Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

I'm not smoker, but I had friends who were. Be prepared for high prices for this. In order to buy food, Street Markets are the cheapest solution, and in general. Some shops are not open on Sundays, even bakeries.

Belgians are quite reserved people, as most of francophones, so you are expected to speak the most of your French with other foreign students. If you have the oporunity, make "interchange" of languages in order to improove your language and meet people.

For travelling, usually with bus is cheaper than train: EUROLINES is very good, but there are others companies as STARBUS, withe better prices, but less buses. Don't miss all your students cards. Your ULB card is vailable to obtein discounts in cinema. At Filmmusseum, there's a lot of films with very good prices (60/90 BEF). Brussels is quite safe, but be careful if you are on quartiers as MIDI or SAINT GILLES. Be open-minded, and be prepared to fight with the very heavy bureaucracy.

Cafe de la Bourse (it has a Flemish name but I don't remember it). On campus until when exams come they have a lot of crazy parties (TD) where all people drink a lot, mostly bear. Students really have a lot of things to do, if you know how to search. Oxford Café is for Erasmus students. Le Soum is a good disco. Brussels, in the beginning can be very boring, so you must do your work.

ULB only booked you a room on Solbosch Campus. There were 2 types of rooms, one for Belgian students, bigger, and the rest for foreigners. You must share a kitchen with 20 people. on La Plaine Campus, the situation is better, because you can share a room and a kitche with only another person. But also is more expensive. When I was around 10.000 BEF or more. ULB, if you are lucky and can find the right person, gives you a list with rooms. But the best way of finfing a place is by your one. Living on campus is good, but I prefered to live more centrally, having the oportunity of being on campus when we wanted party there, or in the center, where are the most of places to going out.