......See you again:)

I can't believe I am writing my last blog, don't know how these 12 weeks went by so quick. Time really flies by when you are having fun and I really had a great time writing all these blogs. Though I didn't write as many blogs as I had planned to, I think I managed to share some of my experiences that I had in CQUniversity and Australia which I hope you guys enjoyed reading.

Saying goodbye is always hard and I am running short of words. I guess this is not the end of my blogging journey as I plan to continue writing in future through my own blog site.
At this point of time, I would like to wish all you guys the very best for future and may you find the right University for further studies like I found mine.

At last, I would like to share with you guys a short movie I made out of the pictures we took on a night out with Uni mates. We all had such a great time together.

Good Luck and Have Fun!!!
See you again!
RS

Writing Competition for Library and Information Week

Few months backs, CQUniversity held a writing competition for National Library and Information Week. The theme for the competition was libraries or access to information and they were to choose 3 best entries to be published in the Sydney Library Website. I thought I should give it a go and hence wrote a short essay which was selected to be published in the Library Website. Today, I want to share that piece of writing with you guys and here it goes:

Access to information: Right or a Privilege? by Romu Shrestha

What is life without curiosity? Take a minute and think of a person who has had no questions in his mind all his life. I am sure a person with no questions doesn’t exist. Curiosity is a human nature and such human nature of questioning everything led us to the world of information technology today. We really don’t think about it in that deep manner when we are reading an article on the Internet or when we are watching news on our big HD plasma screen TV and are thinking about something happening in some other part of the world which probably has got nothing to do with us. We kind of don’t realize these days that we can be really hungry about information. This is probably because any information that we need is easily accessible. We can click on blahblah.com and bingo we get everything that we need right there. With such convenient access to information, life has definitely got better and easier.

If we look back in our past and see, we didn’t have resources to access information easily, we had no Internet, no mobile phone to check tomorrow’s weather, no magazines with Britney spears new found love story (many more such interesting gossips), no satellite TV channels with live reporting, no YouTube with videos on just about anything & everything and so on. We had all the questions and no answers. But today, things have changed and we have pretty much found answers to all our questions with easy access to information.

We, who live in well developed countries like Australia, believe that it’s a human right to have access to information and education. However; it’s time we need to ask ourselves a question and that is what about those people who live in underdeveloped countries where there is not enough food, water resources, electricity , education etc which are basic human needs or rights, forget about the Internet, TV channels, well equipped libraries and other resources to access information. Don’t these people have right to access the information like us or do they have to be privileged in order to do so? In that case, is access to information is really a right or it is just another privilege for certain number of people like us? Somebody wise has said, “If you have a question, you will definitely find an answer”. Hence we need to think about those fellow human beings who are under privileged and do something to make global advancement more successful and more meaningful.

I still wonder if access to information is a right or a privilege. Do you have an answer???

Cheers!
RS

Nepal Festival 2010

Nepal Festival 2010 was held in Darling Harbour Sydney on 4th September 2010 as promised. Despite of the bad weather (it was raining almost all day), the organizers did not cancel or postpone the event and did their best to make the event interesting and engaging for the attendees. Though the venue was not as crowded in the afternoon as expected, people started to show up after it stopped raining in the evening. There were lots of food stalls serving variety of Nepalese food, information stalls of migration agents, educational institute & universities and some other business. As CQUniversity was one of the sponsors, we had our stall where we provided information about studying in our University and little goodies to the visitors. It was quite an interesting experience, lot of people thought I was an employee of the University :) The festival also showcased performances of young Nepalese, mainly traditional dances and songs. The highlight of the show was the performance of a famous Nepalese Rock band named 1974 AD; however, their performance started bit late at around 8:30pm. The crowd got bit furious because of the long wait as most of the people were there for their performance. Nevertheless, the band rocked the stage and got people grooving with their hit numbers.

