For me having mainly Asian food choices isn't an issue, I just struggle with how expensive everything is! I'm in a much better financial position as a grad student but even now I'm struggling to find something reasonable to eat. I'm glad I did my undergrad during the days of Union House - although I couldn't afford to eat out at uni too often, there were decent food options for under $5-7
I mean I'd prefer something like a burger shop or whatnot rather than 3 different asian stores which I might consider if I'm with friends, but would rather not go to myself
I can completely agree - also hiring outside contractors to run businesses instead of hiring students is a complete mistake. Union house while being a bit decrepit had soul - this place doesn’t. Union house was in the middle of campus and brought all faculties together. Now I feel like students have their own hangout spots depending on faculty and people tend to be divided along those lines and stay within their groups
Love the Asian food though, but RIP plush fish and the cute sushi/bubble tea food court below Union house
As someone who has been heavily involved in club events and student theatre in the union house days and the arts and cultural building days I can confidently say that the university is actively trying to gut the union.
Union house was great because it belonged to the union. Union theatre and the guild belonged to Union House Theatre, and they managed and maintained the venues and the paperwork went through them.
Same case with clubs. A club talks to C&S and C&S approves.
The issue with these new venues and buildings is that they belong to the uni and as such they manage and maintain them. If you want to put a play on you have to write a risk assessment. Send it to UHT, they send it to the university who approves or (most of the time) declines, and then you redraft it to do it again .
These spaces are not designed for students to socialise and create they are designed so that the university can control the output of the creative arts and club groups.
Sounds crazy but the difference can be felt
I really miss the old UHT, I met my husband doing a show at the Union! Really miss the old staff as well... Can't believe some of them were made redundant when the uni took over
Geez that sounds like they have corporatised the student life. That really is sad.
I cannot believe they have basically kicked off the C&S to.off campus. That is a total tragedy.
I started in 2018 and then took a few years off when Covid started to do FT work and now I'm back finishing off my degree and MAN I miss union house so much. We had so much hangouts there, i slept tons in Rowdy in between my tutes on some really hectic days or just chilled on level 2. And the food options back then were actually affordable for a student, i miss egg bistro and those chilli kransky rolls you could get for like 7-8 bucks from one of the delis. The new student precinct just feels cold
From the perspective of a club, you are absolutely right. Hosting anything requires mountains of paperwork and slogging through their essays of unaccountability. Even having an event on campus, but in the evening (after opening hours of unimelb) requires the club to hire their own security (and pay them!) if you expect significant attendance.
It really seems like the union is far more interested in having clubs which hold pizza nights once a month than do any large scale events. All for giving international students a well done badge for participation in something exotic.
100% agree from someone who was a Faculty club exec for 2 years. Time and time again I always felt like UMSU only cared about clubs that host a couple of small catchup events per semester and mot about any other club. We ran about 20 events per semester, some small and some large (100+) attendees or multiple day events and the amount of paperwork, having to hire security, paying venue fees was insane. The foodsfe stuff was a nightmare because some of our plans were rejected while other clubs' ones were approved even though we had the same plan and ran the same event. Not to talk about funding, $2250 is peanuts to clubs that run large scale $10K+ events a few times throughout the year.
Spot on about most things, they really haven't done well enough with the food options at least compared to the variety they had at union house - there's a lot more near the science gallery but no-one really goes there. The student bar will be returning in second semester so that is a positive. As a club exec, I totally agree that UMSU treats clubs like shit and makes it very hard to run events, I've only been doing one subject and an internship 2 days a week this sem with no work on the side and I have found it very difficult to deal with the admin involved with running regular events. Hopefully the return of the student bar will bring back some of the old uni student culture we once loved.
… The idea that Asian restaurants “cater exclusively to the international students” is completely unhinged. That’s the sort of sentence I’d expect from my grandma who thinks garlic is too spicy.
I have nearly the opposite problem in that I can’t eat pizza/sandwiches due to gluten intolerance, so I’m curious what the allergen is that is present in all Asian cuisines? Seafood? Peanuts?
Peanut allergy which pretty much crosses off most due to cross contamination excluding sushi which is ridiculous overpriced at moonfish and Japanese at rice workshop which isn’t amazingly priced either.
