Lisbon Guide (3 of 9): Where to Live

LISBOA 

An informal guide by & for Erasmus Mundus students 

Collaborators: Alessandra Gallerano

Becky Chen 

Izabela Araújo

Lorenza Tiberi

 

WHERE TO LIVE  

 

Lumiar Students’ Residence  

 

Residência do Lumiar might be the students’ first option. It’s guaranteed that you, as an Erasmus Mundus student, stay at the Residence if you want to, so that you don’t have to worry about looking for a place to live before you arrive. Here is some information about Lumiar: 

@ Kinds of rooms. There are 3 options of rooms here: single ensuite (with private bathroom), single, and double, the last two with shared bathroom. 

@ Price. It varies according to the kind of room you choose. Single ensuite is the most expensive one, costing around €300/month; single costs €190 and double €160 (estimated prices).

* If you want to change the room given to you, there are a few possibilities.  

 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.  

@ The Lumiar neighbourhood has everything you will need: supermarkets, transportation, restaurants (including a university restaurant where you can eat for €2), and even a beautiful park. The only problem with the area is the constant noise of airplanes and the fact that it is a little far from the city centre. To get there by metro, take the yellow line and get off at Quinta das Conchas. 

Lumiar is clean, convenient, well kept and strives to improve. It saves time and saves money. Inconveniences are that (at least until 6 months ago) there was only one kitchen for all the tenants, i.e. 70 people, with only two fridges! Also, internet connection was quite poor, but that might have been improved. Choosing is up to you! 

 

Students’ Flats 

Finding a room in Lisbon can be as easy or as difficult as in any other European city. Fist of all it depends on your expectations; then, of course, on your luck =) It’s important to know that flats in Lisbon are often very old and that the cheapest rooms usually have no window (or as the Portuguese prefer to say: ‘com janela interior’). Also keep in mind that some areas of the city might be dangerous to walk alone at night, so when looking for a flat, try to find out whether the area is safe. Prices vary roughly between €180 and €300 depending of course on location, facilities, and… the landlords’ common-sense!  

 

Some useful websites that can help you find the right accommodation are: 

 www.easystanza.pt; www.erasmusliboa.com; www.easyquarto.com.pt   

 

You may also try:  

@ Looking at the Universities and Libraries pin-walls. 

@ Buying a weekly magazine, ‘Ocasião’, which is full of ads of any sort! 

 

* If you need to buy house stuff, such as lamps, pots, or anything, there is an IKEA right outside Lisbon. To go there just take bus 48 from Marquês de Pombal in direction to Linda-a-Velha and ask for driver to tell you where to get off. 

For the Guide's next section, please click here.

Lisbon Guide (2 of 9): Communication

LISBOA 

An informal guide by & for Erasmus Mundus students 

 

Collaborators: Alessandra Gallerano 

Becky Chen 

Izabela Araújo 

Lorenza Tiberi

 

COMMUNICATION 

 

SIM Cards 

The SIM card with the cheapest rates is certainly UZO. If you top up at least with €15 every month, a SMS will cost you only 6cents and a phone call 12cents/min. Even if you don’t top up 15€/month you still get quite cheap rates: SMS for 16 cents and calls for 8 cents/min. It can be easily purchased at newspaper stands and Tabaquerias; at Papelerias Fernanda or wherever you see a ‘Pay-Shop’ red sign or a ‘UZO AQUI’ blue sign. You can buy it directly upon arrival at the airport. Other options are TMN, Optimus, and Vodafone. 

 

Internet access 

Even though it is getting increasingly popular to have internet access at home, not every flat in Lisbon has one.  

@ University: you will find some computers which are available to students but speed and functionality seem not to be priorities. In our faculty, two Gabinetes de Informática are on the 2nd floor in Torre A, one in a separate building next to NovaCopia photocopy centre. A Wi-Fi access is available inside all the university buildings. In order to obtain your Wi-Fi password, you must get in touch by mail with the Gabinete de Informática attendant (a sample of the information you should provide is hanged on the door of the Gabinete de Informática next to NovaCopia.  