It was a good event but could have been lot better as organizers didn't seem to be well prepared to pull off the entire event smoothly. What I really liked about this event was it brought together most of the Nepalese living in Sydney, to celebrate their culture even being miles away from their country.

More pictures can be viewed here:
http://www.nepalmelbourne.com/?p=334

Cheers!
RS

Celebrating Culture!!!

Cultural festival – sounds like a very good idea of having fun while you get to know more about some other part of the world. These festivals are always bit fancy and fantasy like as you get to experience something you might not have seen or experienced before. A preset idea of these cultural festivals in my mind is a crowded event with people from everywhere,plentiful of food stalls, different types of cultural programmes for entertainment, a lot of information stalls and some marketing companies trying to lure people into business. I reckon if you breakdown the facts of every cultural or international festival it’s the stalls and their presentation that make it a successful or unsuccessful event.
We all know that Australia is one of the most prominent multicultural countries in the world. You can just walk down any street and will find at least ten different people representing ten different backgrounds. This stat is bit exaggerated but it’s kind of true. Every now and then there are various festivals and events happening with a different representation like Chinese New Year Italian food festival, Australia- India friendship day, etc. It’s like you name something and we have a festival for that. Now this is the real beauty of living in a multicultural society, you get to celebrate everything in the world.
To maintain this trend of celebrating culture, NRN Australia, Nepalese Community Associations and Nepalese Embassy is jointly organising a cultural event which is named Nepal Festival 2010. This event will be proudly hosted in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on different dates. Well, I am more interested in the one that is going to be held in Sydney as I live here. This festival in set to take place in our very cool Darling Harbour, on 4th September 2010, which is this Saturday. I am really excited to attend this festival mainly for two reasons. First is obvious, as me being a Nepalese away from Nepal, I love to celebrate my culture in every possible way and secondly I’ll be representing my University in the event. As CQUniversity is one of the sponsors of this event, we will be putting up an information stall for the festival attendees. I feel good about the fact that my university is supporting a cultural programme about my country. I am really looking forward to it and hope it’s going to be a very successful and fun event.

More details on facts and features about the event can be found here:
http://www.nrn.org.au/festivals/index.php

Cheers!
RS

Assignment Week!

Thank God this week is finally over! This was the most hectic week of my student life at CQUniversity; the reason being is my assignments!!! Out of four courses that I took this semester, 3 of my assignments were due this week. I know it sounds totally crazy but it's true.
Assignments are important part of your course as they not only assess you on your course progress but also contribute towards (usually 30%-40%) your final exam. Hence it's really important to do your assignment properly and hand it in on the due date. Being aware of this, I had to work really hard to complete them on time as I didn't start working on them as early as I should.

We get to know everything about the course we are studying from the course profile, which we have access to before classes start. Having said this, I knew what my assignments were and their due dates at the very beginning. Despite knowing the fact that I have to struggle to get all three assignments done in one go, I still left it to the last minute. Well, good students or let's say responsible students start working on their assignments couple of weeks before the due date and lazy students like me, do it only couple of days before the due date but let me tell you that there are some, who start the night before or even same day. To be honest, I have fallen into the 3rd category couple of times myself and it's super stressing. Each time I went though that stress, I would make a promise to myself that next semester I will be more responsible and start drafting my assignments on time but this has never happened till date and it's my last semester now. Anyways the point is, you go through lot of stress when you leave your assignments to the last minute as they are not that easy to do, it involves lots of research and detailing which is very hard to accomplish in short time. I strongly recommend all the students to be bit more proactive and responsible towards doing their assignment on time. (please don't be like me)

After going through all that stress of completing three assignments this week I seriously consider bringing some change in my habit of putting things off till last minute. Nevertheless, it's the end that matters and of course the results!!!!


Cheers!
Romu

Are you well informed????

