Welcome

This blog was created as part of the Erasmus Mundus Crossways in Cultural Narratives Masters programme, which is the only one of the EU approved and funded Erasmus Mundus Masters programmes to specialise in traditional humanities with a modern languages background. The Crossways Consortium comprises 6 top-class European universities.

For further information, please check the programme's official website and the universities' websites on the Useful Links section on the left. If you wish to have a specific question answered, please click on Email here and submit your query.

Mundus students, here you will find regular posts regarding the universities of the consortium, tips, activities, events, pictures, etc. Apart from checking it regularly to keep yourself up to date, a good way to use the blog is through the search device. We already have a significant amount of information on some universities of the consortium, so if you want to find information on a specific city, type its name in the search field (top left). You will then see all posts related to that specific city (because each post title contains the city's name in it). You can also type "General" in order to find information concerning everybody.

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

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.

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

General: Calls for content to the Emanate magazine

     by Natasha Sardzovisk

You are all kindly invited to contribute to the Emanate magazine on the topic Changing Climate. You can contribute by writing an article on the topic and/or on a photo competition. Details to be found on the links below.

Monday, 11 August 2008

St Andrews: catered or self-catered?

     by Alessandra Gallerano

I'm Alessandra from Italy and I am currently in Lisbon, ending my first Crossways year. I studied in St Andrews last semester and I'll be there again in September.

St Andrews is a beautiful little town, both very Scottish and very international: "un gioiellino" (as we would say in Italian), full of students from all over the world that love to involve themselves in university sponsored activities ( the Student association is very active, and if you want to join any societies you can choose among more than 70, ranging from "Sailing" , "Philosophy", up to "Cheese&Wine"- just to name  a few!) and in the town's life in general. 

Of course, living in a town as small as St. Andrews has advantages and disadvantages: everything is within walking distance ( from university up to wonderful beaches), it takes a very short time to familiarize yourself with the place, its habits and people, charity shops and 'student discounts' allow you to avoid (at least partly) the high Scottish cost of living, and, last but not least, you happen to meet people you know at least 5 times a day... which is certainly a very pleasant feeling!

On the other hand, I missed a bit of the city-like cultural life ( exhibitions, theatres and so on..) and sometimes I had the feeling everything was (too) linked, in a way or another, to university...  Despite that, I really enjoyed my time there and I'm sure you will too!

There is a really interesting website on St Andrews student life (it's run by students, so you can find the 'insiders' suggestions, comments, and ads of all sort): www.thesinner.net

Regarding accommodation, last year I was assigned "Fife Park " (self-catered accommodation). Even though the houses are very old and the location is not very convenient (it's about 20-25min walk from town), I had a good time there. It's the cheapest residence you get in St.Andrews and, after all, I strongly believe it's always up to you to make the best of what you get... so... that's what I tried to do last semester!

Next semester I will stay in Albany Park and, as far as I know, at least other 5 second year students will be there as well. Personally, I prefer a self-catered residence. I love to cook and I think it provides you with more options/flexibility. Last year we also organized "Mundus" international dinners quite often... so, having a kitchen was certainly a good thing! =)