Roaming Newton: Chapter 11

I was sitting in Johannesburg not knowing what to do, Swaziland had gotten my pulse racing for something bigger (I blame those crocodiles). I needed a city with some history but a modern day environment that would not only keep me riveted but at the same time happy. I looked around and Europe had a big bright smile glaring at me and inside of Europe with a flashing light was Munich!

Ahh Munich…I could see it now, the castles, the cars, the Bavarian culture and of course the beer. What else can one ask for, well maybe a change of luck with the person sitting next to me on the plane that is. Again I get the bad breath Jabba the Hutt lookalike who seems to find my seat just as comfortable as his. My battle with the Jabba’s of the world has been an ongoing one which I feel will never end unless I become a Jedi!

I land in Munich and pushing my baggage through customs I find out that Munich is not actually Munich but rather München as it is locally known in Germany. My German is bad well nonexistent rather, so I start to find my way to Munich central, first by train and then I have myself booked into a hotel which I couldn’t find by foot and I end up taking a cab. Turns out the cab driver spoke very little English, so it made for a longer journey than expected as he got his English mixed up with his German and I got my German mixed up with my English…what a mishmash.

With only a few months remaining in the year, our 2010 series titled ten of the best continues with great gusto! Retail, yes an industry of sales, turnover and customer demand, it's ever so slick yet filled with a smart wit that only a Jedi can pick up…fine we will stop watching Star Wars reruns! Anyways back to the article, here are ten reasons why working in the retail industry rocks!

1. Staff discounts…sorry but we had to cut to the chase, sometimes there is one massive upside to a job that stands out and this is it.

2. Getting to know your products, yes, becoming an expert at something is often done when one has to do it on a first hand and practical basis.

3. Being creative, as seen in the movie Be Kind Rewind, when one has a lack of products on offer one has to be able to be creative and in this case make one's own product offering. Check out YouTube for the Be Kind Rewind trailer!

Internships in the USA:
Dream Careers has an entire Internship placement facility from Finance to even sports internships! Very cool indeed, http://www.summerinternships.com.

Learnerships and internships in South Africa: Looking for an internship program in South Africa, here is a breakdown of various companies and organizations offering such options!

1. BANKSETA: is focused on training and development in the South African banking sector, http://www.bankseta.org.za/, check out their learnership offerings.

2. Old Mutual: has an internship program, you can find full details of it under their careers section on the website http://www.oldmutual.co.za/.

3. Gear House: taking on the theoretical and practical side of the events industry.
http://www.gearhouse.co.za/

4. Liberty Life: Has an awesome learnership programme on offer!

A slightly different setup to the USA in terms of size, we found a number of different options available for UK Students to source funding for their studies!

As always lets start with the breakdown provided by Wikipedia.

Wikipedia states that most UK student loans are processed by the Student Loans Company (SLC), which helps provide finance across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. http://www.slc.co.uk

Also if you are a foreign student looking to study in the UK, then visit the UK Council for International Student Affairs. From studying, Visa’s, Fees and Living advice they have it all covered. http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/

Next up a must see is the Brightside UNIAID website, a superb website that has a whole heap of helpful tools and resources for students and the like in the UK. http://www.brightsideuniaid.org/ Also check out their Student Calculator helping students in the UK managing their budget! http://www.studentcalculator.org.uk/

The USA is a big place, so we narrowed down some of the bigger options out there as a good starting point.

Check out eduPass, http://www.edupass.org/, a great website that provides cool information on studying in the USA which includes paying for studies!

The Federal Trade Commission has an interesting article on student loans which provides some good guidelines on what to look for and what to avoid.

Wikipedia as always has the lowdown!

An ongoing battle for many an aspiring student is the lack of funds, whether it is to pay for fees, maybe text books, housing or even the odd social expense…and of course pizza! Yes the path to the real world though just a few exams away is filled with obstacles that can hamper one’s education. We put together a list of solutions for all those struggling students (young bucks) from around the world to help finance your education…

1. Most young bucks fresh out of High School, tend to rely on their folks or a guardian of some sort to finance their education. Yes they give their parents the pressuring responsibility of university fees and if preschool, primary school and high school weren’t enough then the added bonus of university, technikon or college comes flying up. In best case scenarios parents or guardians do have the affordability to finance this form of education. However it’s still at times a tight financial squeeze.

Check out the following:

Guardian.co.uk on Parents funding Students.

Why careers are just not what they used to be, why we have forgotten the basics, how the youth need a shake up and how we still have the ability to help shape and change the world!

Remember the days when we stood up in class and the kid on the left said “I want to be a pirate…I mean pilot!” How about when you read an article about some ground breaking idea of an out the box adventurer who went to a far out country and discovered a cure for some awful killer disease? What about that documentary you watched on an ancient tribal kingdom that was discovered after being untouched by modern man? Has the world lost its plot, has money taken over careers, are there no more modern marvels around, has the concept of becoming Indiana Jones been lost to the Spielberg Archives?

It seems that the world has perhaps become smaller, in fact so much so that one can run a business quite literally from the moon due to the developments of such enormities like the internet. However the bottom line is this, living on the moon, in all reality costs money and that the internet doesn’t grow on trees. Has the bubble burst and that a financial recession actually means one has to dig deep and actually work hard for a living. The answer is quite literally YES.