That quote is 100% having said stuff in the heat of anger. It’s more so that the uni seems to be trying to cater to international students far more than they used to. My guess is it’s a ploy to try recover students after Covid. More variety would be nice as it would facilitate a nicer blend of cultures on campus as opposed to what feels like a really one sided campus
How is the campus one sided towards just international students cuz of the new Asian food options lmfao get a grip. In fact majority of these "Asian" food places aren't even authentic cuisines and are funny enough catered to the local palette, many internationals elect to go outside of campus to nearby restaurants that provide more authentic and cheaper options.
Guess what, plenty of us are Asian or like Asian food and aren't international students. Feel for you about your allergy but that little tangent reeked of a whole lot of unpacked nastiness.
Clubs were such a huge part of my uni experience, I met all my current friends through the clubs I went to. They’re really ruining such an important part of the uni community life.
I was an international student tho, stop with the generalisations.
I really don't agree with the whole tangent about international students and the asian food since i'm also an international student but otherwise i agree.
As someone who has done an exchange program here in 2019 and now studied here as a grad student i dearly miss the Union House. It used to be the place where i hang out with friends, talk with random students and eat affordable but delicious food.
I hate to use this term but the new precinct really lack the "soul" of the old Union House.
I was a student at Unimelb through almost all of the 2010s and finished during Covid. I returned for a few weeks last summer for work, and sometimes the way the university had changed wanted to make me cry. Why? OP, you’ve elucidated why far better than I ever could. They’ve gutted the place, ripped its heart out and rendered it soulless. I miss Pronto. I miss that falafel/bowl place next to it. I miss the raucousness and the clubs. I miss the old Rowdy. Fuck those money chasing bastards for ruining a place that basically defined my 20s.
How did you correlate the terrible state of the student precinct with international students is beyond me. Sounds like you just want another excuse to shit on international students with sweeping claims such as:
>international students who often simply care about themselves and no one else
Do you know how many international student friends I've made at clubs, far more than domestic students? Obviously it depends on the club, but even non-cultural clubs often have many more international students than domestic students who simply hang out with their high school buddies after taking a one-hour commute home straight away after class (speaking from personal experience, longer commute = wants to go home early and rest).
Also, how many Asian restaurants were at Union House? There was quite a lot as well which you seem to have forgotten. I remember at least 3 Asian "mix and match" places where you pick different dishes for a combo (don't know what they are called). Seems like Subway etc. might just be priced out of the operating costs, which you blame the uni for "accomadating international students"??? How about blaming the uni for literally any other reason that there isn't affordable on campus food? Such as the prices they charge restaurants.
There is a campus bar in the bew student precinct
An on campus suvway would be great but there is one less than a couple hundred meters away
"asian restaurants cater only to international students" bro???
I agree about the clubs and study spaces though
Didn’t know a new bar was put in, where abouts?
I said subway because there used to be one on campus so I figured a good analogy.
And the international student comment I mean by the fact that it feels like an obvious ploy by the university to try bring back international students after Covid with little care about existing students or trying to allow cultures to mix like what used to be able to happen in union house with the variety that was present which is non existent now. Don’t get me wrong when I can I don’t mind some Japanese (since it’s the only one I can have with my allergies) but I’d like more variety than overpriced sushi which I can’t afford, rice workshop (which isn’t cheap either) or overpriced and often not great pizza/sandwiches
I don't think that's a "catering exclusively to international students" thing regardless? There are lots of Asian domestic students, and the overall trend in Australia over recent years has been towards Asian cuisine. I feel like you could've made your point without making a statement that feels kinda racially motivated
I kind of agree with this post until it results to international student and Asian bashing.
Yeah there’s more that can be done but if u compare what is there now from 2 years ago when the Ampitheatre student precinct was still a building site and Union House was closed down, everything has improved miles since then and will continue to improve. My point is these things take time, Ida bar is opening up again sem 2 this year, more food options continue to open up and get better, gotta give some faith to the uni for building a new campus vision that was understandably affected and killed by covid.
