The story you told at the end about the students was quite disappointing to hear. Just know that there are so many people who watch your content who absolutely vibe with you and look forward to your videos 😃

I work in academia and a prime sanity-saving rule if you teach is to never read your student evaluations. Apart from any other specific political or social context, undergraduates are just really young. Most of them have never had to face a roomful of people and teach them anything, and for most of them it’s their first time flexing a little power, pretty anonymously, at adults. Even if they’re not trying to be unkind they can be super self-centered and not great at thinking through their own preconceptions and biases. It always stings, especially when it feels ungrounded in any real specifics or usable constructive criticism. Big hugs to you, I think your content is awesome and I’ve learned a ton from you, both in big-picture ways and in practical small actions ❤

The lemon smashing thing is re-used soooo many times in the Netherlands (as far as I know)! We don't through it out after one single use. I worked in a bar and a restaurant before and we would re-use these until they break :)

Hello from California, USA! So glad to see your lighthearted spirit after the student presentation. You know who you are, and so do all of us here 💚 thank you for all you do for environmentalism. Have loved your work for years!

I laughed at 'the place to be' @ the vintage shop, because 'de plek' means 'the place' 😂

I love your energy and your everything but I also have to say THAT SKIRT LOOKS AMAZING ON YOU DAYUM 🤩

"I dont need to mojito it" ahhahahahah noooo never seen that thingy :P the sandwich really looks delicious! Thank you for another amazing vlog :)

Thanks for a shout out to Leeuwarden! Most areas of the Netherlands are being ignored over Amsterdam and surroundings, so this was great to see. I'm happy you enjoyed your stay

This Dutch girl loves your video's!

That citrus/ lemon thingy is mostly reused in restaurants😅 actually I never been in a café/ restaurant in the Netherlands where they throw them away after one time using. They just simply clean them before reusing

Your videos bring me so much joy thank you for making them

Glad you enjoyed Leeuwarden! I grew up in cycling distance from there (okay, 20 km so Dutch cycling distance ;) ) I always forget about Leeuwarden because the Netherlands have so many similar, old cities, but it is a cool one! your pronunciation of the name around 6:00 is perfect! also, Pannenkoekenschippen ( pancake ships) are the herpes of Dutch restaurants. They are the saddest culinary experience you can have, and are only really used for tourists, hen do's and children's party's.

Omg, that intro was so great!!!! 🤣

Omg "all-peopled out" I get it SO MUCH

Hiya, I loved your video - I am from the Netherlands, so it is always nice to hear what others think of our little country ❤ I just wanted to pop in here and say that I have never experienced those stampers as disposable - at every place I have worked at we would wash them and reuse them (the same as I am doing at home), sure they aren't as durable as glass, but also don't recycle it immediately! See if you can still use it around the house 😊

Congrats on getting out of your social being comfort zone and throwing yourself in with the others :)

The menu looked amazing. Since you love to cook as well, I wonder whether you looked at the plates and thought to yourself “hmm, how easy would it be to reassemble that at my home”. Lol. The ornament at the end gave me primary school vibes, back then in 1990s we would create little decoration things for mother’s day for example made from a salt dough (Salzteig in German). It’s just flour, water, salt, maybe some starch. I have not thought about that for decades (I am 41 yrs old now, haha).

Netherlands are so BEAUTIFUL! I love the canals everywhere :D

Haha we use the lemon smashers all the time. I work in a hotel. The plastic ones we reuse. We also have bamboo ones now. They are very unnecessary indeed. 😂Leeuwarden is lovely. Thank you for the positive representation of that beautiful city ❤

I loved your video! ❤I can totally relate to what you were saying about feeling like the odd one out in social dynamics with extroverted people, I often feel the same way. If it makes you feel any better about the students' presentation, I studied for two years in the Netherlands and they do have a very 'direct' culture. They also tend to take things like analysis very seriously, so I wouldn't take anything they said too personally, they may have even been asked to be critical. As a Brit, where we sugarcoat a lot more, it was a culture shock for me let me tell you 😂 so I can only imagine how you're feeling after 5 days

In the UK they are 'possers'. My great aunt in the 70's had a 60 year old washing machine - it ran water in - you beat up your clothes with the posser, changed the watrer, possered again and then put it through a mangle. Really hard work. We also get them in coctails too.

