Here and Now

My first week working at Starbucks

Posted on July 9, 2018Utrecht, The Netherlands

I wake up half an hour before my alarm clock. What makes that more impressive is when you know that my alarm clock was set at 5.00AM. Even though I’m feeling excited, I also sense that I’m still a bit tired so I stay in bed until the alarm clock actually goes off. Then I get up and start my morning ritual of making some lemon water in the kitchen. While in the kitchen my mind goes over the things I read last night in the Starbucks partner guide and I repeat the mission statement for myself. ‘To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.’ They want to change the world. Actually, from today I can say: “We want to change the world.” I feel proud. A long time dream will come to realization today. I’m going to work for the brand I love so much. Today is the first day of my training as barista for Starbucks and I’m looking forward to what is to come.

I continue my morning ritual of meditation and working out, taking a shower and having breakfast. Then I get on my bike to the Starbucks store.

Life

The antidote for stress: vacation mode

Posted on June 27, 2018Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands

Before I went on my journey to America I sometimes suffered from stress. Being an entrepreneur means that you have to think about a lot of things. It’s not simply working from nine to five, but it goes always on, at least in your mind. Going on a real vacation helped me breaking free from that and when I got back I noticed that one thing was different: I didn’t have any stress anymore. Now I’ve been back for three weeks and there have been moments that stress tried to get back into my life, but every time I notice it, I take a break and be in the moment.

This morning I thought about writing a blog about dealing with stress and a while later when I was in the train and listened to the latest episode of one of my favourite podcasts. It turned out to also be about stress. You can listen to it here. I don’t believe in coincidence, so without further ado is here my advice on dealing with stress.

We seem to be living in a faster time than ever before. We multitask a lot and there are hundreds of things each day calling for our attention.

Travel

Adjusting to being back home

Posted on June 16, 2018Maastricht, the Netherlands

It’s Friday morning and I’ve been back in the Netherlands now for almost two weeks. When I was traveling I hoped to be able to continue writing each day, but as expected that turned out to be harder while being back home. I wrote some pages on the first days that I was back, but I didn’t post them because it felt like it was quite mundane. Now that I quickly glance over the stories I realise that it could have been interesting to post them, but it’s okay. When I was traveling I wrote about what I did each day and that was great, because I could share my adventures with the world. If I write about my days while being back home, it feels more like a diary and since most people are quite busy I don’t think many people would have the time or interest to read it anyway.

Talking about being busy, that’s one of the first things I had to adjust to coming back home. People here are so busy. In traffic and in public places, everyone seems to be rushing. Coming back from high mountains, big forests and wide open fields, it takes some time to get used to living in little Netherlands again.

Travel

Going home

Posted on June 7, 2018Utrecht, the Netherlands

When I have a flight to catch I usually set three alarm clocks in the morning. I wake up before they all go off and for a second I don’t know where I am. Then I know I’m in the hotel room near the airport. I wake up and post my blog of two days ago. The nice thing of being a little behind with blogging is that even when I’m back home, the story will go on for at least two more days. When I’ve finished the blog, I take a shower and go downstairs for breakfast. I always like to be early at the airport, but I still have plenty of time. I get my bags ready, go for a second breakfast and then make a planning for the week in my bullet journal.

Around ten o’clock I check out of the hotel and return my car to the rental company. I will miss this fine ride, my mobile home for the past six weeks. When I arrive at the airport I realize that I’ve forgotten my jackets in the car. I quickly get back into the shuttle bus and fortunately they have my jackets at the rental company.

Travel

A day in Denver

Posted on June 5, 2018Utrecht, The Netherlands

At sunrise I wake up again. It’s five A.M. and I think I’ve slept about half a night. I woke up a few times and had to turn on the heating because it got too cold in the car, but other than that I slept quite well. I get myself a cappuccino and continue driving. After about half an hour I stop at my favorite grocery store to get food for breakfast. After having eaten something I drive further to Denver. I stop at a big outdoor store which looks a lot like the one in the tv show Last Man Standing. I’m super excited to go here. It opens at ten and it’s only nine o’clock, so I’ll come back later. I drive a little further to a Best Western hotel close to the airport and ask if I can check in early. They do that and I get a great room with a large bed and a nice desk. I place all my luggage in my room and drive back to the Outdoor Store.

The store absolutely exceeds the expectations. It’s huge! You can find here everything you need for camping, fishing and hunting. There is a big waterfall in the middle of the store and there are many stuffed animals like bears, mountain lions and elk.