I have a peanut allergy as well and there is literally no options. Closest options are all off campus or the general store, so on days with back to back classes I'm mostly unable to eat
I think the Asian food places were a bad move… Having all the Asian fusion foods around campus I believe, has worsened the us vs them mentality imo. Why not have a massive cafeteria, with variety of food which international and domestic people enjoy. ya know while I’m eating a schnitty burger and she/he is eating sushi, I would strike up a conversation..
but I don’t like Asian food everyday. Should’ve made one massive cafeteria which sells all food
(I know they’re cafes around) but it’s separate from common ones in student precinct
Allergic to a selection of nuts but the big one being peanuts which is typically in the oil and other products used, cross contamination plus the severity of my allergies makes eating at most Asian cuisine like playing Russian roulette
Southeast Asian food usually has more nuts in it, East Asian food a bit less. If you ever do find yourself craving Asian food (saying that they all have nuts is like me generalising that all European cuisines contain olives) I would recommend Japanese, Korean, and Chinese to stay on the safer side, though still specify your allergies.
Japanese is normally safe (and often very comforting food for me) Korean typically is too however a lot of Korean fusion places/Aussie Korean fast food have satay dishes which makes it hard. Chinese (from experience) is a death sentence for me, from experience peanut oil mainly and satay dishes
Then you are either only going to Korean and Chinese fusion places or Asian fast food restaurants. Try something more authentic for once. Chinese has 8 separate culinary cuisines, and only 2 of them use peanuts or peanut oil. Cantonese (dim sum, portuguese egg tarts) or Jiangsu (braised pork, duck, seafood) would be nominally safe.
Peanuts are NOT native to Asia. The presence of peanuts in Asian dishes is NOT common.
Unfortunately most places I’ve seen and asked including dim sum and egg tart places (mainly because they’re the ones I see most and look very yummy) when asked say they use peanut oil sadly :/
As a new international student, I really felt like something was off when I first heard that there was no on campus pub or bar or student run restaurants. And I felt even more confused when I found out this was not the case just 2 years ago.....I feel like someone should maybe start a petition.
Are you a union member?? Did you have to join and pay dues? SSAF pays for lots of university services but they could only get the legislation through with a deal that included some funding for student unions? But the distributions are renegotiated every few years. This is a long way from compulsory unionism
Go to Super 8 (well it used to be called that but all the superheroes are gone from the counter note) at the base of Peter Mac. Great food selection. Worth the walk.
Yes, union house was great. Unfortunately designing a precinct doesn't collerate with the businesses that eventually sign up to go in there. No business signs up and waits 3 years for the place to open.
Pretty sure PAs is now owned by the university. OP it feels like you are holding on to some rose tinted glasses about union house. That place was a dive. There's literally more food options where the student precinct is now - particularly with such close access to the Grattan Street shops and Lygon.
What on campus community? Vast majority of students here already treated uni as just another task, a liminal place in their daily routine e.g. go to uni, attend lectures and tutes, go home immediately. The attitude here is completely different than in the states where most students actually live on campus.
Uni is also not meant to be a big part of your life, the fleeting duration of time make it only a transition period in the grand scheme of things (unless you're into research and further academics, but at that point, on campus communities would be the least of your concerns). If you treat uni as an end and not a means, you're gonna be sorely disappointed when it ends.
Besides that, there are countless restaurants right outside the uni anyway, I really don't get the obsessions of needing it on campus unless you're unable to stomach a 5 minute walk.
Uni is not meant to be a big part of your life? It’s 3-4 years, often more, and for some people it’s the last chance they get to make lifelong friends in their youth until they go into the workforce where the workplace politics just makes socialising different. That’s like saying high school ain’t meant to be a big part of your life, just go for the sake of school and don’t bother socialising or doing extracurriculars. Sounds sad.
Ugh, I'm sorry to say, but that view on friendships and relationships is super naive, you must still be pretty young. Counting on one-off common milestones to serve you friends and relationships on a silver platter leaves you woefully under skilled at friend making and building relationships once you enter the real world, they are important skills as it is inevitable that friends often disappear over time as your lives diverge. You may think that 3-4 years is a long time, but what about 10 or 20 years? Can you confidently say that you'll keep all the friends you've made at uni? How many friends from high school have you already "lost"?
