Some ways to communicate with parents whilst overseas

Students are you missing your parents back home? It is ok for you to miss them, but don't forget them. Here's a few ways of communicating with them which will not break the bank.

Send them some packages
Are you good with crafts? Do you have the time to make stuff? If so you could send them a homemade craft or two. Parcels at Australia post to send overseas are expensive so the smaller the better.

Skype or other technologies (make frequent communications with them)
Communicating to them frequently about things will put everyone's mind at ease. Tell them about how you feel or some interesting things that happened during your stay. A handwritten letter is always nice and you can buy stationery at Daiso.

Also do send them some pictures of your surroundings. Parents are always wanting to find out these things.

Learning to care for them
Remind them of important things. Make sure that you write it down. There are many apps for this sort of thing

Do tell them as to when and how long your uni holidays are. They may want to visit you then

Be honest
Be honest with your parents. If you fail something or are not coping well at uni tell them. They probably won't get mad at you but they'll understand.

If you tell lies then parents will find out one way or the other. Trust me I have been there before.

I hope that you do find these ways useful. If there are any other ways, let us know in the comments below.

Some cultural changes to get used to

International students might have a hard time in Melbourne adapting to some of these changes. Here we talk about them

Here are some of the things that International students find surprising when they come to Melbourne. They will need to adapt to these.

Service hours
Many places in Melbourne have a 10am-7pm opening hour. But with supermarkets and restaurants some open as late as 11pm. Places in Tokyo and China are open until late.

Informality
Many Asians are shy of meeting a new person. Many Australians are informal. In Australia we call our lecturers by their first name and not by their surname. In Asian countries many people respect their elders and just follow the leader. But in Australia it is ok to question the boss or teacher if you don't understand something. Many of us are very friendly people. Most don't mind assisting International students. But just be aware that there are some racist people.


Learning style
Many Internationals are used to learning by rote, but in Australia it is ok to question your lecturer/tutor. Many students join study groups.

In Australia we study by ourselves and not with the teacher. We learn by ourselves with the guidance of the academic staff. However if students need help then they can make a time to see a teacher.

Learning English
Learning English is a must. It is ok for an Asian student to talk there language to a local who they know is learning the language. There are many meetups for languages.

Food
Many Internationals are surprised at the different types of food we have here. We are a multicultural city and we enjoy lots of different foods. Throughout this blog we have lots of different restaurants some of which we got invited to.

We also have many markets here which cater to International student's food tastes.

Le Petit Lapin

Le Petit Lapin is a French place in Elsternwick known for crepes and French music. They have been opened since February and are only open one night per month to do a special dinner. They are open to high teas provided that they are booked ahead and for Melbourne Cup they are doing a champagne breakfast

Ahh they are thinking of having a wine and cheese session soon.

Everything here is homemade including their ice creams and sauces. RNIS bought the Groupon for $10 seeing as they love good French food, but they did not realise how far of a walk away from the train station it is. It is about a fifteen minute walk from there and there is only one bus to St Kilda every hour.

The place is very cosy inside.

The staff treated me well and they know their locals. In fact they loved speaking in French to a father and his two children.

The Groupon only allows a sweet crepe and hot drink for afternoon tea during Saturday and Sunday only.

This pina colada crepe I had was quite good. I loved the sorbet. The coconut sorbet worked well. They have tea amo tea which is great. Here they made it lovingly well. The crepe was light and not too thin.

Rating: 18/20- enjoyed the crepe, tea and music.

AFIS I am fit day

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

"I am Fit day" was run by AFIS to assist students in knowing how to get fit. This was a free three hour workshop in the multicultural hub. By the end of the workshop we knew how to get fit easily. The first one was kickboxing and that was intense for most students who had not been to a gym before. But I had and I knew what to expect. I had been to a body attack class before so I knew about the lunges.

But punching was new to me and I almost got most of mine right. If only they had this at my Fitness first gym and it would be great.

Zumba was also new to me as it was all about dancing and having fun. I had never been to a zumba class before so this was interesting. I sat out for Bollywood as I wasn't very good at Bollywood. Bollywood is a fast paced dance.

Many thanks to AFIS for organising this day.

Accommodation and Living fair

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

This fair was held at the Couch on one fine Thursday evening where some students had classes on and then came later. It was a free fair where students learned a lot about living a healthy lifestyle.

This fair was a great and cozy home affair where International students migled with each other and stall holders. The host was Su of Chai Junction and their play was on. Their play was great and many got to interact by showing their special talent.

Vegetarian curry- I wish there was more of this

Fried chicken and chips (but there wasn't a lot of that)

One of the stalls on the night. I loved their luggage tag messages

Open for Inspection play

The food was equally as good although there was not much vegetarian on offer for the vegos. We all got watch the dumpling demonstration and sampled the curry on offer.

RNIS had a stall downstairs and this was our first time. It was alright though. We would have liked it better if there were flowers and brochures.

Poor students doing it tough in Melbourne.

Melbourne is one of the most expensive study destinations in the world and some students can barely survive in Melbourne with the exorbitant uni and living fees.

It is reported that up to 50 International students are accessing the Couch's free service every day on a weekly basis. The students are mainly from Malaysia and South America where it is poorest countries. Most students don't want to seek this sort of help.

A lot of jobs underpay students at least $8-$10 per hour and many students are fare evading on public transport due to the high cost of living. Rent is an increasing cost which has to be met or otherwise students will be on the street begging. Already we have seen many beggars and buskers some of which are students try to make ends meet. The buskers don't earn heaps of money and they could be making up to $10-$50 in one sitting

More over food is getting a bit more expensive along with rent. The city's free tram zone doesn't help out much as many students live in suburbs. But the price of the zone 1 and 2 is good though. The discounted scheme doesn't help a lot becuase many students don't travel a lot to uni

A lot of apartments near uni are quite expensive to rent hence many students live in the suburbs and have to travel quite far to uni which is mainly in the city.

