The same reason why they don't sell pork in canteens I guess. Out of respect. I'll admit that the circumstances are slightly different (they don't mind sharing utensils), but it's food for thought (no pun intended).

Hindus don't eat beef because the cow is sacred. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle#Cattle...Hindu_tradition

Btw many Buddhists don't eat beef as well.


You can buy adaptors here for cheap - international to NZ conversion, made in China, $2. No need to buy from Malaysia... they're really expensive there cos they're meant for travelers.

I've never had a prob with the made in China ones... but I understand why you don't want to use them.

Beef - I guess you can serve it... but show some consideration. To my experience, Hindus don't get easily offended when people eat beef, they just choose not to do so themselves. But in a school environment, it's good to show due consideration... especially in primary schools where kids eat first without looking/asking.

Weddings - like I said, I don't think they'll be offended. Anyway, they chose to attend the wedding.
But what about Muslims? Would you be offended if you attended a Chinese wedding and pork was served? Chinese wedding must have pork, right?
Not you personally, but I know of people who got offended in that situation.

I did papers on abnormal psychology... the stuff you read about is enough to turn you off drinking.

Among my friends is a pair of twins. Twin A's logic is that he can drink as much as he wants cos when his liver dies, well, he has a twin brother to donate the liver. Problem is, Twin B is doing the same amount of drinking, if not more.

Go down to Otago. Back in the day, we could get $2 doubles.


Some are 24 hours too right? I've never been but I've heard.

Tell them to get the veggie option. Sometimes it's better than both meat options.
Anyway, people like that - if they could eat beef they'll complain about the beef as well. Cannot satisfy them.

As the story goes, the ice cream contains chicken fats/oils - who knows if there's any truth in that?. Anyway, it's not very nice. Not like the ones in Malaysia.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Apr 2 2008, 07:10 AM

On the contrary, halal food is a privilege. Not a right (unless you do you own cooking). Ie, you can request for it but not demand it.

I'm not Haya, but I can tell you I wrote those posts/asked those questions cos of bad personal experience with some Muslims. It's fine that you won't want to eat what I eat, I respect that. But don't act as if I'm carrying plague or talk about how disgusting pork is, KNOWING I eat it. That frankly, is disrespectful.

Personally, I'm against schools banning all pork. Sure, I've no objections that the canteen does halal food. But don't prevent kids from bringing ham sandwiches to school or conduct witch-hunts for it. And before you say anything, that has happened. Prefects in my cousin's primary school search food containers as part of their spot-checks.

My reference to Hindus/beef/schools was mainly cos I feel that if they do that to pork, they should do that to beef as well. But of course, we know that it's not the case. Personally, I think schools should serve food acceptable to the community in general (and in Malaysia, it means giving due consideration to more than one religious belief). But they should have no say on what students bring from home.

Btw I second Haya on the hospital bit. I'm allergic to seafood too.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Apr 2 2008, 11:37 AM

Don't worry, you were not disrespectful. No offence given and none taken.

As for bad experiences, I know not to claim all Muslims are the same just cos I've run into some 'bad' ones. That why I said 'some'.



This post has been edited by wornbook: Apr 2 2008, 12:24 PM

Summer. But only in some areas. City should be fine.

Milk is much better. Doesn't have the strange smell fresh milk in Malaysia has.

No Coco crunch but there's chocolate rice. They Have Honey Stars but it's not the same, ie not nice.

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Added on April 4, 2008, 6:26 pmI've never liked powdered milk. -suppresses gag reflex-

This post has been edited by wornbook: Apr 4 2008, 06:26 PM

[quote=d(@@)b,Apr 5 2008, 03:36 PM]
[quote=EmperorMeng,Apr 2 2008, 01:10 PM]
hokey pokey

moven pick's ice cream cone is the best

[/quote]
But I find the ice cream too sweet. Wish they'd sell just the waffle cone.

I don't mind the limit cos I don't dl much. The speed is so much better than Malaysia.

Don't they still have unlimited free use?

From my experience, no. You could check with the uni but they'll prob tell u to take IELTS. Saves them work when there's only one system.