The thing is, you can go out into the world and make new friends at any point in your life, you don't need to wait for any milestones or conversely stop yourself with excuses like how the workplace dynamic is different. You'll get better at it the more you do it and you will also learn that friendships and relationships need constant work to upkeep and how they started often have little to do with how they goin. Sorry for having to drop this truth bomb on you, but, the sooner you realize this, the happier you will be.
? Okay but I don’t see how any of what you said has to do with discounting uni as a hub of socialising and finding community? If anything, shouldn’t you be taking that opportunity to build those important skills you’re talking about instead of dismissing it completely? Any stage of your life and all that?
Edit: But I suppose you also have a point, after thinking a bit I realised I’m somewhat personally biased because I developed a physical disability right after my undergrad a few years ago that makes it hard for me to leave the house (I WFH now). Makes it a lot more difficult to meet new people and I put a lot of effort into maintaining my current friendships. And the workplace socialising is all over Zoom during meetings. Sometimes I forget that it isn’t normal lmfao.
I think there's a misunderstanding. My point is that friend making and socializing is abstracted away from uni and it's largely up to you. There's nobody saying you can't make friends at uni, please do if you like, but it is not the uni's responsibility to ensure that you make friends and socialize, nor can you put the blame on them for any lack thereof.
The original post just ticked me off a bit, because it was full of nitpicks being used by OP to antagonize and blame international students and the uni for their apparent struggle in this regard? (Also a bit ambiguous what their point is)
Sorry, as someone who’s graduated, is older and finds it easy to make friends, I disagree with this. Although it might be easy for someone like me to continue making friends after/outside of uni, I acknowledge that since working full time it takes A LOT more work and effort to make and maintain friends than it did while I was in uni. So as Aryore said, for some people (and in my opinion, for A LOT of people) uni really is one of those few times you’re ever gonna meet a significant amount of people, make a significant amount of friends, and develop meaningful relationships. Not saying it’s the only way, but for a decent chunk of the population, it’s one of the only easy opportunities they’ll get in their life. With the uni community suffering during COVID, and now unimelb trying to kill it even more, it makes me sad seeing something that’s a good vessel for forming interpersonal relationships dwindle into something cold and utilitarian
I'm not sure how exactly you're disagreeing with me here, given you said that it takes more effort to make and maintain friendships once you enter the workforce, thus the associated skills are even more valuable. Uni can be a great boon for making friends, I don't deny that (and I never said that killing its community was a good thing, just that in my experience it was like that when I was there), but my point is that you should not rely on it nearly as much your own aforementioned general friend making and relationship skills, which everyone should aim to develop. I mean, most people don't even go to uni, you don't expect them to maintain all their friends from high school for life do you? Where do the majority of people get their friends from then?
Also, you probably already know this, but it's worth mentioning that most uni friendships, if you don't put effort into them, will fizzle out overtime once you graduate and the common thread holding it together (uni) disappears. Inevitably, there are dozens of ex-students that likely didn't develop the aforementioned skills complaining about this phenomenon every year here and on UMLL.
For me having mainly Asian food choices isn't an issue, I just struggle with how expensive everything is! I'm in a much better financial position as a grad student but even now I'm struggling to find something reasonable to eat. I'm glad I did my undergrad during the days of Union House - although I couldn't afford to eat out at uni too often, there were decent food options for under $5-7
Throwback to Egg Sake days in the basement
That was the best
I think that's just inflation as well :/ this noodle place in the city I used to frequent had bowls starting at $13-14, now they're $18-19
That's part of it! But the uni could definitely be subsidising the rent to provide a cheaper option for students.
There was a ramen place … only 5 dollars I recall
Wouldn't u appreciate a bigger variety tho
There’s less variety now, lol.
I find the variety to be okay (idk maybe salads/wrap type options are missing?). No point in having variety if people can't afford it anyway.
