My journey to Vegetarianism

I have made it! In my slowly but surely transition into being Vegetarian, I can now say that I am officially at least an Ovo-Lacto-Semi-Vegetarian :)

Here is the quick and very basic explanation.

As of now, I do not eat any red meat or pork. Me being an Ovo-Lacto-Semi-Vegetarian.. I do still eat egg, dairy, chicken and fish.

I'm happy with my success on my journey thus far.

There are many reasons why I have been wanting to become a life-long Vegetarian. Here are only a small bit of them..

1. I am one of those girls who will easily cry or get really upset while watching what they do to poor animals just so humans can eat them.
2. I don't like the taste of red meat or pork as it is.
3. I consider myself an extremist in keeping the environment and the world around me clean and beautiful.
4. Being Vegetarian is spiritual for me. Through my studies, I have found that in the LDS religion, if you keep the Word of Wisdom, it not only will keep your body healthy (just as vegetarianism does)... but the vegetarian way of life that I've been looking into can be compared to a lot of the guidelines in the Word of Wisdom. Moderation in all things.
5. I'm learning that I love the feeling of control in my life. Being vegetarian is a way for me to take my own control and have fun with trying new things and a complete new way of life.

Before I came to the Netherlands... I didn't know CRAP about cooking, or even a healthy nutrition for that matter. Quite honestly, I've lost weight like crazy because of this. I've lost weight in a way that I thought was healthy, but really I've come to find that my body is just malnutrition-ed.. (I guess you could say). It has been a great learning journey for me and not an easy one to say the least. But as I've been learning so much, I'm happy to say that this is a new beginning for me in my life and it is what is working out best for ME personally.

I haven't decided how many of the words before 'Vegetarian' I want to someday cut off just yet.. who knows, maybe one day I will be straight up Vegan? But for now, I am okay with not knowing and simply being where I'm at now. Success!

Over and out bloggers... the sun is shining bright in Tilburg today, I hope it is for you where ever you are in the world as well! Enjoy :)
-Samijo

Lesson Learned

Something post-worthy happened today.. ahh. So, let me explain--

Today, I got to Breda by train (where I attend church every Sunday) and decided to walk to the church instead of taking the bus. I was over half way there and next thing I know, this old guy with white hair pulls up in his car next to me. He was speaking Dutch to me, and was waving me over to him. I went up to the window to see what he wanted and he kept saying "kerk, kerk" (church in Dutch) and was pointing in the direction where the church is. He had dress pants on and to myself I began thinking.. maybe he is in my ward and I just don't remember his face... since there are a lot of different people, some that I haven't fully met yet.

Then this other guy walked up to see what was going on. He had heard me saying I couldn't understand what the old man was saying to me.. So, the younger guy told me that the man in the car is saying that he can take me to the church. He was like, I don't know if you know this guy.. but that's what he is saying.

So, me being the trusty Utahn that I am.. I was like, "alright whatevs" and I got in. He kept speaking to me in Dutch and I just kept trying to get him to see that I didn't understand what the heck he was saying. Then.. he freakin put his old man hand on the outside of my leg and tried to go up my skirt. I smacked his hand off instantly and at first, I thought.. am I sitting on something of his? What the crap is this dude doing? Then he stopped in front of my church, THANKFULLY, and said something else.. then he did the same thing again! By this point, I knew I wasn't sitting on something of his.. Filthy pig. I got out of the car and slammed his door shut and he drove off.

First of all.. I'm so freaking lucky that this was ALL that happened. Second... lesson learned! Even though this is something that you learn when you are 4 years old.. to never get in the car with someone you don't know, dumb Sami.. I was definitely far too trusting. Moral of the story: Samijo.. 18 years old.. finally learned today never to get in the car with a stranger. Stranger danger dude... what were you thinking, dough-dough head!! What a freakin creep.

Crazy eh?

