Christmas Charity Ball  

21^st December was the big day – the Christmas Charity Ball. Many balloons, pleasant atmosphere, beautiful dresses and costumes, masks – these were everywhere at the college. Sounds like a real fairytale, right?! It was obvious that many of the students and the teachers also were having a great time. As person who had organized such a ball I was a bit prejudiced. This year I really wasn’t in the mood, so my point is too subjective, but it was a good party with a cause. A charity auction took place and things like cookies and toys were sold on very high prices. My work was to hold a hook which played the role of a frame for pictures. It turned out that this wasn’t our best idea but at least the process of taking pictures was fun. In the end of the party fireworks were lightened and everybody felt a bit of the magic of the coming holidays.

                                      

Christmas bazaar

On 15^th December a Christmas bazaar took place in our school. The works that were sold were all hand-made by the students of the college. This year we had prepared candlesticks in different forms. Some of them were made of painted disks with small candles in the middle, others – of painted glasses. The prices were symbolical and everyone could afford to get one. We did this with enthusiasm and many works were sold. Its Christmas time and we should give a little for those who cannot have and feel the holiday.  

Making frames for the Christmas Ball

On 7^th December our IB group made two frames which will serve in the Christmas Charity Ball for taking pictures. The funniest part is that they are made from hooks from the gym. We just muffled garlands around them and hung some balls. It sounds terribly but the result amazed even us. They turned out to be beautiful. As a whole, I had great time and my Christmas mood woke up. Christmas is coming soon!

International Volunteer Day

5^th December is the International Volunteer Day. Our school marked it in the auditorium. There the members of the European Voluntary Corps were given certificates for their participation in actions in 2010-2011. It wasn’t something special but after the ceremony we had great time taking pictures with our new certificates. Actually I am a bit disappointed because I don’t have enough time to work seriously with voluntary organization and that makes me sad. My opinion is that exactly the young people have to fight for a change in this world of money. As soon as I have more spare time I intend to took part in voluntary actions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Volunteer_Day - Something about 5^th December

World AIDS day

1^st December is the World AIDS day and my classmates and I recorded it by selling newspapers concerned with the topic. For me this is a day for reflection and I was a bit disappointed of the students because they were so apathetic and not involved in the cause. I am implicated to everyone who suffers from AIDS and I spent some time thinking about the consequences of all stupid action that can lead to this. Anyway, we sold around eighty copies and the money we earned is set aside for charity. 

Some of the students took part in a competition about the virus.

 

http://www.worldaidsday.org/ 

Here is some extra information

http://www.ac-arcus.com/?lng=EN&mod=events&show=315

Here is a link from our school site

International project 

On 17^th November the European volunteer corps and we as a part of it went to Sofia to a meeting of all volunteer organizations in Bulgaria. It was something that really changed my life. It was the presence of media, the atmosphere, the willingness of everybody to make you part of them, to share their ideas, the desire and the pure belief in the cause that made it incredible. The Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC) made a simulation, evacuated the whole National Palace of Culture and showed how they react in case of arson. It was interesting and well-organized. There were many presentations of the organizations, many tests and educational games. I loved it! On this day I realized what I want to do in my future. I really can’t put the feeling in words, so I find it unnecessary to say more. 

 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Red_Cross - Here is some information about the BRC

http://www.ac-arcus.com/?mod=events&show=312 - Here is a link from our school site

Local project

On 23^rd November we started the preparation of our newspaper. Its main subject is the World AIDS day, 1^st December. We collected information about the preventing of the virus, some theories about it, ways of spreading and a story about a real case. We also downloaded images about spin. Then we organized the pages, print it on red paper and stick a condom on every copy. Of course we were having fun while doing it, but when we were reading the stories I felt depressed and sad about these people who are suffering AIDS.

Anyway, it was all about the preparation of the newspaper.

http://www.iavi.org/Pages/home.aspx?google

Here is some information about AIDS

Trip to Sofia

 On 11^th November our school set off on a trip to Sofia. I was pleased because I hadn’t been to the capital recently. Just when the trip started some of my classmates and I took the microphone and started singing. We were all fulfilled with energy and ready for action. When I say “singing” I mean screaming, because it really isn’t our piece of cake. Anyway, we were having fun. It took us four hours to arrive because of the traffic and some of us were nervous, but not me. I have the ability not to get angry and to think about good things, so I was thinking about the museum we were about to visit, the hotel and the Slavi’s show. Of course they all turned out to be unsatisfactory at all. Let’s start with the museum. The exposition was interesting and part of the lecture too, but it was extremely long lecture. We’ve been in the museum for two hours or more and we all got bored. Anyway, our next stop was the hotel. We checked in but again we were disappointed. It was scary that the windows in the rooms couldn’t open. The air was moist and the smell in the rooms was unpleasant. All this things are bearable; it’s not something to die from. Hence we had dinner which unexpectedly was tasty. Around seven we went to the evening show.