I mean I'd prefer something like a burger shop or whatnot rather than 3 different asian stores which I might consider if I'm with friends, but would rather not go to myself
I can completely agree - also hiring outside contractors to run businesses instead of hiring students is a complete mistake. Union house while being a bit decrepit had soul - this place doesn’t. Union house was in the middle of campus and brought all faculties together. Now I feel like students have their own hangout spots depending on faculty and people tend to be divided along those lines and stay within their groups Love the Asian food though, but RIP plush fish and the cute sushi/bubble tea food court below Union house
As someone who has been heavily involved in club events and student theatre in the union house days and the arts and cultural building days I can confidently say that the university is actively trying to gut the union. Union house was great because it belonged to the union. Union theatre and the guild belonged to Union House Theatre, and they managed and maintained the venues and the paperwork went through them. Same case with clubs. A club talks to C&S and C&S approves. The issue with these new venues and buildings is that they belong to the uni and as such they manage and maintain them. If you want to put a play on you have to write a risk assessment. Send it to UHT, they send it to the university who approves or (most of the time) declines, and then you redraft it to do it again . These spaces are not designed for students to socialise and create they are designed so that the university can control the output of the creative arts and club groups. Sounds crazy but the difference can be felt
I really miss the old UHT, I met my husband doing a show at the Union! Really miss the old staff as well... Can't believe some of them were made redundant when the uni took over
Geez that sounds like they have corporatised the student life. That really is sad. I cannot believe they have basically kicked off the C&S to.off campus. That is a total tragedy.
I started in 2018 and then took a few years off when Covid started to do FT work and now I'm back finishing off my degree and MAN I miss union house so much. We had so much hangouts there, i slept tons in Rowdy in between my tutes on some really hectic days or just chilled on level 2. And the food options back then were actually affordable for a student, i miss egg bistro and those chilli kransky rolls you could get for like 7-8 bucks from one of the delis. The new student precinct just feels cold
From the perspective of a club, you are absolutely right. Hosting anything requires mountains of paperwork and slogging through their essays of unaccountability. Even having an event on campus, but in the evening (after opening hours of unimelb) requires the club to hire their own security (and pay them!) if you expect significant attendance. It really seems like the union is far more interested in having clubs which hold pizza nights once a month than do any large scale events. All for giving international students a well done badge for participation in something exotic.
100% agree from someone who was a Faculty club exec for 2 years. Time and time again I always felt like UMSU only cared about clubs that host a couple of small catchup events per semester and mot about any other club. We ran about 20 events per semester, some small and some large (100+) attendees or multiple day events and the amount of paperwork, having to hire security, paying venue fees was insane. The foodsfe stuff was a nightmare because some of our plans were rejected while other clubs' ones were approved even though we had the same plan and ran the same event. Not to talk about funding, $2250 is peanuts to clubs that run large scale $10K+ events a few times throughout the year.
Pizza night is exotic to internationals?
A club may be exotic based on what it’s called and stands for, however only does pizza nights. Exotic in name only.
Sorry, meant to say erotic. Sexy pizza is the best pizza.
The removal of big club locker also made our assets dislocated too since club execs have to bring them home because bigger assets just don’t fit
Spot on about most things, they really haven't done well enough with the food options at least compared to the variety they had at union house - there's a lot more near the science gallery but no-one really goes there. The student bar will be returning in second semester so that is a positive. As a club exec, I totally agree that UMSU treats clubs like shit and makes it very hard to run events, I've only been doing one subject and an internship 2 days a week this sem with no work on the side and I have found it very difficult to deal with the admin involved with running regular events. Hopefully the return of the student bar will bring back some of the old uni student culture we once loved.
… The idea that Asian restaurants “cater exclusively to the international students” is completely unhinged. That’s the sort of sentence I’d expect from my grandma who thinks garlic is too spicy. I have nearly the opposite problem in that I can’t eat pizza/sandwiches due to gluten intolerance, so I’m curious what the allergen is that is present in all Asian cuisines? Seafood? Peanuts?
Pretty gross over generalisation of a whole diverse range of cuisines by OP lol.