So much fun to see you were in the Netherlands! Welcome. Aside from the students encounter it looks like you had a fun time. As far as I know the lemon squeeze thing is always reused. To be fair, I’ve never asked, due to this assumption. 3 years ago the Dutch government placed a ban on selling one-time-use plasric cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, balloon sticks and q-tips. The use itself was not yet prohibited so vendors were allowed to use up their stock but then had to switch to non plastic or reusable alternatives. I was unable to find out whether these lemon squeeze thing are counted as ‘cutlery’ or if they are exempt from this law. Either way I do understand your frustration when they told you they would dispose of it after your use. I hope you come and visit the Netherlands again sometime and share your experience. I love seeing the Netherlands from a non-Dutch perspective, flaws and all.

Wait how is it they studied your content and in education they said most of it is from personal experience and not a lot from sources? What about your deep dives? Your educational content is impressive and yeah most of your channel are blogs and teaching what you’re learning at the moment you’re learning it but I wouldn’t consider those videos to be explicitly educational, just your experience. I’m not sure if I’m explaining myself. I’m just confused by their findings

I love the timing of 'de Plek' with your voice over of 'the place to be'. I see what you did there, very nice 🤭

Welcome to our country 🌹❣️

I wish I had known you were in Leeuwarden! Im from there and you were at my university! I would have loved chatting with you, I think you are amazing! Very inspiring and very authentic❤ Lots of love from the Nederlands!

Gonna take a wild guess that the group of students were meat eaters. Generally that's all it takes for people to dislike someone once they know they are vegan. It's certainly been my experience. You go along with people quite happily for hours, days, weeks, whatever, but the minute a meat eater finds out you're vegan, they become pretty antagonistic towards you.

oooo Dutchy here! So great to see you in the Netherlands, I need to go to Leeuwarden myself sometime :)

That skirt was soooo cute!

Was hoping to hear everything worked out because your phone was synced and saved to the cloud...probably a blessing so you can move on from a negative experience and trust that who you're meant for sees you and those people find ways to keep spreading your message. Loved how happy you were with your thrift finds!

You were in the Netherlands ❤! So lovely! Wish we could have met. Good to see you are enjoying yourself here. 😃

As a Dutch person (and now-graduated Dutch student), I’m sorry the students were so rude to you! You didn’t say but I wouldn’t be surprised if these were white young men who think of themselves a little too highly, I hope you won’t be taking their ‘analysis’ too seriously. Some Dutch colleges don’t have high standards for the quality of the work their students deliver, and it sounds like that might have been the case here as well. I think you have a great mix of educational and entertaining content, and I love watching it!

I enjoyed this vlog so much! You can use the plastic lemon bashing stick as a support for a plant! It will last forever.

Wow you where in the Netherlands, that's awesome! I lived in Leeuwarden for a few years, while studying environmental science. Wish we could have met, you seem like such a nice and cool person, feel like we could be friends

Lol now I know why I saw you posting about the 'lemon squeezer' and I was just thinking, oh we have those everywhere here 😅

Thank you so much 😊

This makes me feel old in an odd way. We're the same age, and when I discovered your channel I was like "this is fantastic, with this vibe she can surely reach younger people too!" 😂 Ehhh... I wonder what it was they didn't like about you.

Just remember to make enough room for yourself to introvert a little bit when you need it 🌼

Thank you

I used to study in Leeuwarden haha it was fineeee, the town is fine too, i love the park but in summer there are too many boats 🥲 lots of foreign students, which was nice to get to know so many foreign people as opposed to Frisian people that often refuse to speak Dutch or talk to you in general

here's to the odd ones out

What is brand of the leather jacket?? It is amazing 😮

Hi Gittemary, They reuse this plastic things for your lemon, LOL! So you basically stole them, but I think that’s ok. You where in front of a store called DE PLEK and you said : that’s the place to be. That is funny because DE PLEK litterally means THE PLACE in Dutch! ;) Greetings from Inez from The Netherlands

You are the Girl with the (Secondhand) Pearl Earrings!