The security guards took our posters saying that this could be an advertisement of our school. When we watch it on the screen the studio looks enormous. In fact, it was so small that we all were amazed. I expected it to be fun because when the people, who work there, are on the screen they all are fun and interesting. I was disappointed, because behind the scenes they looked bored and haughty. I was having fun only when they were singing. And that’s all. 

On the second day of our trip we had some free time in the mall. We went on shopping, had lunch and then it was time to go home. We were too exhausted to sing again and we spent the traveling sleeping. Even though there were some unpleasant moments, we had a good time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_and_Man_National_Museum - Here is a link about the museum.
http://www.ac-arcus.com/?mod=events&show=307 - Here is a link from our school site

Making of posters 

We were about to visit the Slavi’s show, a Bulgarian evening show, so on 9^th November we decided to make posters of our college and city. We got pasteboard, coloured paper, markers and we were ready for work. Of course something went wrong this is how things always go. We cut the letters for the poster on the other side, so they were in the opposite direction. It was late at night and no stationer’s shop was working. Anyway, we wrote the inscription with the markers and cut some figures from the left over paper. I will tell you what happened to our posters in my next post. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavi%27s_Show - Here is a link about the show

Christmas workshop 

On 5^th November I stopped by in the Christmas workshop to see what students are doing and because I had free time I decided to create something. I took two glasses and painted them with a special paint. In the end my masterpieces were just great. I was very proud of them and put in each one a candle so the glasses became candlesticks.

Sorting clothes for charity

In October a charity campaign for collecting clothes was organized. After the campaign ended our work started. On 26^th we had to sort the clothes and as I’ve told you more than once, I like doing this a lot. It is time for having fun and doing something good. Just like the previous year when we were sorting clothes, we enjoyed it a lot. We were packing the clothes and goofing off at the same time. We put on some skirts and tops and made funny combinations. We even created a model for a new school uniform. Anyway, this made my day. 

The elections at our college

24^th October was the day for elections. The candidates were representatives from every class, who had shared their ideas and aims in front of the whole school the previous week. The elections took place at the auditorium of the college. Our IB group was responsible for the honest voting of every student. There were two ballot-boxes, so only two electors were allowed to vote at the same time. My role was to explain them how to vote and to watch over if someone wants to cheat.

The whole story sounds extremely boring but we actually had a great fun. We wanted completely to assume the role of guards, which don’t suit us at all but we were very good at it. Nobody tried to provoke us or to cheat.

At our lunch break we counted the votes and without any doubt the 12^th graders won. We were fully satisfied with this result but we also had to keep the secret until the next morning. Anyway, nothing bad happened on our elections, which is a tiny hope that the elections all over the world proceed exactly this way. 

http://www.ac-arcus.com/?mod=events&show=303  
Here is a link from our school site

Art club

On 20^th October we had our first Art class for this school year. Our task was to paint or actually smear with dye discs, which were first coated with glue. We had to put the glue which was disgusting. Anyway, I had a great fun.  In the end, we were all dirty and variegated. This kind of sophisticated art is new for us but we have to leave the discs to become dry and hence make them even more beautiful. This secret I intend to share in my next post about the Art club.  

Training #2 

 
GLOW association took its second training today (17^th October). It was concerned with presentations, especially with the most effective ways of presenting. It was too long to be active and interested all the time, but I enjoyed it. The thing that I like the most in this kind of meetings is that they are interactive. It’s not only the teachers who talk, but the members too. This kind of activities keeps everybody’s attention. To be honest, I like the first training way more than this, but I can’t say it was boring or something. I’m looking forward the next meeting and I hope it will be even better.

Оrganizational meeting

On 10^th October we had organizational meeting about the school Charity and Art club. We decided when our future meetings are going to be - nothing interesting as a whole.

We also planned one charity campaign about collecting clothes for children from Balvan (village around Veliko Tarnovo). These campaigns are from my Top 5. I really enjoy collecting and sorting clothes because we had a great fun and of course, because the campaign helps many children.

Back on the topic - I don’t like this kind of meetings because everybody shouts in order to suggest some future ideas; there are many people that don’t know what they are doing here. Anyway, I’m used to it.

