicious! After that, I went to my boyfriend. By bike, train, bus and foot, the most sustainable way in about 2 hours. I love travelling by train.

Wednesday
A very special day today, because I am taking the TOEFL ITP test. It’s an English exam I have to pass to go attend the master’s program I was admitted for a while ago, Environment and Resource Management. For this test, I had to travel to Amsterdam, where I’ll go to school next year. The test went well I guess, but I’ll see the result in three weeks. It feels a bit weird being busy with next year, since I’m in the middle of my thesis at the University for Applied Sciences right now. Once back home after traveling a long time, I came home to a lovely vegan dinner my dad cooked for us. Just now I walked with Darco and meanwhile I picked up trash, having a small bag full once back home. That feels so good!

How was your week? Have you made any specific positive impact?

Yours sincerely,
Romee