Employment prospects - little or no difference.
Student life - Otago by a mile. But that's just my opinion.

Well, like Haya said, in terms of educational standards both Auckland and Otago (and Vic and Canterbury) are on par with each other. So there's little or no difference when it comes to employability.

As for student life, Otago is 'famous' for the quality of it's student life. There's also a degree of camaraderie among the students and a common bond/feeling of pride/loyalty to the uni (Haya has said it can be annoying and to a degree, I agree). I think I've mentioned this before but in short, there are certain powerful factors:
1) 75% of Otago students come from outside Dunedin.
2) Of these, I'll say 90% of them live in the North Dunedin area, also known as the 'student ghetto'.
3) Because most students come from outside Dunedin, there is the common experience of living as first years in one of the 13 residential colleges. Obviously cos of numbers not everyone gets this chance but the fact is that the colleges play a huge role in the university culture.
4) Because of the huge influx of students every year, the North Dunedin are and the town centre (about 2-3 mins away from the main campus) is pretty much a student town, it's very student oriented and student friendly.

This all provides an experience largely missing from the other NZ unis (except Massey, Palmerston North campus). Auckland is a business and commercial city that happens to have a uni in it. Dunedin today, without its uni, would be more like... say... Invercargill.

So while Limeuu is right to an extent comparing Auckland/Dunedin with KL/Kampar, he's also wrong. Kampar (at least until a time that UTAR transforms it into a uni town... if that ever happens) doesn't have the vibrancy that Dunedin has thanks to 20,000 students descending on it every year.

Agreed. Btw Otago doesn't do engineering, mate.

Aaron4d, go to the uni that suits you best in terms of lifestyle and other factors. If you want to boost your employability, get a part-time job and get involved in extra-curricular activities. That will count far more than grades/degree/uni in NZ. As a friend of mine puts it, in NZ, it's experience that counts not qualifications.

What are your interests?

Just curious, what is your idea of a great student life? Cos opinions differ and Otago's might not exactly what you would want.

I'm a city kid too. Otago is great to study at but I couldn't live there forever.

Sounds like Otago's more the place for you than Auckland then. This is the uni where people carry bikes and race down a river while being pelted with flour bombs in the middle of winter.

Bear in mind that the experience is what you make of it though. I know a few who never get involved in anything and stay in their little cocoons. But you don't sound like that sort of person.

Something you should take note of though - a big part of the experience is the drinking culture. If you cannot stand the crazy behaviour and noise created by drunkards or are strongly against drinking in principle, stay away. The drink culture is something you cannot escape in Otago, whether you choose to join in or not, unless you live in your own little cocoon. It's easier not not get involved/affected in Auckland since you don't live with potential drunks.

I'm not a drinker myself though I don't mind a drink or two now and then. But I found the whole experience, umm... educational.

For a really different experience, watch out for national nude day.

Oh, and there's a total absence of Malaysian food in Dunedin.

Like the jaffa race? Whoever came up with that must have been drunk.

Some aren't funny/fun though - the wheelie bin incident comes to mind.

NZ has a drinking culture, period. But in Auckland Uni, cos most people stay in the suburbs, are more spread out and have to worry about transport, it's not as strong. In Otago, people go crazy partly cos home and bed is a 10 min walk away if they need to collapse.

I did my Bachelors in Otago then went to Auckland for my Masters. I had a time of my live at Otago, though I did enjoy Auckland as well.

If you go, I encourage you to get a place in a residential college, at least for the first year. The you'll have the chance to mix with a greater variety of people - much harder to stick with Malaysians/Asians only that way. If you flat in the first year, you tend to end up with a smaller group of friends UNLESS you really get involved in activities.
Biggest con staying in a college is that the food sucks. It starts out alright, but by the end of the year you'll be running out for lunch/dinner every other day (depending on finances, ie how much you spent drinking thru the year. )

Economics and Politics? Excellent choices, from the interest point of view. I sometimes regret not doing politics, but hey, I can't have everything.
Have you considered changing to Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)? It's a BA. Btw economics can also be taken as a BA.

