Stúdentablaðið - 01.12.2008, Side 27

STÚDENTABLAÐIÐ EN 27
Hárna -
I used to love white
rice and salad
The íirst thing I heard about Icelandic food was that despite its
former blandness, they were doing pretty exciting things with the
delicious and natural fish and lamb that is to be found here. I
hadn’t had fish in over five years before coming here, but I decided to give
it a try here. As a student with a somewhat Umited budget, I figured that
Háma in the beautiful Háskólatorg would be the perfect place to try eating
underwater creatures again. In fact, it tumed out to be a great idea in
September, when the people at Háma still offered varied and delicious
meals most days of the week. However, this initial passion for good food
seems to have slipped.
Asked about his impressions of the food at Háma, Constantinos Taliotis,
an earth sciences student from Cyprus, says, “It’s like the stock
market, sometimes up and sometimes down, but now with economic
crisis, it’s always down.” Perhaps there is a relation between the two. Of
course the kreppa has affected everyone and everything here in some way,
and Háma is not immune. With the cost of importing food rising, it is
becoming more and more difficult to buy meat that students would enjoy,
so vegetarian meals are served three days out of five. Or maybe the
managers don’t want students spending all their hard-eamed money on
food so they serve food they don’t expect them to want. When a good
meal is served, it disappears rather quickly and the queue is long, which
is bad for business as some people might not want to wait to buy
yesterday’s noodles in a box.
his isn’t to say that it is all bad, or indeed that it is bad at all: it’s just
not great. “Once a week, the food is acceptable,” says Jóel
Friðftnnsson. Of course, this comes from someone who eats there four
times a week regardless of what is being served simply because of
convenience. It is, after all, aside from the many kaffistofas serving Háma
food, the only place to eat for over five himdred meters. No one wants to
walk to the Subway at N1 or - even worse - all the way to BSÍ to pay more
for the same kind of stuff. The sandwiches, salads and soups are usually
pretty good, and the desserts, despite being a tad expensive, are alright.
This just in: good meal at Háma! They must have had a dream in which
they read this article and were afraid. I can’t wait to eat there again next
semester!
H Jonathan Perron-Clow
Rent Benefit: The Láght at the
End of Your Student Paper?
After all this talk of depression and
doom, the time has come to turn to
bring up a more cheerful subject.
Money, yes, but money that you get
refunded rather than see vanish before
your very eyes. We refer here to the
phenomenon known as rent benefit.
Basically, rent benefit is monthly money
towards the ever-rising cost of renting
bed space in Iceland. Never heard of it?
Read on - you may be eligible for some
extra cash!
The idea behind rent benefit is to help lower-income
renters (such as students) afford housing. The
amount that you get back per month thus depends
on how much you earn, how much rent you pay,
what your net assets are and how many (if any)
children you have. For example, if you make the
equivalent of 2,000,000 kr/year and pay 50,000 kr/
month in rent, you currently receive a total 18,000
kr/month. If you have a child, that amount goes up
to 25,000 kr. You don’t have to be an Icelandic citizen
to get rent benefit. Your name doesn’t have to end with
-son or -dóttir. You don’t even have to be on the National
Registry. As a student, what you do need is:
• “Residential premises”: a minimum of a bedroom,
separate kitchen facilities and separate toilet/
washing facilities. The important exception to this
requirement is student housing (such as Gamli
Garður and apartments on Eggertsgata). You’re
eligible for rent benefit even if you share your
kitchen and bathroom.
• A formal, written housing lease (verbal agreements
aren’t valid).
• A lease valid for a minimum of 6 months (exchange
students staying only a single semester can’t apply).
If you rent from Student Housing, you will occasion-|
ally get a lease for a shorter time even though you’llj