In this entry, I give a comparison between Residência de Estudantes FCT/UNL Fraústo da Silva(FS) and Tigergasse 23-27, 1080 Wien (TG) where I spent almost 10 months each.
- Location:
FS locates on the top of a hill in Caparica, 15 minutes of walking to Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT) and 1 hour of walking to a big shopping mall called Forum.
TG is the name of the street and it is also used for the name of the residence. This is a small street in the 8th district of Vienna. Just 5 minutes of walking, you can reach Bank of Austria, and if you keep going about 10 minutes then you will see Zielpunkt, a small and cheap supermarket where you can buy meat, eggs, milk,… but not everything like in Forum. To TUW, you can either take tram J or use the metro with 2 changes from U6 to U3, then U2 to U2 and get off at the last station named Kasrlplatz of the U2 line.
- The room (let’s just talk about single rooms):
One of the most important things that all of the students want to know is the rent per month. For FS, it was 200€ per month when I was there from November, 2006 to June, 2007. For TG, it is now 350€ per month.
To book a room in FS, you just need to contact the GAM office in FCT, and since March, 2007, if you stay here more than 3 months, you have to make a deposit of 200€ by paying to FS’s account in Caixa Geral de Deposit, a famous bank for students living here. This money will be used to charge your rent of the last month staying here.
To book a room in Wien, it’s different. You need to contact an organization named OAD. You have to fill in a form online, and then you will receive OAD’s bank account to make a deposit here. The amount of the deposit is 550€, remember to keep the receipt because it’s needed as a proof of having a place for living when you apply for the visa. When you fill in the form, there will be some choices for the residence, and they will put you into one of those choices. The sooner you start booking, the better place you can hope.
- Paying for the rent
To pay for the room in FS, in the beginning of each month (no later than the 10th), you go to the manager’s room and pay the money for her (also the money for the laundry).
In TG, each month, OAD will send you a bill to your mailbox, you have to go to the bank to pay for it.
- What do we have inside the room?
In FS, you just have the basic stuff such as a bed, a table, a chair, a wardrobe, and that’s it. You have to buy a lamp for studying and some hanger to hang your stuff on the wall. There are only two TVs in a big room and some other TVs in some studying room. Most of the channels are in Portuguese, but sometimes you can watch a movie in English with Portuguese subtitle.
In TG, you have more stuff, especially a small TV, but 90% of the channels are in German. For me, I am very pleased with the TV because I can watch F1 from the qualifying round to the race; I can listen to CNN and sometimes watch Championship League in my room. Eurosport is also a good channels with many live events. Beside, you already have from 1 to 2 lamps.
- The bathroom
In FS, 2 single rooms share 1 bathroom. Each one from his room can open the bathroom’s door, so you need to be really considerate in sharing it.
In TG, a big room has 4 small single rooms for 4 guys. And we share 1 bathroom and 1 toilet. Once you enter the bathroom or the toilet, you can lock it.
- The kitchen
In FS, one floor has 4 kitchens; so, in average, about 10 rooms share 1 kitchen. In the kitchen, we have 2 big fridges, 1 microware oven, 1 oven, and 2 stoves. It’s quite competitive here to cook in “rush hours”.
In TG, 4 rooms share 1 kitchen. The weird thing here is that all the flats (each contain 4 rooms for 4 people) are not similar. If you are lucky not to be in the 5th floor, the kitchen is quite convenient. But in my room, it’s so small for 4 guys to share. As a reward, you have a big balcony to enjoy the fresh air. However, I prefer to stay with a bigger kitchen without the balcony. Sometimes people hanging around will distract you from studying.
- Doing the laundry
In FS, you ask the security guy for a washing coin for each time doing the laundry. At the end of the month, you pay 1 euro for each coin with the rent of the room. There are about 2 laundry rooms per floor, you can hang your clothes inside the laundry room and they will be dry in about 2 days.
In TG, there are 2 washing machines in the K floor and the cost for one time is 1.3€. But the payment is more complicated. You have to buy a 7€ card (not refundable) and go to the bank to deposit some money into the card. Each time you do a laundry, you will use the card to pay with a machine in the laundry room.