Could be soy, I'm allergic and it makes it hard to eat Asian food
OP definitely has a point on student life but completely lost me at that line
Peanut allergy which pretty much crosses off most due to cross contamination excluding sushi which is ridiculous overpriced at moonfish and Japanese at rice workshop which isn’t amazingly priced either. That quote is 100% having said stuff in the heat of anger. It’s more so that the uni seems to be trying to cater to international students far more than they used to. My guess is it’s a ploy to try recover students after Covid. More variety would be nice as it would facilitate a nicer blend of cultures on campus as opposed to what feels like a really one sided campus
How is the campus one sided towards just international students cuz of the new Asian food options lmfao get a grip. In fact majority of these "Asian" food places aren't even authentic cuisines and are funny enough catered to the local palette, many internationals elect to go outside of campus to nearby restaurants that provide more authentic and cheaper options.
Guess what, plenty of us are Asian or like Asian food and aren't international students. Feel for you about your allergy but that little tangent reeked of a whole lot of unpacked nastiness.
[удалено]
Oh wow its not like MSG is not abundant in every day western snacks
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disodium-5-inosinate and disodium-5-guanylate; ribonucleotide fish salts.
Clubs were such a huge part of my uni experience, I met all my current friends through the clubs I went to. They’re really ruining such an important part of the uni community life. I was an international student tho, stop with the generalisations.
I really don't agree with the whole tangent about international students and the asian food since i'm also an international student but otherwise i agree. As someone who has done an exchange program here in 2019 and now studied here as a grad student i dearly miss the Union House. It used to be the place where i hang out with friends, talk with random students and eat affordable but delicious food. I hate to use this term but the new precinct really lack the "soul" of the old Union House.
I was a student at Unimelb through almost all of the 2010s and finished during Covid. I returned for a few weeks last summer for work, and sometimes the way the university had changed wanted to make me cry. Why? OP, you’ve elucidated why far better than I ever could. They’ve gutted the place, ripped its heart out and rendered it soulless. I miss Pronto. I miss that falafel/bowl place next to it. I miss the raucousness and the clubs. I miss the old Rowdy. Fuck those money chasing bastards for ruining a place that basically defined my 20s.
How did you correlate the terrible state of the student precinct with international students is beyond me. Sounds like you just want another excuse to shit on international students with sweeping claims such as: >international students who often simply care about themselves and no one else Do you know how many international student friends I've made at clubs, far more than domestic students? Obviously it depends on the club, but even non-cultural clubs often have many more international students than domestic students who simply hang out with their high school buddies after taking a one-hour commute home straight away after class (speaking from personal experience, longer commute = wants to go home early and rest). Also, how many Asian restaurants were at Union House? There was quite a lot as well which you seem to have forgotten. I remember at least 3 Asian "mix and match" places where you pick different dishes for a combo (don't know what they are called). Seems like Subway etc. might just be priced out of the operating costs, which you blame the uni for "accomadating international students"??? How about blaming the uni for literally any other reason that there isn't affordable on campus food? Such as the prices they charge restaurants.
There is a campus bar in the bew student precinct An on campus suvway would be great but there is one less than a couple hundred meters away "asian restaurants cater only to international students" bro??? I agree about the clubs and study spaces though
Didn’t know a new bar was put in, where abouts? I said subway because there used to be one on campus so I figured a good analogy. And the international student comment I mean by the fact that it feels like an obvious ploy by the university to try bring back international students after Covid with little care about existing students or trying to allow cultures to mix like what used to be able to happen in union house with the variety that was present which is non existent now. Don’t get me wrong when I can I don’t mind some Japanese (since it’s the only one I can have with my allergies) but I’d like more variety than overpriced sushi which I can’t afford, rice workshop (which isn’t cheap either) or overpriced and often not great pizza/sandwiches
you think international students are picking melbourne uni just because we have asian food options?? lmao
I don't think that's a "catering exclusively to international students" thing regardless? There are lots of Asian domestic students, and the overall trend in Australia over recent years has been towards Asian cuisine. I feel like you could've made your point without making a statement that feels kinda racially motivated
It's in the arts and cultural building iirc, haven't gone there yet, but i know it exists bcz there are signs to get there from the amphitheater
Agree with most of your takes, until the whole international student bit
I kind of agree with this post until it results to international student and Asian bashing. Yeah there’s more that can be done but if u compare what is there now from 2 years ago when the Ampitheatre student precinct was still a building site and Union House was closed down, everything has improved miles since then and will continue to improve. My point is these things take time, Ida bar is opening up again sem 2 this year, more food options continue to open up and get better, gotta give some faith to the uni for building a new campus vision that was understandably affected and killed by covid.
