Some fun facts about the Australian Currency

It's been two months since I've arrived in Australia and I still find it hard to distinguish between the 20-cent and 50-cent coins! I thought I should share some interesting facts about the Australian currency:

• When European settlers first arrived in Australia, a barter system, including rum, was used as currency instead of money.

• Till 1963, Australia used the “Australian Pound” as its main currency. More than 1,000 entries were made to name the new currency, including the Royal, Roo and Kanga, before Dollar’was chosen.

• In 1988, Australia invented "plastic" money, replacing its paper notes with polymer notes to combat counterfeiting. In 1996, Australia became the first country in the world to have a complete series of polymer notes.

• Australia prints polymer notes for more than 15 other countries, including Bangladesh, Brunei, Chile, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Western Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

• Highlighting its diverse wildlife, Australia’s coins feature the only two mammals in the world to lay eggs. The 20-cent coin features the platypus, while the 5 cent coin the echidna.

• As of early 2013, The Australian dollar was the fifth most traded currency in the world.

• Defacing or destroying current coins or current paper money is technically punishable by law and carries fines of upwards of $5,000 or 2 years in prison.

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (http://www.dfat.gov.au/), 

              BigPondMoney (http://www.bigpondmoney.com.au/)

More than just a degree - Making the most of your University life

Before I left for University, a wise person told me that "Remember it's not just a degree, but an education that you are all set to acquire". They told me not to just do the needful - attend classes, do the coursework, aim for high grades but in fact go above and beyond that to make the most of this educational experience. Ten years down in line, it won't be the classes you will remember, but the experiences you have had and the people with whom you shared those experiences.

A great way to maximize your University experience is to join student clubs and organizations on campus. Universities in Australia are known for their "club culture", from sporting clubs to cultural organizations to hobby groups, there's something for everyone on campus. Whether you love desserts or are an aspiring Quidditch player or someone who wants to provide consulting for social enterprises, you are likely to find a group of like-minded individuals who share your passion in these student clubs. These organizations are great platforms for developing skills and networks both during University and beyond. I would highly recommend attending O-week and joining at least a couple of these clubs, as an investment in your well-rounded development.

Also, as international students, you are making a huge investment to study overseas. In order to ensure that you receive the top-notch education you travelled to another country for, it would be helpful to get involved in student politics by running for positions in the student council and union to ensure that your voice is represented in areas concerning your education. By taking up a role in the student council, you can develop your leadership skills while working with various stakeholders to ask for and deliver a better quality of education.

Go on exchange! Studying in another country provides you with an opportunity to truly immerse yourself in a global learning environment. I read somewhere that "an exchange is not just a year in your life but a life in a year". Going to another country will enable you to experience yet another culture, further broaden your social and professional networks and see more of the world around you.

Take up various research and tutoring opportunities available at University. This is particularly aimed at Postgraduate students. These opportunities will provide you with further insight into the academic nature of your field and perhaps provide an opportunity to contribute to your academic field in a small way.

Learning at University shouldn't just start and stop inside a classroom. There are plenty of opportunities to learn from some of the biggest and brightest minds in and around campus. Attending various networking events, lectures from guest lecturers, mentoring sessions will further broaden your horizon and find inspiration and direction for what you want to do in life.

The list can go on for a while. The key is to remember to be like a "sponge", to keep an open mind and take up every opportunity and interaction to absorb relevant information!  As Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech at Stanford "you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future". Go beyond the books, make the most of every experience University life has to offer because you never know how these dots will connect in the future!

Finding a home in your new home

A friend of mine once told me that “Making a new country your new home is fun, but getting to that point where you can call it home is not”. I couldn’t actually relate to that statement till I moved to Australia to study. All my initial euphoria and excitement about studying overseas was overshadowed by a sense of urgency and stress to find a place to live. It’s hard to call a place your home if you don’t have a home yet!

