Lisbon: More on Lumiar student residence

      by Becky Chen

Regarding changing rooms, there are a few possibilities, based on my own experience and based on what I have seen. However, I am afraid if what I share here might not correspond with current rules and regulations as it was already a year ago when I was in Lumiar. - if you arrive early (like before the semester really starts, or the first week of the semester), possibility is people have not checked into their room, so it is easier to have your request fulfilled during this time. - if your request is denied, the subsequent possibility might come later especially towards the end of the semester when Erasmus students go home one after another. - usually single rooms are allocated for mature students - unless there are too many students to be taken into consideration. - there are 3 floors for female, 3 for males. On each floor there are 8 rooms and 3 bathrooms (if I am not mistaken, 3 single rooms, 4 doubles, and 1 ensuite). Some rooms have balconies and some not, the sizes of rooms are different too. Certainly the rooms in Lumiar are not as spacious as Canigou in Perpignan, but even the smallest room is kind of perfect for single occupancy. - there is a lift in Lumiar, so no worries about luggage and all. The top floor has facilities for doing laundry, ironing, and hanging clothes. they clean the elevator, kitchen, corridors,all wc almost every weekday too. - contract of room ends when semester ends. it is necessary to make a request for extension of stay. But in the first month, the ladies in-charge at the residence had already asked us to write down the prospective date of leaving the residence. It might be better to give a later date than to assume the last day of the semester rather than to face the consequences of having to move out of your room and placed in another room, or even leave the residence (and need to re-apply for a place to stay) because probably rooms will be reserved for in-coming guests/students. In case there's a need to extend your stay, the right place to make your request known is the Reitoria and avoiding conflicts of any kind with anyone in the residence might come in handy. Lumiar is clean, convenient, well kept and strives to improve. It saves time, saves money. That's basically a summary of 100 things I can say about Lumiar. The rest is up to personal preference.