I don't think I'm really in a position to give you accurate info about job opportunities. From my own experience and observing others, I think there are opportunities but they don't come easily. It's only easy to get a job in NZ if you're doing accountancy, engineering (but only in some fields), medicine and dentistry. Like it or not, it's a small market with far too many grads, IMHO.

If you want to boost your employment chances, consider adding accounting as a major to the BCom.

I suppose you could complete the double degree plus honours in less than 5 years, depending partly on what your first year credits from INTI are like. A double degree in econs and pols will take 4 years and a single honours another 1 year. It's not too hard to reduce that by a semester or even a year if you push it with summer school and credit overloading. Most people only do 3-4 papers a semester... you could do 5, it's manageable enough. For 6, I think you'll need special permission. Note that you can only do 2 summer school papers at once and to push for max credits you need good grades.

But why the rush? 5 years isn't too long, and frankly whether you do it in 4 or 5 years isn't going to affect your employment prospects. Better that you use the extra time to get a summer job/internship and get involved in clubs/societies... that'll do much more for your employability.

For Otago, I'm fairly sure that you can still do a double degree. Otago has a very flexible system... I have friends who transferred from HELP for their second year, changed their degree and picked up another one. Another friend of mine picked up her second degree in her 3rd year. So I think you'll be fine... but just check with the uni to be sure.

As for Auckland, they don't actually offer double degrees - it's conjoint degrees for them. From what I understand, it's more than a simple difference in name. The structure is tighter because more cross credit between degrees is allowed, but it does mean that people who pick up the second degree late lose some time. Since I didn't do my undergrad in Auckland, I'm not quite sure how it works.

I'll strongly advise you to check with the unis first - both Otago and Auckland. You don't want to be surprised.

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Added on April 21, 2008, 6:28 pmLol, I did 5 papers hoping the greater workload will make me more hardworking and organised. My friends thought I was going psycho. It worked though.

But yeah, I agree there's a difference between tech and non-tech subjects. We Humanities/Arts/Commerce students don't have so many contact hours (no labs)... unless you're studying languages. It really comes down to how fast you can read/absorb and how much reading you want to do.

This post has been edited by wornbook: Apr 21 2008, 06:28 PM

Heh, totally understand not liking accounting. It's also something I tried and gave up on. You actually sound like me, with all those wide interests. It can be hell trying to decide what to do.

Oh when I threw the PPE idea out I was thinking about you doing PPE with Accounting or something like that (but that's out of the picture now). Not PPE with Econs.

If you're thinking about going down the investment banking/international organizations/academia line, I think it would be good for you to do Econs with Honours. Make sure you do the maths and econometrics papers (some are required for Honours anyway). In NZ, you can almost get away without touching the maths in an economics degree... a bit silly IMO. Or at least you could when I was a student.

As for me, the job market was difficult to break into. I tried to get a law graduate position at a law firm but was unsuccessful. I'm now working at another company, doing nothing related to law/econs while doing the NZ equivalent of CLP. Hopefully after that, things will look up.
Of my 4 good friends at law school, one went back to Malaysia and 2 are working in accounting firms (one did acctg and another did econs), and the last is still at uni pursuing postgrad qualifications.

It's really up to you whether you want to do law. But bear in mind that it'll take an extra year (6 if you intend to do honours in any subject) and it's not easy to get in.

Speaking of law, the racial composition of Otago and Auckland law schools are like night and day. There were a grand total of about 15 non-white students (that includes Chinese, Indian, Maori etc) in my Otago class. But in Auckland, there's a huge number of Asians... my friend says it's almost 50%.

Nope, I didn't say there's little or no difference if you don't want to practice. I actually have little idea about the job prospects of a law grad who doesn't want to practice. I do know it's hard for a law grad who wants to practice to find a job. My friends at the acctg firms - they might not actually be practicing law, but it's a requirement that they pass the bar and get a practicing cert. Apart from that, I have no idea what they're doing.

Since you're more inclined towards politics, by all means go for it.

Sorry, I've got no idea if you can get into an acctg firm with econs only. I'd always assumed that you'll generally need a acctg degree.