@ Libraries: libraries offer internet access for free but very often you can not access you 

email account, etc.  

@ Cafés: several internet cafés are spread all over the city and prices vary from €1,50 to 

€2,50 per hour.  

 

 

How to cope with expensive books, photocopying, and printing 

Unfortunately not all the books you will need will be available at the library (very few of them, actually). Here are some options for you to find them: 

• Use Lisbon’s extensive Library network. You can look for books at the city’s library network (Rede Municipal das Bibliotecas de Lisboa at blx.cm-lisboa.pt), at the National Library (www.bn.pt), at Biblioteca da Faculdade de Letras (www.fl.ul.pt/biblioteca), or at Fundação Gulbenkian (www.gulbenkian.pt). 
• We managed to download some of them (particularly the books of Portuguese for foreigners) on this web site: www.libreremo.org.  
• Discounts of 10% on books are available in the bookshop inside the campus. 
  
• If you wish to print something while you are in the campus you have two options: 
  

- Buy a 5€ pre-paid card, which allows you to print 100 pages from the printer situated in the Gabinete de Informática at the B2 building (the one next to NovaCopia). 

- Go to one of the two NovaCopia shops (one is in the tower close to the student union, the other as above) and ask them to print for you from your USB memory stick, CD, or floppy disk. 

• As Portuguese law is very strict regarding copy-right, no copy shop will photocopy entire books (maybe parts of it). Again, there are two possible solutions:  

- Buy a 5€ pre-paid which allows you to do 100 copies card and use the self-service machines available at the first floor of the tower on the right-hand side.  Go to NovaCopia and ask for their pre-paid card, you have to pay a 2€ as a deposit and then you choose the amount to charge on the card. Each copy costs 0.04 cent. 

For the Guide's next section, please click here.

General: Crossways Representative

Dear Crossways Students,

 

I hope you are doing well! 

Below are the proposals of the two candidates for being the Students' Representative 2008/09:

Roberta Gregoli

Antonio Viselli

Please read them carefully. From Monday to Friday next week (15-21/Set) a website will be available to you so you can choose your candidate. I'll send you the link on Monday.

Choose your candidate wisely and have a nice weekend!

Best,

Izabela

***

GREGOLI Roberta

My name is Roberta Gregoli, I am 26 years old from Campinas, Brazil, and am a second year student of the Crossways in Humanities programme. My mobility track is Sheffield-Perpignan-Sheffield-Lisbon.

I would like to put my name forward as Crossways Representative, as I feel I have the personal qualities and commitment to carry out this role. I am already enthusiastically involved in supporting the programme and my experience in this has given me deep insight, and considerable ideas to carry out the role efficiently and be of best service to Crossways' students.

I personally founded an email-group for students of my programme (2007-2008), which through the support of many others has provided a simple but powerful tool to share knowledge and experience. I am also editor of the official Crossways blog, which with the contributors’ help has been a great tool providing updated news and information for all students. As Brazil Country Representative, I have been promoting the Erasmus Mundus programme in general and the Crossways programme specifically in my home country. On my own initiative, I have conducted promotional seminars in both Sao Paulo and Rio states, and am continuing to provide information and assistance to those interested in applying for courses. 

Through my work with the EMA Latin American Promotions team, I have learned a lot about the Erasmus Mundus Association. As Crossways Rep, I would be able to draw on this knowledge, relationships and experience, to best promote Crossways' students' interests within the EMA.