I'm guessing the rude students didn't understand your channel being multidimensional, having serious, personal and light hearted content. They probably didn't make eye contact because they were embarrassed after meeting you and hearing you talk.

OMG I LIVE THERE😱😱😱😱

Glad you had such a good time in Leeuwarden! It's a gorgeous city. I'm baffled about the student evaluation as well. Regarding lack of representation, you have blog-style videos so of course they only represent you(r life). But in your research you often mention minorities and the ways they are still being exploited/experience more impact from climate change. Plus you often mention disabled people as well when talking about sustainable options. Honestly you are the most inclusive non-disability vlogger I know.

As a student from the Netherlands, I personally love your videos! However, I also understand how students may feel (by lack of better terms) disconnected from your content. I find it hard to balance a student month-to-month budget (as most Dutch students have), environmentalism and 'finding myself as a student'. Lots of 'eco tips and tricks' (not only from you, but many eco-influencers) feel nearly impossible to keep up with. Think of going out sustainably, planning meals (when plans can change by the hour), investing in eco-friendly options when at the time the disposible options are cheaper and easier. Furthermore, most of us either live in student housing or at our parents place, making it difficult to 'force our eco-friendly lifestyle' upon others (e.g. we cannot buy a bidet, keep a bucket in our shower to catch the water or compost with what little space we have). And maybe mostly the idea of 'being young and care-free' combined with constant peer-pressure and the need to fit in makes it difficult to explore and grow within our ideals of environmentalism. I know I personally do not do everything I could do in terms of sustainability, but I try to do the most. I mostly try to set myself up for succes for when I am older, no longer a student and more able to live my life in a more eco-friendly way. All in all: I understand how the students you met might have been less positive about your content, but know that that is not coming from you, but from the system in which it is hard to be not only an environmentalist, but also a student and young adult.

💚

❤❤❤

Holy shit, your tattooooooos!! 🤩🥰🤩🥰🤩🥰🤩🥰

In a way im sad your ear rings are thrifted as i love them

Koele boele ah nigfa

I like your vlogs but when i saw your tattoo's i begin to wonder if they are vegan or not? Because a lot of people don't now where most tattoo inkt is made of. Also in a lot of studio's most of the equipment comes out of sealed plastic sterile backs. There are special studio's for vegans but not much

Regarding the students, I'm not entirely sure, but as someone coming from this neck of the woods, it may not have been about you. Currently, especially in Friesland, the (higly agricultural) provincy of Leeuwarden, there is some very polarized and heated sentiment surrounding people who advocate sustainability. There has been a lot of upheaval over the last 2 or 3 years in the Netherlands over measures to counter the environmental issues that come from our bio-industry. A lot of farming families see this as a threat to their livelyhood, and sadly it has really hardened and polarized the debate, to a point where quite a few people see all sustainablity efforts as a leftist hobby, that is just there to kill the bio-industry. (if you have seen all the upside-down turned flags in the area: that was what that's about) Obviously, their arguments are flawed, but if you are a ~19 year old student from a farming family ( and many students in Leeuwarden have this background) that is the main sentiment that you have heard over the last few years. Therefore, they might see you as a sustainability blogger attacking the culture, future and livelyhood of their parents, aunts, uncles etc who work in the bio-industry. It's not great, but I think it has more to do with the overall polarization of the Netherlands regarding this topic, than with your channel. Had you been to a university in for example Groningen, Utrecht or Amsterdam, their feelings might have been quite different.

Think you find the poor response from the students was because of their own complexities and inadequacies so they took it out on you. Sad but not uncommon in my experience. There are climate deniers out there and chances were you just were hit with that group. That also explains their behaviour towards you.

I’ve always enjoyed your content and your energy, but you’ve always come off as somewhat unattainable to me? Like you live a picture perfect zero waste life in a beautiful country with access to those options, and even though I can’t live that way I admire you for what you do. But it’s possible they were rating influencers on relatability?

It seems like your trip was so much fun!! I could relate a lot to the trying to stay active in social settings, in fact by the coincidence I just had almost a similar “wanting to be social to know new people and then partying with them until quite late, unexpectedly” just yesterday! So interesting how we had similar experience and I just got to see your video right away after it happened :)