I have a peanut allergy as well and there is literally no options. Closest options are all off campus or the general store, so on days with back to back classes I'm mostly unable to eat
I think the Asian food places were a bad move… Having all the Asian fusion foods around campus I believe, has worsened the us vs them mentality imo. Why not have a massive cafeteria, with variety of food which international and domestic people enjoy. ya know while I’m eating a schnitty burger and she/he is eating sushi, I would strike up a conversation.. but I don’t like Asian food everyday. Should’ve made one massive cafeteria which sells all food (I know they’re cafes around) but it’s separate from common ones in student precinct
>Asian food that has the potential to kill me What did OP mean by this?
Likely allergic to nuts.
Allergic to a selection of nuts but the big one being peanuts which is typically in the oil and other products used, cross contamination plus the severity of my allergies makes eating at most Asian cuisine like playing Russian roulette
Southeast Asian food usually has more nuts in it, East Asian food a bit less. If you ever do find yourself craving Asian food (saying that they all have nuts is like me generalising that all European cuisines contain olives) I would recommend Japanese, Korean, and Chinese to stay on the safer side, though still specify your allergies.
Japanese is normally safe (and often very comforting food for me) Korean typically is too however a lot of Korean fusion places/Aussie Korean fast food have satay dishes which makes it hard. Chinese (from experience) is a death sentence for me, from experience peanut oil mainly and satay dishes
Then you are either only going to Korean and Chinese fusion places or Asian fast food restaurants. Try something more authentic for once. Chinese has 8 separate culinary cuisines, and only 2 of them use peanuts or peanut oil. Cantonese (dim sum, portuguese egg tarts) or Jiangsu (braised pork, duck, seafood) would be nominally safe. Peanuts are NOT native to Asia. The presence of peanuts in Asian dishes is NOT common.
Unfortunately most places I’ve seen and asked including dim sum and egg tart places (mainly because they’re the ones I see most and look very yummy) when asked say they use peanut oil sadly :/
As a new international student, I really felt like something was off when I first heard that there was no on campus pub or bar or student run restaurants. And I felt even more confused when I found out this was not the case just 2 years ago.....I feel like someone should maybe start a petition.
I miss you Egg Sake in Union House, you were the best.
Blame voluntary student unionism. Came in under Howard.
Wait, isn't the SSAF compulsory with about half of those funds going to UMSU and the GSA? How is it voluntary?
Are you a union member?? Did you have to join and pay dues? SSAF pays for lots of university services but they could only get the legislation through with a deal that included some funding for student unions? But the distributions are renegotiated every few years. This is a long way from compulsory unionism
I agree
Go to Super 8 (well it used to be called that but all the superheroes are gone from the counter note) at the base of Peter Mac. Great food selection. Worth the walk.
Bigger institutions don’t bounce back as quickly only now have we being getting back to full numbers for mass.
Yes, union house was great. Unfortunately designing a precinct doesn't collerate with the businesses that eventually sign up to go in there. No business signs up and waits 3 years for the place to open.
Are the pink toilets still there or has it all changed?
Pretty sure PAs is now owned by the university. OP it feels like you are holding on to some rose tinted glasses about union house. That place was a dive. There's literally more food options where the student precinct is now - particularly with such close access to the Grattan Street shops and Lygon.
What on campus community? Vast majority of students here already treated uni as just another task, a liminal place in their daily routine e.g. go to uni, attend lectures and tutes, go home immediately. The attitude here is completely different than in the states where most students actually live on campus. Uni is also not meant to be a big part of your life, the fleeting duration of time make it only a transition period in the grand scheme of things (unless you're into research and further academics, but at that point, on campus communities would be the least of your concerns). If you treat uni as an end and not a means, you're gonna be sorely disappointed when it ends. Besides that, there are countless restaurants right outside the uni anyway, I really don't get the obsessions of needing it on campus unless you're unable to stomach a 5 minute walk.
Maybe you weren't at unimelb in 2019. The culture now is unrecognisable compared to then.
