Hello! My name is Zhang and I was born in Beijing, although since I arrived in Spain everyone calls me Lucas. It’s a name I like a lot and also my Chinese name is very difficult for Spanish people to pronounce. I’m 19 years old and I’m really interested in Spanish culture. You might find it weird but I’m totally obsessed with the Viking culture and I know that in Spain there are many places in the Iberian Peninsula where the Vikings lived. Besides this I love listening to Spanish music and although you might think I read Manhuas* because of my origins, the truth is that I have improved my Spanish a lot by reading Spanish comics like “Zipi y Zape” and “Mortadelo y Filemón” I have a lot of fun reading them.
I am a very creative and shy guy and I arrived in Madrid a few weeks ago to start the University Pathway Program in AIl Madrid. I am excited and I hope to start studying at a university in Madrid next year.
Ever since I finished higher education in Beijing, it was clear to me that my goal was to come to Spain and study philosophy here. Some of my favourite philosophers like María Zambrano or Ortega y Gasset are Spanish and I know that I am going to achieve my goals and study the degree of my dreams at the Complutense University of Madrid.
I am going to tell you something very curious about my culture that you may not know, the Ba Zi birth chart has to do with the components that create the destiny of a person. The four pillars of destiny are: the energy of the year, the month, the day and the hour of a person’s birth and it is clear to me that since I was born I am destined to live in Spain and to study Spanish.
Do you know why I think it is destiny? When I finished the *gaokao and was waiting to know my grades, I saw a story on Instagram about some free online activities to learn Spanish that they were doing every week at AIL Madrid. I decided to sign up for these activities and I had a great time. That’s why I decided to ask for information and ask them if it was possible to do a University Pathway Program. I still remember with excitement the day they told me that everything was ready for my trip to Spain.
You can’t imagine how excited I was! I posted it on all my social networks and told all my friends the good news on WeChat*. My family and friends are so happy that I finally got to come to Madrid and they can’t wait to come and visit me.
Whenever I go on an excursion with my AIL colleagues or I see something in Madrid that I particularly like, I send photos to my friends to show them the same. Yesterday I went for a walk with them in Malasaña and I had a fish-shaped ice cream (I think it’s called taiyaki in Japanese). It was a fish-shaped waffle filled with ice cream, there were many flavours to choose from and they were super tasty. I was the envy of all my friends when I told them how delicious it was and they were amazed that this kind of ice cream parlours existed in Madrid.
One of the things I like most about studying Spanish in Madrid is that you can always find amazing plans to do. Next week my classmates and I are going to visit Toledo. It is a city that is very close to Madrid and I have been told that there are many interesting monuments to visit. In addition, I think there are several shops where they sell armour and swords, I will tell you about my experience as soon as I can!
See you guys next time! It has been a pleasure to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about myself.
Lucas 张 *
*Manhuas is what they call comics in China.
*Gaokao is the name of the entrance exam to university in China.
*In China it is not so common to use Whatsapp to send messages . We use WeChat.
* 张 This is the way Zhang is written in Chinese.