Life is full of small and big challenges; there is no doubt about this. As an international student, these challenges cross your way quite often esp. when you are about to begin your life in a new country on your own . Keeping yourself well informed about everything that you require to begin your life in a strange land, is absolutely important and I can say this from my own experience. As I had already experienced how it is like to live on my own in a totally new surrounding before coming to Australia, it helped me a lot when i moved here. But again, every country is different and lifestyle changes accordingly.
Being up to date with information won’t harm but can help in many ways, and nowadays it's way too easy to access information, everything is just a Google away. Having information about few things mentioned below can come handy for any students coming to Australia; at least for me it would have been if i had known before moving here.

I have linked few websites so that you can find all the relevant information.

1. Tax File Number

- required before starting work
http://www.ato.gov.au/taxprofessionals/content.asp?doc=/content/64067.htm

2. Public Transportation

- know your way around....... check fares,.......avoid cabs........ no discount in fare for international students:(
http://www.131500.com/ (transport info in NSW, don't be lazy to search for links for other states)
http://www.whereis.com/

3. Banking

get an idea about how banking is done....... about different types of accounts........ savings etc
http://www.commbank.com.au/ - Commonwealth Bank
http://stgeorge.com.au/ - St George Bank
http://www.nab.com.au/ - National Australia Bank (These are just few there are heaps)

4. Accommodation

not easy to find......expensive....... look for different option available
http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/f-Unit-House-Real-Estate-house-unit-apartment-rental-W0QQCatIdZ18364 - for SYD
http://www.domain.com.au/

5. Jobs

again not very easy to find but got to keep looking
http://www.seek.com.au/
http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/f-Jobs-W0QQCatIdZ9302 - for SYD
www.careerone.com.au

6.Telecommunications

Phone plans can get tricky.... best option for student is to go for prepaid plans.... bring your own handset(GSM) from home country to save money
http://www.optus.com.au/home/

http://www.three.com.au/


7.Shopping

If you are a shopaholic like me, your are going to get so tempted .......don't spend too much money at the beginning......it is best to bring whatever you can from your home country.....buy only what is absolutely necessary!!!
www........... - sorry guys no links for now!

Well, these are only few among lots of other information that you need to know if you are coming to Australia an international student. Of course there is no need to literally know each and everything as you'll start knowing them as you come and start living here. To be honest i wasn't well informed about most of the things and i still managed to survive pretty well, but the fact can't be denied that these information can make life easier to some extent for most of the international students, who are all set to come to Australia.

Good Luck!

Mr & Miss Teen Nepal Australia (TNA) 2010......... the Event Night

As mentioned in my previous blog, Last Saturday I went to TNA 2010, a Nepalese teen talent hunt show that was held in Marana Auditorium, Hurstville, Sydney. I attended the event because the idea of such a show sounded great to me as I had always admired talent shows and beauty pageants on TV but never watched it live. On top of everything, this show represented Nepal in a way and who doesn't want to be part of a show that represents the place you belong to.
The event was quite successful as it was jam packed with Nepalese crowd living in Sydney and they thoroughly enjoyed the show. Let me tell you that if you are away from your motherland and somehow you happen to be a part of a show or anything that represents your country, it's the best feeling ever for anyone regardless your nationality.
Uh.......I got carried away like everybody else I guess......Getting back to the show, this kind of talent hunt for Nepalese teens was organised for the first time in Australia. I assume a lot of young girls and boys had participated in the other rounds of the contest before 19 finalists were selected for the Grand Finale Show. The participants of the contest were impressive, some being truly talented, I was quite amazed to see them perform and speak in front of the audience with so much confidence as most of them were about 13-15 years old. There were also some guests performances by other artists who I believe were frequent performers in this kind of shows that made the event even more entertaining.
I believe any show or competition that brings the hidden talents inside a community is a champion effort and should be highly recognized & supported. This world is full of genuine talents; we don't even know how many Pele and Michael Jackson are still hidden amongst us. Anyone who even tries to hunt for such talent is doing a great job as you never know who they might come across. The teen talents chosen today can do so much more in their future because of this platform provided to them today and that one surge of confidence coming from within. I greatly appreciate the organizers work and effort in bringing the Nepalese community together and also showcasing the talents of young Nepalese teens among the community and not to forget the charitable cause behind the event...... .....Kudos to Drishti Team!

