Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I don't think that because there is a lot of suffering in the world that nobody should discuss or complain about their own problems. I know that people should have things in perspective, and should realise that they are lucky etc, but I am sure that madre knows that her situation is no way as bad as kids in sweat shops, I don't think she was trying to say that it is.

My critique of the university system has nothing to do with sweat shops - unless you consider that the food service at my university was run by Sodexho-Marriott who actually has/had ties to sweatshop labor.

Thanks Richard!!!! He articulates it better than I.

There is still to much complaining from people, and it sure is needed to put things into perspective. But there will ALWAYS be someone who is worse of than you. This puting in perspective is good and needs to be done in a good way, not by hypocritical people like it is the case in The Netherlands. In the Netherlands there are ambasadors of charity foundations whom tell people to donate money to that charity becouse people there have it so much worse than them. Those amasadors make videos to show people how bad the situation is there, but whilst making that video they accomodate theirselves in 5 star hotels. They could have given that money to that charity, and have stayed in a cheaper hotel. Also they mostly eat meat, which wastes a lot of calories in the transfer from vegetable to meat and therefore isn't solving world hunger.

About College in the USA:
Next week there is a meeting which I will be attending. Then I will hear if, when and how I can participate in an international exchange program. The chance is slim that I will go on an exchange program, but I am hoping I will.

Good luck gym-hater! I went on a short exchange to Mexico when I was 17, and it was the best experience of my life. I hope to do it again before I graduate college, maybe to Europe or a South American country....anyway, good luck!!!!

I got accepted to the exchange program!! Now I still have to take care of a lot of paperwork, but if everything goes as planed I am going.

Congratulations!!!

Thank you

Yeah Congrats. So are you coming to college in the US? If so where?

If everything goes as planned, I will go to Wisonsin for 1 semester. I will go there september 2006.
There will be a fridge in my room and a microwave in the building, so I guess I will survive. Are there a lot of vegan microwave meals available at the supermarkets in the USA? In the Netherlands I can only find vegetarian ones.

There are a few but they will cost about 5 dollars here, and by few I mean possibly 3 or 4 which are complete meals. However there are plenty of things which are vegan that come frozen, like spring rolls, gardenburgers, boca burgers, fake meatballs, soy ice cream, and there are more. I think there are probably more vegan options in the US than in the Netherlands. I didn't mention the refrigerated stuff, also canned vegan things! I recommend you buy a rice cooker. They require an electrical outlet which I'm sure you will have, and they can boil water so you can cook rice, beans, noodles and frozen veggies. That is what I cook out of.

Thanks for the tips. Spring rolls are great I think I will just buy a vegan microwave meal every once in a while. It is mandatory for me to buy a meal plan anyway, so I will have to mail about which food is vegan. I saw potatoes on the menu, so in the worst case I will only eat potatoes
Still have a question, do all fastfood restaurants use vegetable oil for their fries?

And about college. If you fail a test, can you take it again? or do you have to compensate with other grades?
In the Netherlands you can take the test again for about 3 times(spread over 2 years).

Hmm....I'm actually not sure about fast food restaurants, but I wouldn't trust them! That's just me!
College I do know about though
The way our courses work here, most class grades depend on 2 to 3 tests. (1 or 2 midterms, and a final) Depending on what you're studying/size of class, etc, there may be other course work, essays, presentations, etc.
Anway, so each of those things would be worth a percentage of your grade. Most often if you fail any given part of a course grade, you can still manage to pass the class by doing well on other parts. If you get a failing grade in the class though, you can retake it another term. In that case both grades will show on your transcript, but if the class is required for you then that's what you have to do. On the other hand, if you know ahead of time that you aren't going to pass a class, I reccomend 'withdrawing', which you can do until almost the end of a course. You receive a "w" as a course grade, but it doesn't affect your GPA, and of course you can still retake it.
All of this is assuming you're going to a public university? Someone can correct me if this is different anywhere else, but I have friends spread out around the country in school, and this is basically how it works for all of us.
Hope this answers your question! I'm sure it's not something you need to worry about anyway!

Thanks for the awnsers. This means I will have to study In the Netherlands I don't do much studying the first time I take a test, and if I fail the test I study take it again after a few weeks. I passed most tests in the first attempt, but some I had to do again.
It is a good thing the final grades depend on more than 1 test. This way if I fail the first one, I study really hard the second time.
Also I have heard that I will be getting a lot of homework, which I am not used to. In the Netherlands there is almost no homework.

I am looking forward to going a way for 1 semester. Especialy since every residence hall has a weight room. I just hope that there is no music in the weight room, becouse I don't like that.

Homework depends on the class...this term I have all science classes, which don't have homework but require copious studying outside of class! English, philosophy, writing classes, etc, tend to have more homework....What are you planning to study?
Oh, and at least at my school, there is no music in the gym