 Training 

On 6^th October a new organization (GLOW association) was established. It is concerned with leadership and group work. There were people of different age from different schools, so we had a nodding acquaintance with each other.  This first meeting aimed to join us. In order to complete this uneasy task, the establishers had prepared some games. It sounds very stupid and childish, but I’ve never imaged having so much fun playing such games.

At the first part there was a short presentation introducing the organization aims and explaining the definition of leadership, types of personalities in societies (e.g. conformists) and how their behavior affects other people. It was quite interesting. I didn’t learn anything new, but I like the way it was presented.

After this presentation we were given some tasks. The first one was to invent a short play introducing different types of behavior. In order to do this, we were split in different teams. There were younger students in my team and they actually were waiting me to tell them what to do. It is the awkward thing about meeting new people – there is a barrier between you and somebody should cross it. The first thing to do was to break the ice, so I suggested many different ways of completing our task and let them choose one. In my opinion it worked out. We did quite good play, everybody had a role, even though our task was about a phone talk and we were four. After completing it we had a small chat and I thing one of the girls had very interesting personality. Anyway, I think I’m talking too much.

The second task was for the whole group. We were about 30 and we had to work together. There were two circles in the room. The first one was formed by a line contouring us hugged. At the second circle the were papers with numbers from one to 30 and every one of us had to touch only one number without talking outside the first circle. The first thing to do was to make a strategy. A friend on mine and I suggested walking in a line to the second circle and taking turns. So we did it. We had a lot of fun and we were stimulated to do it right, because every time somebody made a mistake we had to start again. It took us only seven minutes and we were proud with our score!

All in all, I loved this meeting. I expected it to be boring, but it was not. Our teachers put an effort and it works. So I’m looking forward the next meeting!

First CAS meeting for 2011-2012 school year

It is the beginning of my last school year and I feel terribly bad. I had my last first CAS meeting today (5^th October). It was an organizational meeting and we were planning our schedule for 2011-2012 school year. I was talking about something and I found myself thinking about a project that can be established next school year. It was when I realized that there is no next school year for me and I’m graduating. I feel so depressed right now. I’ve never imagined this time coming. There is only one thing I can do – I can do my best and actually live this year. I’ll try to be more organized, more active in our school life and I promise I’ll smile more often!  

Personal Planing Page - Term 3
Activities	Evidence	Hours	Total
Creativity	- Art club	14	27
	-Making posters for the Slavi’s Show	4
	-Visiting the Slavi’s Show	3
	-Visiting the local theater	2
	- Making frames for the Christmas Charity Ball	2
	- Making stickers for World Smile Day	2
Action	-   Trip to Sofia	17	20
	-   Billiards competition	3
Service	-Charity club	19	29
	-Trainings in “Catchers of dreams ”	8
	- International Volunteer Day	2

                                                                                                                Total:76

Local project: IB newspaper

International project: European Voluntary Corps

Mid-summer day – our school holiday

On 24^th June our school celebrated its holiday. This year was the eighth celebration and we were the organizators.

24^th is also a Slavic holiday, called Eniovden. Some folklore beliefs claim that everybody who sees the sun twinkling early in the morning will be healthy during the whole year.

Our program started at 9 am with presentations made by every class. Their topic was “Our class trip”. This took a lot of time but was extremely fun. The only exception was the presentation of the 8^th graders who bored the whole auditorium. They had a very good idea but it took them near half an hour to present it. There were two girls presenting it and they did their best to be fun but it was a failure. Actually it was not that bad but there was a big award (free trip) for the class who did the best presentation so their performance did not deserve it. The award won 11^th graders with their brilliant work.

The second part was the Oscarious one. Rados and me were announcing the categories and then inviting the winner on the stage. This was the funniest part. Everybody laughed and enjoyed the awards. We also bestow a prize on a teacher for being everybody’s number one.

            Here we sing one famous Bulgarian song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXfzYb59J08

24^th morning was a long one, filled with great emotions. It was an essence of our school – our favourite school in the world!

Creativity class 

On 21^st June we had a very important task to complete. We had to make the awards for our school holiday. We named them Oscarious, using the idea about the Oscars. We also had to think about categories. We came up with the idea to name every award after films. We had this category “Stick up with you” for our love couples, “Dude, where is my car?” for our 12^th grade drivers and many other categories. My group and I also distributed the roles for the performance for the big day. Rados and I were chosen to be the announcers as usual. We had to write our screenplay and decorate the auditorium.

