Melbourne city council

Got a call last night, it was Wendy from HWD (health well-being and development formerly known as monash international student service unit) asking if i was available to come to uni to be involved in a discussion group concerning international students. i was going to say no since it is at 10am. but come to think of it, i might need to give out good impression for future reference. i mean, who knows?

i came across several things:
1. This was all done in the name of a program called 'Connect - Ed' short for connecting through education. an initiative by melbourne city council which is done by individuals outside of their work, so there's no pay and it is done outside their working hours. the idea was to enhance existing program or probably create new initiative to make Melbourne a fine education city that can make international student's experience worth while.

it is amazing how education is considered as an important economic force by Melbourne Council and more importantly these people are eager to make sure that there is a standard securing that every international student would have a good learning experience in Melbourne and not curse their whole duration of studying in Melbourne. i would have to point out that getting jacked off and exploitation might still occur but the awareness of the city to actually accommodate such need is a pretty impressing gesture. If only Yogyakarta or Bandung province officials would consider this, im pretty sure that we can increase the level of our education and quality of life.

2. Monash Parkville campus is crap. if you are going to study at monash, make sure you go to the bigger campuses. Or probably in my situtation you get to see less indonesians, which might be a good change.

3. Collectivism does do you good. Who ever thought that indomelb mailing list or other indo community mailing list would have a great deal of importance in your settling in Melbourne. i may not have benefited that much since i got Helen to help me with accommodation and all, but i found that other international students does not even have their own community mailing list or anyone to help them with what is really going on here. some just rely in the information they got from monash and the internet, while, we, indonesians, get seniors, temporary accommodation, advice, house, furnitures and even all freebies events all year long - sometimes even more that we might want and need. i might have taken this community for granted, but now i see the importance of its being and indonesians are very fortunate to have such forum (regardless of my involvement in it).

4. i got laughed at when i came across sounding my concerns that yes, credit card can be considered a vital need if you want to easily travel and buy things, and getting a credit card is not easy here, since the bank always asked for a credit reference which most students dont have. this girl from mauritius misinterpret my concerns as i cant get a credit card here therefore i should have gotten one from back home or i should apply for a NAB debit card. Geez.. listen lady, my point was that i never realized that credit card is commonly used in Melbourne and or OZ, and therefore by not being able to get one would slightly stage an additional challenge in accesing cheap flights, accommodation, car rentals and other fringe benefit. I DO have my own credit card, but the currency is killing me if i have to use that all the time, it would be more convenient for me to get an OZ credit card. it's just easier. less hassle. And yes, There is such thing as DEBIT card e.g provided by NAB. However, not everyone uses NAB especially when they are going to monash that mostly deals with COMMbank or Westpac. The point that needs to taken into account is that living back at home, credit card is a tertiary facility that you dont even need to have but here, it is essential in facilitating you to get easier and cheaper access. Damn you undergrads.

if i may summarize my meeting today, it went from a hassle of getting out of bed, to a very interesting discussion and an eye-opener of how grateful ALL AUSAID students should feel to cursing an undergrad student who just wont really listen to others have to say.

as for the topics discussed, these are the things that a civilized nation are advanced in. they do research and actually care about the quality of life and even more how to improve it for foreigners. Yes, they are able to do this because they already have an establish system and infrastructure, but wouldnt it be good if third world countries, developing countries like mine focuses on improving these kinds of things? Well we dont really get that much of international students yearly, but probably we would have if we had really focus our attention towards making our education system better for us and for others.

My argument pretty much goes stale when the other side of my brain says 'how can you expect people to care about these things, when they can barely serve food on the table?" here goes the vicious circle.