Interviewee: Maddalena Campitelli

Hi everybody, my name is Maddalena and they’ve asked me to speak to you about my Erasmus Year in Portugal. So here it goes.

First question, Why did you choose to do an Erasmus year in Portugal?

I have to admit that I have a weakness for southern countries because you don’t freeze in the winter time and because of the more chilled vibe. In fact, my choices were Lisbon and Barcelona and when I got accepted to both, I decided to pick the first one since I had already been to Spain several times and Portugal seemed to be a more exotic and peculiar destination and it would have been a great opportunity to learn Portuguese (so I can go to Brazil now!)

Second question, uh, who were your roommates and what were they like? Uh, during the year, I live in two different flats and besides the other Erasmus students that changed over the time, I lived with three awesome Portuguese guys. Since they were a bit older, they were almost big brothers to me and now we’re like family and I feel really lucky about this. They have very different characters but they are all very kind and funny.

Third question, What do you miss most about living in Portugal?

Uh, well, this is not a simple question to answer because I miss so many things. I could sum it up saying that what I miss is the feeling of being there. A bunch of emotions that you get when you stroll around and see colours, hear music, smell a scent, and of course the people I met there who enriched me so much. I truly think that time goes by slower there. There’s a magic and peaceful atmosphere so you think everything is gonna turn out ok anyway.

I assure you that what people say is true: you can’t avoid falling in love with this country, you’ll leave a piece of your heart there and you’ll need to go back. So I truly hope you’ll get the chance to go there once in your lifetime.

This is Maddalena for Learning English Matters.

Words in this story:

Weakness:

Chilled Vibe: A relaxed state of mind

Exotic: unusual or different

Peculiar: not normal

Awesome: very good

Characters: who a person is or how they act

Sum up: using very little words to explain something

Stroll: a relaxing walk

Enriched: making something better or adding value

Atmosphere: how a certain place makes you feel

Gonna: going to

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