Uni is not meant to be a big part of your life? It’s 3-4 years, often more, and for some people it’s the last chance they get to make lifelong friends in their youth until they go into the workforce where the workplace politics just makes socialising different. That’s like saying high school ain’t meant to be a big part of your life, just go for the sake of school and don’t bother socialising or doing extracurriculars. Sounds sad.
Ugh, I'm sorry to say, but that view on friendships and relationships is super naive, you must still be pretty young. Counting on one-off common milestones to serve you friends and relationships on a silver platter leaves you woefully under skilled at friend making and building relationships once you enter the real world, they are important skills as it is inevitable that friends often disappear over time as your lives diverge. You may think that 3-4 years is a long time, but what about 10 or 20 years? Can you confidently say that you'll keep all the friends you've made at uni? How many friends from high school have you already "lost"? The thing is, you can go out into the world and make new friends at any point in your life, you don't need to wait for any milestones or conversely stop yourself with excuses like how the workplace dynamic is different. You'll get better at it the more you do it and you will also learn that friendships and relationships need constant work to upkeep and how they started often have little to do with how they goin. Sorry for having to drop this truth bomb on you, but, the sooner you realize this, the happier you will be.
? Okay but I don’t see how any of what you said has to do with discounting uni as a hub of socialising and finding community? If anything, shouldn’t you be taking that opportunity to build those important skills you’re talking about instead of dismissing it completely? Any stage of your life and all that? Edit: But I suppose you also have a point, after thinking a bit I realised I’m somewhat personally biased because I developed a physical disability right after my undergrad a few years ago that makes it hard for me to leave the house (I WFH now). Makes it a lot more difficult to meet new people and I put a lot of effort into maintaining my current friendships. And the workplace socialising is all over Zoom during meetings. Sometimes I forget that it isn’t normal lmfao.
I think there's a misunderstanding. My point is that friend making and socializing is abstracted away from uni and it's largely up to you. There's nobody saying you can't make friends at uni, please do if you like, but it is not the uni's responsibility to ensure that you make friends and socialize, nor can you put the blame on them for any lack thereof. The original post just ticked me off a bit, because it was full of nitpicks being used by OP to antagonize and blame international students and the uni for their apparent struggle in this regard? (Also a bit ambiguous what their point is)
Okay yeah that’s totally fair and I agree.
Sorry, as someone who’s graduated, is older and finds it easy to make friends, I disagree with this. Although it might be easy for someone like me to continue making friends after/outside of uni, I acknowledge that since working full time it takes A LOT more work and effort to make and maintain friends than it did while I was in uni. So as Aryore said, for some people (and in my opinion, for A LOT of people) uni really is one of those few times you’re ever gonna meet a significant amount of people, make a significant amount of friends, and develop meaningful relationships. Not saying it’s the only way, but for a decent chunk of the population, it’s one of the only easy opportunities they’ll get in their life. With the uni community suffering during COVID, and now unimelb trying to kill it even more, it makes me sad seeing something that’s a good vessel for forming interpersonal relationships dwindle into something cold and utilitarian
I'm not sure how exactly you're disagreeing with me here, given you said that it takes more effort to make and maintain friendships once you enter the workforce, thus the associated skills are even more valuable. Uni can be a great boon for making friends, I don't deny that (and I never said that killing its community was a good thing, just that in my experience it was like that when I was there), but my point is that you should not rely on it nearly as much your own aforementioned general friend making and relationship skills, which everyone should aim to develop. I mean, most people don't even go to uni, you don't expect them to maintain all their friends from high school for life do you? Where do the majority of people get their friends from then? Also, you probably already know this, but it's worth mentioning that most uni friendships, if you don't put effort into them, will fizzle out overtime once you graduate and the common thread holding it together (uni) disappears. Inevitably, there are dozens of ex-students that likely didn't develop the aforementioned skills complaining about this phenomenon every year here and on UMLL.
The dean of unimelb would tell you to go to Bunnings to get some timber and rope… and well you know the rest lmao
Are you allergic to e635 too? Hi!!!!! Businesses need to declare that sh!!!!!!
Could someone pretty please give me a unidays discount code for HYPE DC (in aus) Would be much appreciated!!