Limitless

Goedemorgen Blogger World,

I haven't posted in quite a while and felt like giving some updates.

The weeks are passing by far too quickly, yet at the same time.. oh so slowly. I cannot wait to see my Utahns and at the same time, I do not want to say tot ziens to my Netherlanders. It is a very BITTERSWEET moment in my life. Can you believe May is nearly over?!

For those of you who do not know, I guess this is my first time making it "public".. Luckily for me, come July 13th, I don't have to say goodbye to The Netherlands and all of my buddies here just yet. I have been blessed with the opportunity to extend my exchange and will be returning back to Tilburg for another semester of school at the Dance Academy! One year total in The Netherlands?? Yes please, don't mind if I do!

About a month ago, I found myself really struggling with what the heck I was going to do with my life next year. My parents and I tried weighing out countless amounts of options and were probably getting frustrated thinking that I might just end up taking the semester.. or a year.. off of school (which, that was looking like what I was going to do). I didn't even think that staying here longer would be possible, in fact I didn't even think of this as an option at all. In the middle of all of this, my teacher asked me what I thought about spending another year of school at Fontys and at first I became a bit frustrated because I knew I would love to do this again.. but in my mind I couldn't help but feeling limited because of how expensive and impossible it all seemed.

The biggest thing I have learned from this.... It never hurts to just ask. I sent an email to my school, being extremely doubtful that it would even work. And by this time, I had decided that just one semester seemed more applicable for me in my situation.. and to my luck, everything else has fallen into place! My mom has always taught me, if you never ask.. how will you ever know? If I would have been too scared to even ask my school of my possibilities, how would I know what is possible? It's as simple as that.

Moral of my blog for today... don't, even for one second, hold yourself back from asking someone anything.. or talking to someone that you want to talk to.. or doing something you've always wanted to do because of whatever fear you have developed in your mind. I believe that everyone is as limitless as you allow your mind to be. Never let yourself get to the point of saying... "I wonder what would have happened if I would have just done/said/asked this or that?"


Here is a simple, past example of just "going and doing" something... Me and Kaley sneaking into a pool we weren't supposed to be in. (Just another one of the many places we've done so in the many years of our friendship..)

I miss you KDoub!

Finnish Picnic

Spent the afternoon with most of my Finnish buddies at Wilhelmina Park in Tilburg today. We had a picnic and I must say... THIS little kid (who was not capable of any form of cooking before this study abroad experience).. provided the pasta salad! Lekker.

And this... my friends... is Finnish chocolate. To die for. Pirita's mother just visited her this week and was very kind and brought me this chocolate. Within two days.. we were able to down two bars of this stuff. Maybe I should move there just for the chocolate one day.


The joke of the group is always that I am learning more about the Finn's than the Dutch because I spend so much time with Finnish people. I'm learning more about the Finnish language than Dutch.. haha. Coming to terms with this fact inspired me to finally purchase a Dutch-English pocket book with a word list so I can start really learning the language of where I'm currently living. My goal was to learn the language.. so consider it happening. I will learn this blasted language.. even though I have to teach myself!

98 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun at the park today... beautiful and SHMOKIN hot!

Queen's Day

This day.. I found out is NOT the Queen's birthday. It's her mother's or grandmother's birthday? Her birthday is sometime in January.. nonetheless, yesterday was Queen's Day here in The Netherlands. Everybody wears orange and parties!

I actually celebrated this day the night before at a single adults LDS church dance in Rotterdam. -On Queen's Day (while we were supposed to be celebrating...) me, Annukka and Kimmo went to see Limitless in the cinemas instead. :)

These are some of the girls from the Breda ward.. my buddies.

And for the HIGHLIGHT of the night: we participated in some traditional Dutch games. This game.. (in America we would do this while eating donuts) you are blindfolded and have to eat this type of ginger bread. Tastey stuff!

Leaving for Barcelona today! Spring break baby.
Tot Ziens!