Rooms Rooms Rooms

So since last weekend I started to phone ppl who rent rooms which is really a tiring procedure. I was mainly looking in the Boavista area (pretty central) which is close to the faculties of arquitecture (so Miguel's help was good), humanities, psychology and sciences (doesn't include engineering). My own faculty, though, besides the economics & medicine faculties is at the Oporto outskirts though. There's this bus 39 http://http://www.itinerarium.net/default.aspx?ul=pt-PT&tab=3 that crosses nearly all of the Boavista borough that goes to the faculty (one of the university's poles). Plus there's life in Boavista, you got a good connection both to Vila Nova de Gaia (the city at the other bank of the river Douro) where my family and friends live and the rest of Oporto, AND you got night busses there (don't take them for granted here...).

Some rooms were already rented, some where in the appartment of old ladies (one told me "no men in the house" - ah okay, FORGET IT, another one told me "If you want to use the kitchen, we don't want you!"), some told me they will get back to it at the end of the month. I had a look at a very beautiful appartment to share w/ an arquitecure student named Ines (she already graduated) in the very centre, she was nice, the appartment was awesome, had cable TV and soon internet but it was 250€ (a double bed room w/ little space due to the two beds) and she would only decide on 15th of September.
I had another look at two rooms in the house of a ~ 50 y/o lady, very close to the psychology faculty (the one Romy will attend), kinda like hotel rooms, 175€, TV in the living room, garden, the lady was proud to be like an older sister to the girls who rent her rooms (not my cup of tea..............). I didn't like the idea.
The next day I had a look at rooms near the Palácio de Cristal The Crystal Pallast. The appartment would only be rented to female students (no old ppl in the appartment....), the room was okay, the street was calm but central. But the price made me laugh (not out loud but inside). 200€ w/o electricity and water. WTF.

So today I had arranged to see a room in Rua de Nossa Senhora Da Fátima pretty close to the Rotunda da Boavista where you have lots of shops and busses (and a metro station). I had told the lady on the phone that I was half-German-half-Korean so she could recognize me meia-alemã-meia-coreana. Somehow, though, she understood da ucrânia = from Ucraine. She was a young girl, and I immediately took to her. Design student in the 2nd year (so she should be about 2 yrs younger than me, or maybe 3?). She said that on the phone she had taken me for Portuguese and was surprised when I said I was from Ucraine.
The appartment was awesome! Super beautiful, everything IKEA hahaha, the room (used to be the living room) was spacious and pretty. I sooooo wanted to stay there so I immediately told her I'd take the room (150€). She was also excited cos I was the first person she showed the room to and she said she'd have to say the Italians "no" now. My guts, my brain (the price, the comfort, the area)... everything said: TAKE THAT ROOM! I had seen the other rooms and knew that students sharing appartments was rare in Portugal (mostly it's old ladies renting a room... meh) and I liked the girl who was so curious about ERASMUS ppl, loves travelling etc.
So she said she buys wardrobe, I get the other furniture she showed me (w/ the sakura cherry tree design by IKEA that I always wanted........) and I can move in September 15th.
I'm so excited! I'll have a cool room and a new friend Joanna :).