Nasi Lemak House free cendol and Don Tojo

RNIS was invited by Nasi Lemak house to try their free cendol but paid for their food at Don Tojo which was a mere $9.

They are both in Carlton and are just a short distance away from each other. They are both student eateries which I love very much. Why? Its because they are so affordable. Both of them are cash only and NL House was promoting their mailing list and Facebook page and their events hence the free cendol.

There were many sign ups to their mailing list that day.

Cendol is a Malaysian drink which has the green, pandan jellies as well as the coconut milk. It is not as sweet as the three colour bean drinks that the Vietnamese like. That drink is way too sweet and has waaay too many things in it.

Don Tojo is the sister of Don Don's and on a Saturday lunchtime they were pretty quiet. They are in Cardigan street close to RMIT but I never visited that side much. This place is much bigger than the original Don's Don's.

The meal

A close up of the meal. You can see how fresh and healthy the salmon and tofu is.

The sashi don was in a big bowl for $9 and it was very filling. It had lots of fresh fish and tofu- both of which are proteins. But I did not like the warm sushi rice. I loved the fresh salad and the pickles. They were really generous with those.

I love cold tofu and this did not disappoint.
Rating: 14/20- Do give Don Tojo a try. Let me know in the comments or on Zomato.com what you think about this place and NL House.
 

Bastille Day fun at South Melbourne Market

Menu courtesy of chiukatherine on Instagram

RNIS went to this years Bastille Day celebrations and they had a jolly good time at both the celebrations. We talk about the event at South Melbourne Market which happens each year

Bastille day is a French day and it is about the French Revolution in 1978 and how the French army stormed the Bastille. Every year it is on the 14th of July and today is no exception. In Melbourne this is celebrated by a party at South Melbourne Market which is free of charge.

To get there from the city it is an easy 10 minute tram ride from the city and the stop is right behind the market.

It was a cold and wet winter's night but that didn't stop anyone from having some fun. And some fun we had listening to the lovely French music and enjoying Rachelette (a French dish with cheese, potatoes and salad). The Rachelette was $10 and I enjoyed it. But there was a wait for that and other foods especially oysters which were $1 each.

The market was decorated with a few balloons especially around the Koy stall.

Racelette courtesy of chiukatherine on Instagram

Of course there always has to be wine and kir royal. Many people drank but I did not.

Other places like Simply Spanish had their specials too. A paella was $13. But I was happy with my French food.

Do go to next years one as it is said to be bigger and better.

BEWARE: Private providers are still failing

This issue has been talked about for some time now and it has cropped in Meld Magazine's site as well as AFIS and CISA's newsfeeds. At the last conference there was some talk on it. Last year there was some talk on this issue. We examine it more closely as many students don't know about these loopholes.


Image courtesy of easyuni.com

There is another report online where 142 students had their visa cancelled for a dodgy provider's behaviour.

In the Ombudsman's report it was claimed that some of the providers did not apply good practice to their students. In the last year alone they investigated 488 of these providers (for poor compliance) and 142 of them had harsher penalties.

In these private colleges there are no such things as student's unions or student services. Students are left entirely on their own to study. International students need a lot of support and many of them fail courses for the first time.

Monitoring attendance was an issue for some of these colleges. International students who don't attend class a lot often fail the course.

Examples of good practice are
* meeting with the student one on one regularly throughout the semester
* telling the student when they are "at risk" at the right time, i.e when the current semester has just passed and they have failed more than 50% of their courses (subjects) in that particular semester.
* allowing students to appeal first before reporting them
* monitoring attendance properly. Students should be attending classes for 80% of the time.

Examples of bad practice are
* telling the DIBP of non compliance when all avenues have not been exhausted.
* Overcharging students

Our response
We are concerned for the wellbeing of students. Many students come to Melbourne to study and many of the colleges are chosen online in their country. They chose colleges in which they can afford and not ones that are actually good for them. Most students don't have a lot of money to study and university tuition is expensive for them.

If there was such an online for private providers this would be good. This should be a ranking system in which students can rate their colleges.

Windows Lumia

We tried the new Nokia Lumia 532 for the first time thanks to Study Melbourne. We tell it like it really is. Our phone is a big smartphone with a white back cover and a black front.

Image courtesy of windowsphone.com

This phone is rather easy to use, but hard to insert the SIM for the first time. But you need to charge it for at least a good few hours. I got the Nokia Lumia 532.

Some disadvantages of it

The cover was really hard to open and I needed a guy to do it.
Everytime when you plug it into the charger it automatically turns on.
It is hard to turn it to silent

Advantages

The WI FI works well and you need to have a Microsoft account for most things which is free

The pictures are really clear and like a Windows laptop it is touch screen with multiple facets. The phone has Office and other things. The One note app was useful. It in fact makes note creating a lot easier. You can type your note in using predicative text.

You can use Instagram Beta and I tried this on RMIT's WI-Fi which is really good. Unlike my last service the WI-Fi connections are pretty good.

The auto sync is really easy to begin with. Just simply plug the Windows phone into your laptop and its all good.

Line was really easy to use and it is included in your data plan. Line is another messaging app which is fun to use.

Facebook messenger works well with this. I can easily send messages on the go.

Do try the Windows phone and its available in every department store as well as the Optus store. This phone is locked to the Optus and Amaysim network.

Master Roll Vietnam

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

Master Roll Vietnam is in South Yarra, right next to a 7-11 which is near the train station. Hence it is easy for morning commuters to get their healthy breakfast fix and their 15 grams of protein that they should have every morning. Meat and tofu have a lot of protein in them.

The place is rather small so most people opted for takeaway.

The service there was very friendly for a busy Saturday afternoon before heading to the G.

They are known for their Bhanh Mi, a special type of Vietnamese roll filled with tofu, pork or other meats. And at $6 a steal they are quite filling. I had that and their tofu rice paper rolls ($7 for 2 and they were freshly made). Their peanut was a little too watery for my liking though.

The Bhanh mi though was good and I loved the pickled vegetables, even the huge cabbage stalk and I'm not a huge fan of pickled cabbage.

Rating: 15/20- Healthy and wholesome and we need more of that please. Do come by on your way to the G and avoid buying all those unhealthy foods at the G. They are not good for you.