The hunt should always be on, hope the organizers come up with many more events like this in near future.

Check out the links below:

http://www.nepalmelbourne.com/ – for list of other title winners

http://nepalitimes.com.au/index.php?action=eventDetail&SID=71 – for glimpse of the event

NB- I would especially like to thank Mr. Rabindra Kumar Sharma, Marketing Manager of Unique International College Granville ( who is also one of the sponsors of the show) for giving me an opportunity to witness a great show like this!

BTW i didn't take these pics!

Cheers !

RS

Mr & Miss Teen Nepal Australia (TNA) 2010

A team of three women from Nepal, who are now based in Sydney has come up with an interesting idea of organising a contest for Nepali teens residing in Sydney for a charitable cause. They have opened up a firm called DRISHTI TEAM with an objective to foster Nepalese culture, ethos & identity and sustain traditions among the young generation. They have organised few events for charity in past and this time with a nobel idea of raising funds for a school for blind children in a remote part of Nepal, they will be organising this TNA competition.

I personally think it's great endeavour from their end to organise such an event to help underprivileged children in Nepal and at the same time provide an opportunity for teenagers in Sydney to showcase their talent.

I'll be covering the event in my next blog which is being held today at Marana Auditorium,Hurstville Entertainment Centre, Hurstville, NSW at 4:30 pm. For those of you who are in Sydney, be there to show your support for this event if you can.
For more information, visit their website on the link below.

http://www.drishtiteam.com.au/events/mr-and-miss-teen-nepal-australia-2010/


Keep an eye on my next post for a sneak peek of the event.

Cheers!
RS

Travelling around Australia.......

Australia is not only a great country to pursue your higher education but also a great place to enjoy your vacation. I still have a vague memory of how Australia used to promote tourism about 10-15 years ago when I was a little girl. I used to be fascinated by the advertisements that showed beautiful beaches, landscapes, wildlifes etc in Australia (I specially remember Kangaroos) which sort of created a desire in me to visit Australia but it was not any sort of serious intention, I was too young. Anyways, be it destiny or my innocent childhood desire, I got to come to Australia and I must say I am quite enjoying my time here. I have done fair bit of travelling around Australia but still have lot more to see as it's such a beautiful country.
I want to make this a picture blog so not going to write much but post some pictures that I took as I travelled around.

Here they are, Enjoy!


The iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House, Sydney


NYE fireworks at the Harbour Bridge,Sydney


Bare Island, La Perouse, Sydney


Great Ocean Drive, Melbourne


Bondi Beach, Sydney


Melbourne City as seen from the tallest building in the city


Sunset at Dockland, Melbourne


7 Apostles, Great Ocean Drive


Strawberry picking at Sorrell Farm, Tasmania


Glimpse of 18th century village at Soveregin Hill, Ballarat


Tasmania Port


7 miles beach, Tasmania


View of Hobart from Mt Wellington,Tasmania

Crazy Weather.....Crazy Week

It's just Thursday and I already feel like writing a review about my week, maybe because I want this week to end quicker. It's the 4th week of the semester and feels like course is getting ahead of me, moreover; work load seems to be increasing at my job and on top of that, the weather is just acting crazy. It's been raining all week since Saturday, yes everyday.The days are cold and gloomy with almost no Sunshine, never thought that weather in Sydney could go this wrong.
I don't hate rainy seasons but I just don't like when it rains while I'm on the road. It is not convenient to travel to work or University esp when you have to catch a public transport. Everything gets so messy and I start to get a little grumpy....