As Crossways Representative, in addition to fulfilling my other important duties, I would particularly like to strengthen our network in order to ensure everyone feels they have the adequate support when moving from one country to another and also to create a sense of community within the programme. Thus, I would like to help build this by establishing:

1) General Meetings through Skype

I had in mind the organisation of at least two general meetings during the semester with all interested students through Skype. Two weeks prior to such meetings, everybody would be able to send topics to be discussed and I would organize the meeting’s agenda. A second meeting would then happen as a follow-up to this one in order to check what was achieved, assess action and discuss new topics and/or strategies. I would be responsible to organise the dates, conduct the meeting and report to the entire Crossways community. Ideally, the meetings would happen before the beginning of each semester, as this is the time when everybody is curious and keen to know more about the following semester’s city and university.

2) Students Questionnaire and Feedback

I would like to create a questionnaire to hear the students’ opinion on how to improve the programme. We currently have questionnaires of some individual universities of the consortium, but this questionnaire’s aim would be to enhance the Crossways programme as a whole. Through the answers to this questionnaire, I could then generate a report and perform the follow-up together with the Crossways coordinating team.

3) General Meeting

I would like to attempt to gather together all (or most) Crossways students at least once during the next academic year. This topic would have to be thoroughly discussed with the Crossways coordinating team in order to ensure that it is viable financially and practically. Notwithstanding, I would be committed and give my best for that to happen.

The Erasmus Mundus is a unique and wonderful programme. However, being relatively new, it requires considerable work and ideas to promote the programme, and to enable it to run more smoothly and efficiently.

I believe I have the ability, enthusiasm and commitment to assist and serve Crossways students in the best way possible, which will lead to a more enjoyable and rewarding experience for all.

***

VISELLI Antonio 

Dear Crossways students,

Students in their second year of the “Crossways” programme already know and first year students will soon find out that being part of the consortium “Crossways in European Humanities” means contributing to a large and diverse community. Rooted in different backgrounds, whether meeting in Italy, England, France or elsewhere, we share stories, knowledge or a glass of wine and a typical dish, learning as much from every individual around the table as well as acclimatizing oneself to a new city, country, culture and language barriers. Recent discussions among students have demonstrated the pros and cons of the programme and the lifestyle we have adopted, personal opinions obviously at some times dividing students as well as unifying them.

The role of a student representative, I believe, is to voice certain opinions, problems and ideas the student body would have. He or she should be capable of prioritizing, of deciding not only how to act, but what to act on first, how to listen and who to contact when necessary. Despite disparate views and a multitude of arguments and thoughts, there needs to be cohesion. That is what the student representative embodies, the potential voice of all students, because sometimes a sole voice is in need of an echo, not loud enough to make a change on its own.

My name is Antonio Viselli and I am a Canadian student in Crossways currently studying in Perpignan and will be finishing in St. Andrews in May, 2009. I feel that reconciling personal views and problems with those of the group is fundamental to getting things done and not only speaking about problems, but acting on them. Edmund Burke once said: “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” I agree in part with Burke; I do have my own opinions about the programme, about specific universities, living and teaching arrangements and I hope to share and discuss these notions with you, because the most efficient way to problem solving is having someone willing to combine acting on his or her own thoughts as well as others’.

I am not one to make false promises. I see this responsibility as the opportunity to become more active in the programme and to make a difference no matter how big or small. I hope to help students when problems arise at a consulate with Visas or other administrative hold backs, as well as stand up for them at an EMA meeting or conference. Following the Erasmus Mundus, I will engage in doctoral studies and am therefore researching possible programmes and fellowships in Europe and elsewhere, opportunities I would like to keep everyone up to date on, much like Izabela Araújo did during the past year. I feel prepared linguistically to be in contact with as many people as possible, students, professors and administrators alike, whether in English, French, Spanish or Italian.

I don’t pretend to have answers to every question or problem, but I do give my word that I will investigate all possibilities and solutions available in order to handle them and to stand up for “Crossways” students. I may not have the verb or ego to wax eloquent about myself, but I do have the nerve to stand up for others, for our group.

I wish all candidates the best of luck and hope that the following year, we will be able to create new contacts, reaffirm the positive work we are all doing and make ameliorative changes to “Crossways in European Humanities.”

 

Kindest regards,

Antonio Viselli