“My name is Lara Campbell, I’m 20 years old, I’m from Scotland, I study French and Spanish with Secondary Education and currently I’m working in a bilingual school in a town outside of Madrid. I love learning new languages, and I like improving my Spanish and my French. My other passion is teaching, since I was in high school I knew that I wanted to become a teacher, I wanted to make my part in educating future generations. I was born in Scotland, but I lived for a couple of years in the south of England; after that period I moved to Stirling where I earned my degree and then I moved here in Madrid for a year. I’m studying Spanish and French so I have to spend six months in a Spanish speaking country and three months in a French speaking country, so I guess France will be my next destination. This is not my first time in Spain. I visited Madrid a few years ago with my school, when I experienced for the very first time the culture and the gastronomy of Spain. I chose Spain because it was close to my country. If I had to go to Latin America, for example, I would have spent a year without seeing my boyfriend and my family. It would have been very hard. Another reason it’s because I’m more used to the Spanish accent and I think that it would have been more difficult in a place with different accents and vocabulary. I found many differences between Scotland and Spain. First of all, rhythm of life, Spain is very  relaxed compared to my country where everybody is always overwhelmed and stressed. Another difference is the food and I can notice it in basic products like milk or butter.  And also the climate, Scotland is much cooler than Spain. Personally, even thought I visited Madrid a few years ago, I didn’t have any expectations, I wanted the city to surprise me. Today, I can confirm that I’m glad to live here and I’m happy with my experience in Madrid. People are friendly, the city and the public transportation are clean… everything helps. I can say that now I’m a little more Spanish in terms of schedules: when I came here I couldn’t understand how Spanish people could have dinner so late, now I can’t have dinner before 9 p.m. Despite my great experience, probably I’m not going to live here again in the future, but I would loved to be back to visit the south of Spain. Things that I loved the most are: friends that I made here, the fact that you are never restricted by anything and by any schedule; the nights out; the cultural diversity in Madrid, something which isn’t very common in the country where I’m coming from.”