Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Story Behind It All

It's been quite awhile since I have given an update on whats happening in the Smit world, that's partially because I don't even know what's happening in the Smit world.

As I'm sure you are well aware by now, we are leaving the USA. Our plan was to leave and go to England. Unfortunately things have taken time to get done and we were not able to get there as soon as we would have liked. However, that is still our destination at the moment.
I am applying for a working-holiday, which allows me to work for 12 months in Uk and vacation for 12 months (like I need that right now). After that I am not sure so don't even ask! The rest of my family are going on a Ancestry Visa with intention to reside. Me, being the big boy I am, can't go as a dependent anymore which is the reason for the different visas.

If you have read my recent article on Chiropractic you may have picked up that I have a keen interest in it. Over the past few weeks I have been researching different ways of getting into college in USA. I did manage to find a Chiropractic college in Atlanta that I would be accepted into. However, finances is the biggest problem. Of all around the world, USA is by far the most expensive country to study.

I need to show 36,000 smackers just for the first year. And that's $$$ for those in South Africa. Most people take a loan for their college, but I can't as I am not an American. At least not on paper ;-)

There are partial scholarships, but I need to be accepted before I apply, whew! what a "situation".

This was all a sudden thing as I never thought about it. But it grew on me rather quickly. If I attended Life University in Atlanta, I could graduate in 4.5 years as a Doctor of Chiropractic. Thats DR. John to you!!! I could do my undergraduate (B.S) in exactly the field I want. This all worked on me wanted to go for it. That and the $45 a session. Sounds good. The average Chiropractor makes $70,000 a year.

Along with this I have been trying to find a scholarship (full) for a Christian Uni, but no great luck so far. I'm not sure how everyone else in the world does it, but this is really a tough process. If all else fails I might just make this my job. Help others find a college.

So currently my plan (not very good one) is to go to England for at least 1 year and work part-time, just to be busy if anything. Oh, and make some pounds. Yippidooodah.

But who knows what could open up before or after then.

So here is the breakdown.

  • Go to Life University.(usa)
  • Go to Christian College. (usa)
  • Work England for 2 years (Eng)
  • Go back to Sa (Nooo..)
Mmm and thats pretty much it so far. Or maybe a combination. But that's for another day.
I hope that you find this updating. If not, then it was just good for me to write it down. Now I can get it out my head.

Have a lekker awesomess day folks.
Cheers Jono

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Real Chiropractor

Before we start with anything, if you have any personal thoughts about Chiropractic care that has been formed by rumors or past experiences you should remove that train of thought, before you start reading the rest of this article.

For the past couple of months we have been experiencing chiropractic care. However, this is not your regular chiropractor that you would go visit if you have pain. Our chiropractor, Dr. John Madeira, has brought a new train of thought to what I thought being a chiropractor was about.

To explain in short, Dr. John is a wellness chiropractor. These chiropractors believe in a general well being of health and that the spinal column needs to be functioning at it's best that your body is able to heal itself. When I went for my x-rays to see how BAD my spine actually is, I was totally shell shocked. I think I have 3 vertebrae in the correct position. There's no wonder I'm not as good looking as I should be.

By going for regular adjustments, your spine is manipulated back into a position that it should be in. Sounds bad? Well its absolutely not. I recently learned that the nervous system that runs through your spine, can lose its full usage, due to subluxations. It works like a dimmer on a light, the spine out of whack, can cause your brain to not be able to fully send what it needs.

I have been seeing a chiropractor for a few weeks now and I can strongly tell a difference. I hardly have allergy problems and my general health is doing great.

So, I just wanted to let you know that the treatment, although expensive at times, is definitly worth the money. Preventative is better than a cure.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

You Know your Country is Bad When...

...your very own president gets robbed. That's right robbed, the president of South Africa was robbed recently. I couldn't actually believe it when I read it, but its true. It seems that the media have sort of kept it on the DL, well at least that I've seen. There hasn't been to much hype about it, maybe it's different in SA?

I did find one article which you can read here.
Apparently they broke into his property in Pretoria, the capitol city, and stole R20-30,ooo of aluminion off the roof. They only find out two days later, Yikes!

This just shows you how craze South Africa is, our own president is robbed. It wouldn't surprise me if it was an inside job. But maybe now they will wake-up and realize the situation at hand.
If the president isn't even protected, how must everyone else feel. Double Yikes.

Now let's turn our attention to the race in America, wow, its really getting interesting. I didn't realize how different the politics were in the different countries. The race for the next president is on and almost over actually. November 5th is the big day.

Keep checking back for my next post on Politics (because everyone is entitled to my biased opinion;-)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

My High School Football Experience

Friday night is high school football night, but most of you probably already knew that. Saturday is college and Sunday, well apparently that's the holy day. The NFL.
So here I am Friday night, watching some boys in tights and big heads (should have gone to ballet rather) try to ruff each other up.

I went, well because I got sucked into it and I figured I could put it down as "now I can say I've been there."
We arrive 30 minutes before kick-off and the place is totally packed out. Now I'm not talking about some big or great team, they neither, this is a little towns high-school and the place is packed. I recently heard that at a college game, there were no fewer than 90,000 fans. That is alot of people.

After finding a parking far away, we buy our tickets, four smackers for me, and found our seats in between all the youngsters and oldies. Much to my surprise there weren't many people my age. Go figure.

The Spartans (our team), were able to come back for a brief moment only to be owned in the end by a beastly running quarterback. He made the game somewhat bearable for me. I thought it was tuff watching a game on tv with highlights of the good stuff. Try high school; you don't even get to appreciate the rare good stuff.

The cheerleaders weren't so hot (good ;-)) either. Definitely not what they show in the movies!!!
I did, however, grow in appreciation for the band, they weren't great but sure did a better job than me. Probably the most entertaining part of the eve. Oh wait, there was that one time when...mmm

Those fries (chips) were so goood. At least on an empty stomach they were.
Overall it was a pretty good evening, I wouldn't choose to do it again for fun, but at least I can say I went to a footsie game, ah I mean football game.

Obviously you can tell that I'm not a big football fan, sorry still got to get used to it. Super bowl is fun though. GO SPRINGBOKS!

Dreaming

If we don't keep considering our dream it will stay a dream or worse, it will become a nightmare.

A Father's Voice