Students which do you prefer: living in the city or in the suburbs where you have to pay more to commute?

Local students: what are some of your tips for students doing it tough?

The Salvation Army Op Shop event

This was free for everyone attend and it was a three day sale which sold old and new things and cakes. The money raised was for the Hamadova Café and the Couch. Prices started as low as $0.50. There was a good lot of money raised and a lot of things sold. People took away huge basketfuls of stuff and vintage clothes.

I didn't go away empty handed. I bought a hat to be shown at RNIS's stall on the 12th of March at the Couch. Do register for this event on here. There will be free food and prizes to won plus lots of information about living in Melbourne. You can also see some of the furniture and housing at the Accomodation and Living Fair. 

 

Although I didn't have any sweets (was on a diet) I heard that they were good.

Many thanks to the Salvos for this successful event and I hope they have raised enough money for their cafe

Camberwell market

The Camberwell market is a trash and treasure market with a lot of things sold for under $10. It is run by the Rotary Club of Victoria and its a gold coin donation to enter. This helps the rotary club with things like social events among other things.

It is a Sunday market with many people and dogs. And some lovely buskers in which I gave them a gold coin for their performance. The market is across the road from the train station

There are 370+ stalls and you can have a stall for the day. All you need to do is sign up for one on their site and its $60 just to have one and if you need a tressle table its another $8. The market starts from 6am-12:30pm and they cease trading 10 days before Christmas and on Public holidays ( if a Sunday falls there).

Everything here is so cheap. You can buy things for $1-$10 and some things are a little bit over. It is a trash and treasure market where heaps of vintage stuff is sold. You can easily find things for the house for as little as $0.50. At around 11am some of the stallholders start selling things for a discount as they want to get rid of them before 12pm.

Crockery

I bought a collector item spoon for $1 and a brooch for $5. I also sampled their doughnuts and it was just good.

Not only do they sell collectors items, they also sell plants as I saw on my way out.

Do visit the Camberwell markets for things for your new room.

Ideas on being sustainable as students

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

Being sustainable need not be expensive, but it is good for the environment. Here some good ideas.

Composting, or starting that worm farm.
It is easy to do, although you might want to visit your local nursery or Bunnings to get some tips on how to start one. It is easy to throw all your leftover scraps into the compost once you have started it. All you need is a backyard to start it.

Worm farm, courtesy of Ian Riley (Flickr Images)

Bunnings have lots of worm farms to suit your budget.

Clothes swap
You swap your unwanted clothes for someone else unwanted clothes (which you want by the way). It is free and there are many clothes swaps happening all over Melbourne.

Drinking water instead of buying soft drinks all the time.
Drinking water is free and if you use your own bottle you save heaps of plastic bottles going to the landfill. A bottle of soft drink is about $4-$7 depending on where you buy it. Think about it; if you are drinking soft drink or juice everyday it would cost you about $640- $4480 per academic year, not including weekends and the months that you are on holiday. Think about it, if you drank water every day then you would have that extra money in your pocket for other expenses as well as staying healthy.

Thrifty buying
There are a lot of vintage and op shops, some of which support charities and community organisations. Most likely you'll find them on Brunswick st. You'll save money and the clothes will not go to waste. If you want to get rid unwanted clothes why not donate them here?

Farmers markets
These often sell produce direct from the farms to the public (and they do excellent breakfasts too). They usually don't supply plastic bags so bringing your own bag is a must.

You can find about them here.

How to keep your room tidy for cheap

Image courtesy of Wikihow.com

Your rooms always in a mess each day when you come home from uni. You just want a simple way for your room to be clean.

Here's how in 12 ways.
1) Clean your towels every one to two weeks. That goes for the sheets as well
2) Air your room once a week to two weeks.
3) Dust your room
You can use any cleaning cloth and water to do this. Cleaning cloths are sold at any supermarkets and they cost somewhere between $3-$7 to purchase
4) Paper recycling- you can use old boxes to put paper recylcing in. When it is bin night take it out
5) Mop your room- You can buy a mop from the supermarkets for about $10-$15
6) Store your books- here you need a medium sized to a big bookshelf to put all your three to four years worth of books in. You texts are heavy, mind you so it needs to be something stable. You can buy them on dealsdirect.com.au for $69.
7) Store your papers( and clean your folders) at the end of each semester- here you need some sort of a filing system. You should get 4 filing boxes one for each year and label each section. Howards storage and Officeworks have some sort of filling kits that you can buy. take advantage of the back to school sales where all the filling things are cheapest.
8) Empty your bin each week so that the room does not smell. And use a durable bin not a cheap bin that lasts as long as a month.
9) Put some flowers in your room to brighten the atmosphere. If you grow some outside- pick them
10) Use old empty jars as pencil tins, as it is free to reuse them again and save the enviroment at the same time.
11) Buy bag hooks that won't ruin the wall and make your landlord unhappy. If the wall is damaged the landlord may choose to keep your bond. You could also put your coat on it if it holds. Buy ones that are easy to take off without ruining the wall. You can buy multi ones for $35 at Howards Storage world. Then that way you can have heaps of things hanging on the wall.
12) Clean your wardrobe. Buy plenty of shoe racks and boxes. Howards storage world has some hanging storage spaces for $20.  Get rid of the clothes you don't need by donating them to charity or selling them at the Camberwell market. Or you can attend RUSU's clothes swap party and also get some new looks for free.
13) Buy a set of storage tubs on dealsdirect.com.au for $24.95. You never know when you might need them. Howards has them too 3 for $22.95

Now there is no excuse to be organised. You can ask your parents to buy the stuff for you from overseas if need be online.