Read an article today in MX(free newspaper for commuters)on a research done about people being grumpy on Thursdays and I kind of agree with the research. Sometimes, i do have bad moods on Thursdays, though had quite a few this week and I blame the crazy weather for it.

Oh well, we can't always have bright and sunny days like the way we can't always have good moods. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get but still hope for the best. Similarly, I hope tomorrow will be a better day with better weather and above all, it's Friday. It's the day when we start to become happier, silly but true and not only I say so, but the research has revealed it as well.

Cheers!
RS

Tax Return Season $$££$$

With 30th June being the tax year end, from 1st July begins the season of tax return. For most of you, who don't know what tax return is (I didn't know until I stepped out of my country) I can try and explain briefly but trust me the taxation system in Australia is very complicated.

Like every country, workers have to pay taxes to the government here in Australia as well. A portion of your wage/salary gets deducted for tax purposes as you get paid each time. Tax return is lodged by taxpaying workers with the hope of getting a refund of what has been paid as you earned your income but sometimes one can end up paying back to the Australian Tax office (ATO) because of high income or low tax deduction.

You’ll get surprised to see how much tax you have to pay when you start earning. As international students, you do have work rights and if you find a job, you have to pay tax and lodge tax return. Not only that, if you have some savings in your bank account, you even have to pay tax on the interest received. Most of the things are taxed heavily in Australia and your income is obviously one of them. It doesn’t sound too pleasant but it’s true, the amount of tax you pay in Australia is quite high. In a way it’s good, because it helps to make the country’s economy stronger. I believe that it is one of the reasons why Australia is developed so much. As students, we always manage to get some refund back when tax return is lodged because we don’t earn much income and believe me it feels so good to get a lump sum amount in your hand at the end of the day. I love tax return season as it brings me some extra money and let’s be honest who doesn’t love that extra money???

Anyway, if you want to know more about ATO and tax return, visit ATO's webiste on http://ato.gov.au/. In future if you come to Australia to study and work, you are going to need a Tax Agent to do your tax returns and you never know you might bump into me:)

Cheers
RS

TGIF!!!!

Friday nite party pics!!!!!






After a hectic week, finally it's Friday. I never really used to look forward for weekends before as much as I do now. Life can get really busy when you are working & studying and of course you have to take care of your cooking, cleaning, washing, run errands........ the list goes on. Doesn't sound too appealing, does it? Especially boys might be thinking, hmm.... should i really go overseas to study??? Relax guys , it's not as difficult as it sound . You just have to learn time management skills (only if you don't have some), have bit of patience and everything can be done without too much hassle. But yes, you do get stressed at times and really look forward for that 2 days off in a week. By the time it's Friday, you already start to feel relaxed, i do.

I am not a party animal but i do like to go out once in a while,(esp Friday nites) have couple of drinks and hit the dance floor(love dancing). Sydney has an awesome nightlife and some of the best clubs that I've ever been to. With plenty of clubs and bars around, you'll definitely find one that you will enjoy going to and that you can afford as well. Most of the clubs have free entry all night or before 10pm so you don't really have to have loads of money to party and have fun. For me clubbing is indeed one of the best ways to chill & add some spice in your life, at the same time you can socialize with friends or colleagues and even make new friends. As Rihana said, you gotta get your body moving, shake the stress away.............. I completely agree with that:)

Happy weekend folks!
RS

P.S. Check out the link below to get bit of an idea about Sydney's Night Life

http://www.munky.com.au/

As I recall my first day in Sydney...............

I came to Sydney about 3 years ago. I can clearly recall almost everything about my first day here as if it was just few days ago. It’s interesting how time flies and never comes back, leaving behind the memories for us to cherish.

I can still feel the roller coaster of emotions I was going through from the time I boarded my flight till the moment I landed at Sydney Airport. First day at Sydney Airport waiting for the people, who were supposed to pick me up, I felt kind of nervous and lost. As I didn’t have any relatives in Sydney or any friends whom I could stay with, my agent had arranged for accommodation and some fellow students to pick me up who came to Australia through him.