Everybody loves this holiday because it is accompanied by the school end so we really had to make it entertaining and hilarious. You will see what how it went in my next post.

Yoga class

On 8^th June I took my final yoga class for this school year. I had a lot of work to do as the end was coming soon and I really needed to relax. As it was our final meeting we decided to do some pleasant things and to pay attention to my needs – I relaxed in the very best way. My teacher made me close my eyes and slack off my body. She was telling me to release all the pressure and negative energy accumulated in me. I imagined closing them in a balloon and letting it high in the clouds. We did some exercise as well but I told you more than once about them. So this is how my last yoga class went. Once again – I love yoga!

Trip to Balchik

After whole day of traveling and emotions we were exhausted and it was time to go to our hotel in Balchik. We checked in and spent some ours in resting. Then we had a dinner and went on a walk near the beach. There was beautiful view; I just can’t find words to describe it. The sea, the night and the city lights were fascinating. In the morning we took or breakfast and it was time for visiting one of the most beautiful tourist objects on the seaside – the cultural centre “Dvoreca” and the botanical garden of Balchik.

You can check everything for them here:

http://www.dvoreca.com/index.php?lang=EN
 

http://www.balchik.info/en/botanic/botanic.htm

 

Trip to Kavarna

On the first day of our trip (25^th May) we decided to go to Kavarna (a seaside town) and to visit the monument of the great musician Ronnie James Dio. I’ve actually have never heard of him but it was an opportunity to check online when I come home. It turned out that he was American heavy-metal vocalist and songwriter. I listened to some of his songs and I liked some. Here is a link with some of his best works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLUGydyOcqY

And a link from his official site:
http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/

 

Trip to Varna 

Every class in our school had the task to select a place for a trip and to visit it. The catch was that there should be a presentation that describes what everybody was doing on this trip. My classmates and I and of course our CAS teacher choose Varna, Balchik and Kavarna, which are located on the seaside. On 25^th May we set off very excited and happy. Two my classmates and I were of course late for the bus but fortunately we arrived on time. On the bus we sang and laugh a lot and here comes Varna. We had two free hours and you can guess what decided to do seven girls. If you can’t I will tell you - we went on shopping. We had no time but we have became experts in fast shopping because of the experience from the previous trips. Not only we bought many stuff but also had a lunch at one of our favourite restaurants – “Happy”. Then we had to continue with the trip but I will tell later about it because now I want to talk about the second day which was again in Varna. The previous night we were at Balchik but because of some disagreements in the opinion with the manger of the hotel we decided to leave. So we check in the Aqua Hotel and right after leaving our stuff in the rooms we went on the beach. I was the first one who threw her dress and dived into the water then I attract a friend of mine to come. The sea wasn’t as cold as we expected and we had a great time. We also took many pictures and then we returned to the hotel to prepare for dinner. On the next day we visited one of the malls and again spent two hours in shopping. Unfortunately we had to go back home.
If you want to see why we were in Kavarna and o learn for the botanical garden in Balchik, you can read my next post.

Theater "The party"

On 9^th May my classmates and I visited a theater called “The party”. The plot was about a girl that is jealous because another one stole her boyfriend. That’s why she kills the second girl. This performance could be successful because it concerns universal questions about jealousy in our society, about the use of alcohol, about committing crimes but in my opinion it didn’t reach the audience. The play was quite good but the decors, the way that the events were presented were poor. It was probably one of the worst theaters I’ve ever visited. 

Saying good-bye to the seniors.

On 2^nd May our school took last good-bye with the seniors. My classmates and I were busy with the decoration of the stairs and the auditorium. We stuck little steps on the way that the seniors were about to walk. We also put many balloons everywhere and then filled with emotion began waiting for the ceremony. The general mood was positive but many of us were upset because we will miss our friends from the 12^th grade. We had memorable and irreplaceable moments together so it was very hard. On the other side the ceremony was entertaining. There were two sketches which make the audience laugh truly. Some students perform few songs accompanied with guitar. Then the presentation came – a sad, sensual moment of remembering the previous years and appreciating them. I hope everybody enjoyed even though it was time for being sad. 

Charity campaign for collecting books

On 21^st April my classmates and I went to the local library to give the books we collected from the charity campaign which I’ve already told you about. The library is huge and there are thousands of books. The room that impressed me most is small and full with very old books. I didn’t want to go home! The lady that worked there was glad to see us. She looked very happy because of our visit which is the sweetest part of every action we organize. The feeling when you make someone happy is wonderful and is worth every effort, no matter if you had to bring a huge box with books that is as heavy as you or something else.