Before moving to Australia, I had known that it was expensive and that the housing rental and sharing market was fairly competitive but I also assumed that since cities such as Sydney and Melbourne were some of the best student cities in the world, affordable student housing wouldn’t be hard to find! That assumption was challenged within a few days of being in Sydney. Websites like gumtree, domain and flatmatefinders became the first thing I would see each day and the last thing I would search intently at night, flats and terraced houses were all the sights I saw in Sydney for that first week, budget and location preferences started altering (can’t be too picky if options are limited), every other exchange or international student I would meet would share a similar story. Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be this hard!

After almost 2 weeks of relentless house hunting, I found a place I could call learn to call home some day! The house didn’t match the rosy picture I had in my head before I moved to Sydney but moving to a new country is all about adapting and challenging your preconceived expectations and this was one of them. The point of this blog is not to scare prospective international students but to help them. Based on my experience of looking for a flat in Sydney, I have some tips and advice for you to help you to find a place you can call home in your new home.

• Living on campus: Universities in Australia usually have catered and self-catered on-campus accommodation, especially for first-year undergraduate and international students. The demand for these can be high so it’s important to apply as far as possible in advance to increase your chances of securing the accommodation option of your choice. 
• Before you arrive:  Start looking for places and rental agencies before you arrive in Sydney but do not make any permanent arrangements for private accommodation prior to arrival as it is important to inspect properties before committing to any tenancy agreements. Also, make arrangements for temporary accommodation with friends or family or at a hostel till you find a place to live. Try to get in touch with other students from your cohort so you can look for a place together. Ensure you have enough money to pay the bond and/or advanced rent. The bond here varies from 2-4 weeks rent.
• Living off campus: There are several options for accommodation off campus. You can either choose to live in student residences that are in the close vicinity of the campus such as Unilodge (http://www.unilodge.com.au/sydney/) or Urbanest (http://www.urbanest.com.au/). They comprise furnished rooms in shared or self‐contained houses/apartments in residential buildings for students but might be more expensive than finding a room in a shared flat. The other options for living off campus are room-sharing, flat-sharing, living as a homestay or living in a studio-apartment. The rent you would pay per week would depend on the type of accommodation and the area you choose to live in. Usually areas close to University or in the centre of the city tend to be more expensive. Some good websites to explore the accommodation options are Domain (http://www.domain.com.au/), Gumtree (http://www.gumtree.com.au/), Flatmates.com (http://flatmates.com.au/home.html) and Flatmate Finders (http://www.flatmatefinders.com.au/).
• First contact: It is important to read the advertisements online carefully before contacting the person advertising. Please ensure that you have relevant information included in the email or message you choose to send or the profile you choose to make on the accommodation websites e.g. your age, sex, reason for being in Sydney and the duration you are looking to lease a place. Also make sure you ask them some crucial questions before you inspect the property e.g. bills per month, pets, other flatmates, distance from public transportation etc.
• First in, first served – The early bird get the worm in this case. The faster you contact the person, the sooner you go to inspect the property and the sooner you confirm your interest, the more likely you are to get the property. On a couple of occasions, I was delayed by ten minutes to view a property and the room was gone! Make sure you are on time and make sure you have enough money to pay the bond or advance rent on the spot to confirm your interest.
•  Expand your search options – Be more flexible when searching for a place. It is hard to find a “dream first home” during the initial house search. It helps if you expand your search options to areas that might be a bit further away but well connected by transportation or if you opt for an unfurnished but cheaper room or opt to share a room. Also, spread the word through social media and peers when looking for a place. There are several Facebook groups for international and exchange students where people advertise rooms to rent and form groups to find a place to rent.
• Keep it legal – Make sure you set clear expectations with the person leasing the room about things such as bond, rent payment, duration of the lease etc and that you sign a tenancy agreement. Accommodation services at your University and websites such as Tenants NSW (http://www.tenants.org.au/factsheet-03-bond) can provide guidance on your responsibilities and obligations. Also, there are ways to negotiate rent or the duration of your contract (e.g. giving 2 weeks notice before you choose to move to another place) but make sure that is clearly established with the landlord.

The key is to be patient, persistent and positive! It takes a while to make a new country your new home but hopefully these tips would help!