Travel

A long lonely road

Posted on June 4, 2018Denver, Colorado

I went to sleep sad last night and so I’m surprised to wake up feeling quite ok. Maybe it’s because I slept well or that the sun is shining, but I’m feeling better than I would expect on a day of leaving. I’m also surprised to hear upstairs that my grandparents are already awake. It doesn’t happen often that they wake up before me. I take a shower and pack the last things. Then grandma makes breakfast for me one more time. While I’m having breakfast she has to leave for an appointment. I think she likes it better like this way, that she doesn’t have to wave me goodbye. I think I do too, it’s hard enough already. I say to grandma that the hardest thing is that I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. She tells me not to think like that, but to know that we’ll see each other again and that’s what is most important. I agree and give her a big hug.

I stay behind with grandpa and finish my breakfast. Before I leave we sit down at the front porch and talk for a while longer.

Travel

Packing my bags

Posted on June 3, 2018Denver, Colorado

It’s Friday morning and it’s the first of the month, the day on which I always have to do some work. Administration to do and bills to pay. I wake up five minutes before the alarm clock and start working straight away at six o’clock in the morning. I work for two hours and then my grandma comes into the living room and tells me we leave for garage sales in half an hour. I quickly finish my work and then jump into the car and we drive to town.

First we pick up her friend Sharon and then we drive to the houses that have sales. Grandma and Sharon seem to be professional garage sales buyers.

People

A relaxed day in Helena

Posted on June 2, 2018Mt Rushmore, South Dakota

I didn’t set an alarm clock and sleep in til about eight in the morning. Breaking my rule of not immediately checking my phone when I wake up, I text with a friend for a while. He asks me what the most beautiful thing of this journey is. That’s a hard question, but I like to think about it.

The first thing that comes to mind is Hollywood. Visiting the film studios, going to a theme park and hiking up to the Hollywood sign are some of my favorite memories of this trip.

People

Back to my grandparents

Posted on June 2, 2018Helena, Montana

When I wake up and inspect my feet, I only see one big blister. That’s not too bad after walking about 30 miles in a day. In the Netherlands we have a yearly walking competition called Nijmeegse Vierdaagse in which people walk about 25 miles in a day, four days in a row. I still have respect for those people. I have walked enough for now and will drive back to my grandparents today. It’s a joy to drive my car and move forward without having to do any effort. As I drive to the east side of Glacier I see the mountain range I climbed yesterday. I shake my head and laugh. I’ve done some crazy things and now I can add this one to the list.

The east side of Montana is less spectacular to drive, because it’s all farm land. I think about how things are so different here than in the Netherlands. In America it’s normal to drive for a couple of hours to get somewhere. If you do that in the Netherlands, you’re already out of the country. I remember the first time I came back from America seven years ago and how everything looked so small and close to each other back home. It’s just over three hours driving to my grandparents and I arrive in the beginning of the afternoon. Grandma is home and I tell her about the adventure and show her the pictures. She has a nice surprise for me, this afternoon we go to a pizza place where you can eat unlimited pizza! I’m excited, especially because I didn’t have dinner yesterday so I’ll make up for that today.

Going out for dinner with my grandparents

The pizza restaurant is very nice and we eat a lot. Grandma also introduces me to rootbeer float, ice cream floating in rootbeer, very nice. My grandparents make fun of me, because I walk slower than them with the blisters on my feet and the soar muscles. I get my laugh too when grandpa tries one of my pizza slices (pepperoni + jalapeños) and suddenly needs a lot of water to cool his mouth. I like my pizza’s to be spicy, probably a bit too spicy for him. We have a fun time together and then go back home. It starts to rain very hard and I’m glad I went to Glacier yesterday, because then the weather was fine and now it would absolutely not be fun to hike or walk outside. I feel that my body needs some rest, so I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow and have a slow day.

Nature

50.000 steps in Glacier National Park

Posted on May 31, 2018Helena, Montana

Today is an exciting day, because I go on an adventure again. After visiting Montana many times in the last years I finally go to Glacier National Park, which is closed most of the year. Also now it’s not fully open yet. They’re still removing snow from the roads, but at least I can go visit. When I drive out of Helena, I can’t help but feeling sad. I know I’ll come back here tomorrow, but also that I’ll leave for a longer time at the end of the week. I thought about leaving here on Friday, but I now decide I’ll stay until Saturday. I am an experienced traveler, but still I’m not good in leaving people and places behind.

When I drive out of town and in the direction of the mountains, I turn on some music and start feeling better. I just can’t believe this journey is almost over. It has been five weeks now, but it sure feels a lot longer. I’ve seen so many beautiful places and met so many wonderful people.