Anyway, that cab ride from the airport to Strathfield (suburb where my accommodation was arranged) was quite interesting and exciting as I got to see and feel Sydney city for the first time. It was drizzling and the weather was a bit chilly though it was summer season. I had heard and read about the beautiful weather of Sydney and that it doesn’t get too cold even in winter but to my surprise; I was feeling the chill in summer. While talking about the weather, one of the guys even said some really funny stuff. He said something like ‘Never trust 3 Ws in Sydney i.e. Women, Work and Weather’. I couldn’t comment about the women or the work but felt may be he was right about the weather. I arrived to my destination and nearly had a heart attack paying the cab fare. I knew Sydney was one of the most expensive cities in the world but the cab ride was bit too much expensive. At that very moment I decided that I am going to stay away from cabs as much as possible.

As I rested, I started thinking about all the things I need to do in order to start a new life in a complete new city, far away from home and family. Though it was not the first time I had been away from my country,( I had studied and lived in US before moving to Sydney), I had the same feeling of awkwardness as I was with strange people , new surroundings, was missing home; however I was also excited about the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I couldn’t sleep that night maybe because of the jetlag or excitement or that uncomfortable feeling, whatever the reason was, I pretty much stayed awake the whole night, thinking, planning and enjoying the feel of a new city – Sydney.

Cheers
RS

Why CQUniversity for me?

Choosing the right University to pursue higher education is not an easy task to do. There is something unique about every University and they all claim to be one of the best in the industry. With so many options around, one is bound to be confused and on top of that, you are subjected towards the strong marketing strategies of these institutions which can influence your decision. However, one needs to go for what works best for themself. Every individual is different and has their own priorities and perception towards things in life. What worked for me might not work for someone else and vice versa. Undoubtedly CQUniversity is one of the best Universities in Australia but I have my own reasons to pick this one for myself.

1. Location: conveniently located in Sydney CBD, easy to get around, close to shops and restaurants and famous Darling Harbour (most amazing place to be, trust me)

2. Tuition Fees: found bit more competitive and affordable, (you definitely need to check your pocket while shopping for Universities)

3. Recommendation: I don't go by what people say but good recommendation from people you trust is something that is considerable, heard good stuffs

4. Scholarship: cherry on top, saves you lots of $$$ if you are eligible (I was), just make sure you don't fail any subjects to maintain it

Apart from them, there are many other reasons that made me pick CQUniversity amongst all these good Universities around Australia. You can always check the website or contact University to know more about studying here, you never know this could be the place you are looking for to further your studies. As I said before, you need to find out what works best for you; my intention is not to influence anybody’s decision but to share my views on choosing CQUniversity. All I can say is I am not disappointed with my choice.

Cheers!

RS

Let’s Get Started!!!!

Hey guys! First of all, I’d like to welcome you all to my “BLOG”.

Let me first introduce myself; I am an international student, currently enrolled for my Accounting degree in CQUniversity Sydney. This is my last semester here and I am super excited about it. I can’t explain how good a feeling this is. I am sure all you guys have experienced such a feeling many times in your life. It’s the feeling of being that close to finishing something or achieving your goal, either small or big, doesn’t matter. Three years of hard work will finally come to an end in about three months time.

Okay, now I don’t mean to scare anyone by referring study as ‘Hard Work’ but University life is quite challenging and can be bit tough at times.

I’ll be sharing some of the challenges I faced and how I survived through them in my upcoming posts. For today, I just wanted to keep it short and simlple and to be honest; I was not sure what to write in my first post. I promise to write something more meaningful in my next posts (if this doesn’t any make sense). Also, let me know if you want me to blog about anything in particular, nothing weird but something that is more relevant and appropriate to post here. Most importantly, your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

I look forward to expressing some positive ideas, share my experiences about the University and Australia through my blogs so keep an eye for my posts.