rmitintstudentguidetoliving
for all new international students
October 7, 2013
Izakaya Chuji
I would say it’s hard to resist the temptation for the goodness of Japanese food especially when you are in hunger. Me and my friend, L, were craving for Japanese food and we kinda starving that day. Walking down through Lonsdale street in Melbourne CBD, saw the bento lunch deal on Izakaya Chuji’s entrance and then decided to try the “make your own bento box”. Giving another shot to Izakaya Chuji this week after a not-so-good sushi dinner experience last year. I keep in mind how expensive I had to pay such small portions in mediocre quality foods. But this time I had a much better dining experience 🙂 
I remember how crowded this restaurant was on my first visit but surprisingly not too many people dined in even though it was lunch time. The waitress quickly came bringing the menu and explained how the “make your own…
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September 26, 2013
Joomak (Swanston Street | Melbourne CBD) [Video]
Address: Basement, 407-409 Swanston St, Melbourne 3000
How to get there: short walk from Melbourne Central station
Telephone: (03) 9663 7123
Trading Hours:
Monday ~ Tuesday 1700 – 0100 (next day)
Wednesday ~ Thursday 1700 – 0300 (next day)
Friday ~ Saturday | 1700 – 0500 (next day)
Sunday | Closed
Website: n/a
Dining conditions: Thursday 14 Feb 2013 – Dinner (Valentines Day)
Average Per Head: $$20.00
Hits & Misses: Hit + Recommended
Use 3 words to describe Joo-Mak: Mysterious, Atmosphericand FuNkY
It was Mysterious:
Restaurant/Bar in the basement (under the sign of Druid House) – how is that not mysterious?
We followed the stairs downstairs and found a big wooden door with the following signs:
It was Atmospheric:
We walked through the narrow corridor under Joomak’s dim lighting, the general dining area and bar was in the inner half of the restaurant. There were many wooden ‘booth’s on the side of the…
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September 26, 2013
Joomak
Joomak
Basement 407-409 Swanston St
Melbourne CBD
Dinner the other night @ Joomak, a cosy korean place right near melbourne central. It’s a tricky place to find, there are no signs on the street but poke your head into one of the anonymous looking buildings with a lobby and you should see their bold cheerful sign peeking out from under some stairs.
The basement location is pretty cool, with individual booths customized to seat 2 or 4s (or more). And by booths I don’t mean the ones you find at TGI Fridays, this stuff is the real deal with wooden fencing and even a thatched roof. Cute.
We never really know what to order at korean restaurants besides our usual combo of seafood pancake + glass noodle +/- bi bam bap +/- korean fried chicken. Sorry to say, this meal wasn’t too different and we were too conservative to give…
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September 24, 2013
Ice-cream Party – Movenpick QV
Hello my Dearest Readers 🙂 hope you’ve had a nice weekend and if you’re in Melbourne enjoyed the wonderful weather we had yesterday! It was sunny, warm but not too hot with a cool breeze! It’s probably the best day we’ve had for a while! Last week was down right miserable wet and gloomy. Hopefully, the wonderful weather will continue, I mean it is Spring after all!
Spring will lead into Summer which means ICE CREAM season 😀 It’s more of an excuse for me to consume more than I already do hehe Last week, I was invited to the Movenpick launch party for their newest boutique store in QV Building in the CBD. They are situated on the top level in the open area where all the other eateries are.
I invited Ashley and Kirk to come to the launch party with me, Mr Bao unfortunately had to work…
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July 6, 2013
Blogger masterclass
Aleisha McCormack ‘It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.’
As run by the Voices of 2013 and Kidspot (a part of Google)
Venue: Smartz Art gallery which was hard to find, but is near the 112 tram.
It was a great chance to meet up with other bloggers such as Nic from Sharking for fish and Chips and others.
There was an abundance of free food and coffee and tea. There was so much.
But we were here to learn. We got many hints and tips about blogging successfully from the experts like: Wendy Tuohy (Herald sun) as well as tips about increasing your stats and monetizing the blog.
“Success is hard work”. It doesn’t come overnight.
There are too many sponsored posts these days. Sponsored posts are fine but they may change your voice just a little bit. We still need to sit with them for a while and be polite.
The most of us including ourselves write a personal blog. But what we would like to see is our readership going up as well as earning money from Google Ad Sense.
The most important thing that anyone could tell us is networking and getting guest bloggers to write something. This way we can market the blog as well as help them to market their blog. At the end of the day whilst it is a competition we really are helping one another out. We’ll try if we can to write on other people’s blogs too to increase readership. We have formed a few friendships on Facebook.
Use your own voice. I tend to love being professional, but if you want to be personal that is fine too. You need to be comfortable in your own skin. You can have many voices but your character should be the same
Research is a must. Plan your topics well in advance. For many shows you need to research it thoroughly. Read lots. Read public notices. Watch TV. You should know everything.
Know what people wants. To do that you need to have a look at the traffic sources in your blogs stats. Keywords are what people use to search your blog so make sure that the keywords match the post. Good keywords gives your post the correct message to market your blog. Go for the buying phrases. Put yourself in your readers shoes. There is an audience for everyone and it depends on what your target audience is. Ours are International students and Local students who go to University in Australia.
Be assertive. Don’t be passive and just have one or two photos without explanation (unless it is a photo essay). I like blogs that explain what the pictures are about and what they think of the food.
Forget the critics. Who cares about what they think?
Editing was another key point of the seminar. If we don’t edit we drive away our readers and followers. Read each post aloud is one way of picking up on mistakes.
Market your blog on Twitter and on Facebook. We should do something with the Google + button. This button has many good interactions on many fronts.
We have lot of fun with our blog. But we too love to talk about issues that affect students as well as eats and places.
What drives us? We are go getters. We want to see happy students. We don’t want them to be kicked out of the country.
We also need a blogging schedule. For us we like to publish posts on Friday and Saturdays.
The thing to is to identify what problem you have and how to solve it. Our problem is that many International students struggle to survive in Melbourne and want low cost and affordable ideas. This is how our blog came into play two years ago.
Which brings us next to: goals. We have a few goals in mind. One of them is about reducing the need for special considerations at RMIT from 11000 to half the amount. The other one is reducing the workload of the Academic registrars group within six months. In six months we also want to see a lot more satisfied students and a lot less students who are stressed. The other is to start earning money.
The aim of the project is to educate students on life and study in Melbourne and the costs associated with it.
Use images and learn to Photoshop.
We also got given a goody bag full of surprises.
Many thanks to the organizers for putting this on. Thanks to Pip, Dave Jenyns of Melbourne SEO Services, Kate Ulman of Foxs Lane, Wendy Tuohy of The Perch. Writers Kate Forster, Karen Andrews and Lou Pardi for giving us lots of ideas on improving our blog.
We hope to see you next year
July 6, 2013
The clothing exchange
“Swap clothes you once loved for those you will treasure at events around the nation.” Quote courtesy of http://clothingexchange.com.au/about/. Image below also courtesy of the same site.
8th of July at 6:30pm. Clothes swapping starts at 7pm.
At Deakin Edge at Federation Square
It is $25 but you can swap up to six items of clothing
This event is run by the Clothing Exchange. the group founded in 2004 and are about sustainability. They have won an award last year for green lifestyle. They are also featured in a lot of media such as the Financial review.
Clothes swapping is an environmentally sustainable practice. The clothes that you don’t want does not go to landfill. Instead someone else wears them and you get to wear someone else’s treasure for a fraction of the price. It is an alternative to buying clothes that you might not possibly want after some time.
So what are you waiting for? Embrace the change by booking your ticket to this fabulous event here.
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