Painting eggs for Easter  

On 19^th April my classmates and I visited the local resident home. Easter is coming and we decided to paint eggs for them and to make a little exhibition. We had a great time there. There were only few eggs broken but a lot of dirty clothes after the action. The people that live there of course didn’t forget us. They had made for everybody a base for an egg with the form of a rabbit. I told you many times about my feelings for these people so it is not necessary to say  that I enjoyed going there. It was such a nice day! 

Collecting books

On 14^th April we organized a charity campaign for collecting books for the local library. My classmates and I gave flyers to everybody at school. One of my passions is reading books, especially old ones. I can imagine the smell of the paper and the feeling that a book can give you, it is irreplaceable.

I like this kind of activities because they are useful and I really hope it will be successful and many books will be collected.

Street Parade 2011

It is the event of the month. My day was moving very fast and I had no time for rest. After the smudging with dye at the school Eastern Workshop where we painted eggs in the morning, we went to the Luna Park but we couldn’t stay for a long. There was flash mob at the center of the city. It was an appeal to all people to stop for a minute and to think about nature. The volunteers were about 200. Two of my friends and I took place as making a construction of falling bottle (I will attach some pictures). It was a new and very strange feeling. People were stopping to see us and the other participants. It had an effect definitely. There were reporters and the media, many people were taking pictures. I really do hope this to benefit because nowadays nobody cares about the environment and throws their garbage on the streets.

After this we put on the blue sacks (I told you about them) and started to give the pieces of paper with the thoughts. First I thought it would be awkward and stupid and one of the reasons was the stupid shirt we had to wear but after the flash mob and the whole day I felt perfect. I was smiling to everyone and getting the same in return. People actually enjoyed it. I was watching their reaction – they were serious when they took the sticker but than after reading it a smile always appeared on their face. There was no way to feel better. The emotion was wonderful. After an hour the bus with the DJ (Sandy Rivera) and the tail of thousands of people came and we joined it. It reached one historical object of Tarnovo where the fireworks were lit. We also let many paper lanterns to burn in the sky. The view was beautiful.

22^nd March was an amazing day. This kind of experience shouldn’t be cut from the schedule!

More about flash mob:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob

Eastern workshop

The Open doors day was on 22^nd March. On this day people from other schools can visit our school. The students are separated in groups and make presentations or experiments on different subjects and the most interesting things are done in the chemistry laboratory of course.

My group and I opened an Eastern workshop where we painted eggs made from wood. My egg was the only one in red. =) 

It was time for getting dirty with dye and talking about the Faberge Eggs. We had a great fun and formed a little competition for our creations. Nobody won of course because every one of us claimed her egg is the best. We took many pictures and laugh a lot. At one p.m. we found out we are running out of time. It was lunch time and then the preparation for the Street Parade was on.   

Something about the Faberge Eggs:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M67LPSU_vdk

A link from our site:
http://www.ac-arcus.com/?mod=events&show=267

Selling tickets

On 14^th March we were selling tickets in our school for a charity campaign that is going to take place on 17^th. This campaign includes performances from four schools in the city and in the end a competition. The price is the collected from the tickets money which is about 400 leva. This money of course will go for charity but the school that wins decides for what cause exactly. The selling was very fast and easy. I feel that every student that sees us in his/her classroom knows that we are offering something so everybody comes to us and listens.

On this day there was nothing interesting actually. I kind of got used to the procedures.

.

Theater

On 10^th March I visited the theater. The performance was “The three musketeers” and famous Bulgarian actors took place in it. Honestly, I didn’t expect something special but it was the best performance that I’ve ever watched. It was emotional, exciting, with a good sense of humor, it was just great.

Of course there always is something which is not right. The man that was standing in front of me didn’t stop moving and during the first 20 minutes I couldn’t see a thing. Finally I found another free place and went there to watch.

After the performance I felt very good. My friends and I were very excited about it and it was the topic of the week actually.

Training

On 9^th March our group went to the municipality. There we were on training about the Street Parade of Veliko Tarnovo. It was freezing outside and I was shaking from the cold. This with the fact that we heard nothing new on the meeting contributed to my angry mood. The only thing I didn’t know was that we are going to wear enormous shirts just like sacks in order to be notable. There was one good piece of news probably and it was about the DJ of the Parade. I haven’t mentioned that the music there is very loud and everybody dance and push each other but I still find it funny. So back on the topic – the DJ is going to be Sandy Rivera.

All in all, it is what I can say. Definitely it was not my day.