Since I was in my first year of university I had been looking at possibilities for my next Erasmus programme as I knew this would be an invaluable life experience and a great thing to put on my CV.
I decided to go for a year-long exchange and take a sandwich year by doing so.
Although this has made my degree a year longer I didn't see it as a problem at all as I feel like this way I'd make up for some of the learning we missed out on during lockdown.
I also chose this option in order to be able to properly integrate in the city I'd be living in.
I moved to Madrid in September being completely clueless about Spanish, but within two or three months I was pretty much able to speak whilst making my point across.
Now that it's March I can say I'm nearly fluent.
I have a nice group of Spanish friends and even found myself a part time job in a ceramics studio, thanks to which I’ll probably be able to prolong my stay here until the end of August.
Overall this has been an amazing experience so far, and who knows if when I end my degree I’ll move back to Spain.
