Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog here. The last few months have been pretty crazy for me, with no time to take a break! In April and May I had to put all my energy into studying for the Selectividad (Spanish exams you take to apply to university). As you can tell by the title of this post, I just took the university entrance exams for foreigners.

If you’re a true fan of my blogs, you know that my journey in Spain started over a year ago. I had attended one of the online cultural workshops that AIL Madrid offers and I was intrigued by the school. I contacted them to see if they had a course to prepare for the Spanish university entrance exams. The turnaround was almost immediate, as I quickly found myself in Madrid enjoying churros with chocolate alongside my new classmates.

During my University Pathway Preparation Program, I learned a lot more than just the Spanish language. I also had the chance to learn more about the life of Madrileños. I made many friends and created unforgettable memories that I’ll treasure forever. Of course, I also learned a lot about the history of Spain while I was studying for my exams. Each day that got closer to the exams made me more and more nervous. Normally, I’m not a super nervous person when I have these big exams, but the foreign environment set me on edge. With the help of AIL Madrid, however, I became calm and realized I was very prepared. When the date of the exam came, I was more than ready. I was able to answer the questions with ease and I felt confident when I walked out of the testing room.

The exam results published one week later, and I nervously opened my computer to check the results. I needed a certain score to pursue my dream field of study: philosophy. I chose to study a dual degree in Philosophy and Political Science at the Complutense University in Madrid. I started about three weeks ago and I could not be happier with my experience so far. I’ve already made a lot of friends and people are always surprised that it’s only been one year since I came to study Spanish in Madrid.

Now that the journey is nearly over, I get nostalgic thinking about how much my life has changed. That’s why with this last blog, I want to confirm that I’ve finally reached my goal during this Year of the Tiger. J

And before I forget! I’m now doing a SIELE Exam Preparation Course to certify my level of Spanish and open myself up to even bigger opportunities in the workforce. You can definitely count on the fact that in a few months I’ll be back on the blog to tell you all how it’s been. You can count on me!

To wrap up my post, I want to take the chance to encourage you all to follow my footsteps. I hope you too are inspired to travel and live a once in a lifetime experience while you learn Spanish in Madrid.

I’ll really miss telling you all my Spanish stories, but I’m sure that a new student from AIL Madrid will continue what I’ve started on this blog.

For now at least, I can assure you all that when I take my SIELE Exam I’ll be asking one of my professors to let me write one more blog. I won’t say goodbye to you all in this blog just yet.

Thank you all again for letting me share my stories with you! As we say at AIL, ¡hasta pronto! 😉

Lucas 张 *