New International Students

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Volunteering with MASCA

We explain a well known, not for profit student council and why you should volunteer for them.

Chinese chess

MASCA is the Malaysian Association of Students Council of Australia and they do lot of things for students in Australia.

MASCA is a not for profit organization which has started in 2011. Their base is in Melbourne Uni somewhere. They are always on the lookout for volunteers.

Congkak- something in which you can volunteer in

One of the things that they do is the Fiesta Malaysia event which is set to bring everyone together.

Another event that they do is the Annual Malaysia Sports games which is about people, power and passion. They accept all sorts of people. The committees are hard working.

The Fiesta Malaysia event was fun. I made a few new friends plus got some free food and drink. But it is isn't about the food and the drink; its the fun and the friendships.

Watching the congkak sets and having a go was fun.

Leandro has been volunteering for about a year and a half and he really enjoys it. He made a lot of friends along the way.

They have been nominated in the CISA awards so do get behind them for the rest of the year and the next year!

Do visit their Facebook page and find out how you can be involved.

What to do if your lecturer doesn't like you or students

This is a common problem in every university and its not too late to get help. We explain

Image courtesy of RMIT Newintstudents

In Universities it is quite common for lecturers to not get along with their students. Some of them are known to be harsh on students. For example: asking you to talk about a topic which is sensitive to you and you said no. They then continually ask you to talk about it and pester you. Or they might make snide remarks about your appearance (eg a Muslim woman wearing a Hijab) or be discriminatory against you because of where you came from.
But if they are continually harsh on you and other students you do have some rights.
After all you have paid $$$ in fees and they are paid to do their job.

1) Try and talk to the other students doing the same subject as you- you might find that they have the same problems as you do.
If so you could start a petition or you can all go and see the coordinator together.

2) Talk to your course coordinator if they are friendly.
But sometimes students find the complaints system a bit daunting. If so you can ask someone from the Student Union to go with you as they do advocate for students. All Student Union have Student Rights officers or Advocacy officers.

But make sure that you make appointment to see them, don't just rock up to their office. It would be a great idea to put it in writing so that you have some evidence to show them if they ask.

3) Go and see your Student Union on campus to get help with writing a complaint. They know the university's policies and give you some great advice.
The RMIT Student Union helps hundreds of students each year with this sort of thing, some informal like giving advice or reading your drafts. They don't write the letter for you, you have to do it yourself.

The Student Complaints Unit sees about 200-300 complaints per year, some of which are about lecturers. Most of them get resolved sooner rather than later.

The message is: If you are having trouble with a lecturer, get help sooner rather than later! The longer you leave it, the worse it gets!

Wagaya

Wagaya has just arrived in Melbourne. It is a Sydney favourite with about 39 bloggers all raving on about the garlic fried rice and right they were. It is run by ACTUAL JAPANESE! Yay finally something decent.

Oh I just wished that they would take bookings as this place was packed to the brim and I had to wait ages for a table. It would be great if they joined up with Dimmi.

Oh well first world problems. But at least they had an iPad ordering system and the food came out fast. But it might not be great news for those that can't eat certain things. ie lactose intolerant. They don't have ingredients listed

The decor is simply stunning to look at. It reminds me of Japan where its cherry blossom season.

I was served by an actual Japanese waitress who took care of me. I even signed up for their membership which is simply just filling out a form and then earning points. Its like Fly buys or airline memberships where you earn points and if you earn enough points you can be rewarded.

The waitress was very friendly.

For drinks I had green tea ($2.50). Real Japanese Green tea. Yay.

For starters I had the egg omelette ($3.95). It was warm- in fact a little too warm for it to be on the sushi menu.

I also enjoyed their homemade miso soup ($1.50) which had vegetables inside it. Its not something that you see everyday so that was great

The most raved about dish: the eel garlic rice ($6), LOVED! It was very garlicky and addictive. But I didn't get the wasabi bit at the end. I forgot to take a photo of this. Sorry!

Oh and this place is cash only. Damm! I hope they do a Groupon soon to get more foot traffic in the door. A little birdy also told me that they are going to do lunch in July.

This is a great place for dinner and those that have very small appetites for dinner. Everything here except for the ramen and hot pot is small. I wanted to try the other tables Agedashi tofu and hotpot but I came too late.

Top Juice

Top Juice is a very popular juice chain in Sydney and now they are in Melbourne. All the Sydney bloggers really enjoyed this place.

They are a health food place in the Emporium in the city. It is in a food court, hence there is no actual seating store. The people working there are very friendly and health conscious. The store is all about being healthy.

Here I bought a fruit salad for $7. The cantaloupe was a bit sour but the other fruits was fresh. They also do juices and the chocolate strawberries ($3)

They have a small selection of snacks to purchase.

And another time I bought a normal lunch salad for $6. It filled me up and I loved the quinoa- it was fresh. With the cranberries and feta it worked well.

It would be great if they had some soups on offer for winter. But for now salads and juices would do. In fact there is another one in Melbourne Central.

QV's winter retreat -a photowalk

QV has done it again this season with a tropical theme. There was free food, however is a little on the smallish side. We had to grab other things as well. It was only one per person but there was unlimited mocktail drinks which we enjoyed