Open-doors Day at the College (Year 2 Term 2)

It is a long-lived tradition that on the 22nd of March the college organizes an open-door day. The twenty-second is the holiday of our town and there is a generally very festive feeling among all citizens. The college therefore decides that the student don't have to study and it is a perfect time to organize an event when all people who have an interest to come and see the college come. We usually have many parents and potential students. All in all, this year we had many people and it turned out very well in general.

Last year I was invited in the Biology Lab, where a lot of beautiful experiments were done. This year I decided to spend my time quite differently. I spent half of my time in the Psychology/Arts Workshop, because Mrs. Hristova (my VA teacher) was the first one to invite me, plus I wanted to do more artistic stuff this year. I also spent some time in the maths room, where the topic was the beautiful mathematics.

The arts/psychology workshop was meant to find the connection between colors and emotions. We had an educational presentation and also a practical task - everyone was asked to draw one emotion without clear signs (like a smiley for example) and without telling which one it is and the others had to guess the emotion, based on what colors and shapes the person had used. Such a thoughtful idea in my opinion. In the math room we were showing people some amazing graphs, which prove that maths can be very beautiful. We had also prepared some mathematical linguistic problems, which were very sweet. In fact, I love this and in previous grades I used to go to olympiads about mathematical linguistics, but I sadly have no more time.

Promoting Arcus to Potential Recruits (Year 2 Term 2)

This Monday I was asked by the headmaster to help him in the promoting of the college to parents and potential student in Bacho Kiro Primary School. This is one of the largest primary schools in Veliko Tarnovo and there are a lot of smart kids there. I agreed to participate as I believe the college is the nicest option in our town and more people should come to it.

Frankly, my main job was to answer question and particularly in connection to the IB, but parents rarely asked anything, let alone have a particular interest in the IB. Therefore, I did not do much work, which kind of made me sad, as at the end it was just two hours lost for nothing. I just hope our primary work was done and more people come to the college in the next years.

My Big Final Concert (Year 2 Term 2)

I have been playing the cello for 12 years. This is a lot of time... I've learned so very much, I've been to places, I've seen and heard other people, I've played with other people and frankly I've also made some very close friends.

The natural finale of this "era" for me was doing a special concert, in order to honor my time spent learning the instrument and in order to show people what I've achieved since the beginning.

On this special night I was not alone - I played together with Christine, a fellow musician. She has also been playing with me since first grade, in her case the instrument mastered is the flute. In fact, we were quite a big group during our first years, but for one reason or another it was only us two who stuck until the end. I was very happy to make a concert with her.

Long story short - it was an absolutely fantastic experience. Our playing was amazing, but the emotion that we brought to people was what was really worth of acknowledging. An amazing concert, which put quite some people in tears. A great ending of a very special thing for me....

Fitness (Year 2 Term 1&2)

I think they key to me being successful in the IB Program might be the fact that I never ever stopped my physical activity throughout these two years. In fact, I became even more consistent and increased the number of times I go to the gym every week. This helped me very much. Staying in shape is important so as to be healthy, but I also think it is correlated to a good mental health and stability.

I generally go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week. I prefer to go in the weekends and less times during the week, because when I have afternoon classes I come home very tired. My favorite part is definitely running, but I also enjoy the physical exercises. Sadly, I don't have a "gym buddy", so I often train alone, but it is as it is.

Meeting Zahari Karabashliev (Year 2 Term 1)

On this day we met with a very famous Bulgarian author - Zahari Karabashliev. It is a tradition that an author is invited to the college for a presentation and discussion with the students.

To prepare for the event I read his one and first novel 18% Gray, which I liked very, very much. I was therefore prepared to participate and listen a presentation, which was very interesting indeed. I also loved that we got to ask questions, because I had quite many. Mr. Karabashliev was very keen to answer them and talked to us a lot and as if we were grown-ups, which was super cool of him.

TEDxCERN Educational Videos (Year 2 Term 1)

Who doesn't know TED, the organization that makes these awesome videos. Or CERN, the biggest science center in Europe. On Sunday, the 5th of November, the two institutions combined to produce a live event. It included videos with different lectors on very interesting topics. They were far away from one another, varied from drones to physics and so on. In our town the event was held in the Faculty on Economics of the University of Veliko Tarnovo. It happens that the university is a partner of CERN, so they knew about the event. They on the other hand invited us from the American College, because we have tight connections as institutions.

In fact we went there with our biology teacher Mrs. Staykova. She organized the group from our school. We were there mainly for the biology-orientated videos. On the other hand I personally enjoyed the most the one for the recently-detected gravitational waves, finding of which was the century's milestone in physics. It was overall very interesting. At the beginning we had some technical problems but thankfully they managed to cope with them and we had an undisturbed live-streaming. It was a well-spent free time of a Saturday.

Organizing and Celebrating this year's Halloween (Year 2 Term 1)

For at least a sixth year now there is an organized Halloween trip from our school. We are an international school that wants to combine own and foreign traditions. A Halloween trip is already one. This is an event that is organized annually. The previous years it was Mrs. Petarcheva who did it, but she's no more with us. This is why me and my class (12IB) decided to organize it ourselves. We also got huge amount of help from the teachers Mrs. Antonova, Mrs. Slavcheva and Mrs Marinova.

This trip was an opportunity to also bring the young IBs in "the game". We let them organize all the entertainment stuff for the Halloween party. They did a great job. Maybe even better than us last year.  The trip is usually made for the youngest - the 8th graders, which made up roughly a half of our group. This is because the trip is a great way for them to meet each other, establish friendships and bond. In the end they were very happy I believe. The 11th graders were also, they are going to have many more trips this year. I was very happy as well, but also a bit sad, because this is probably my last such trip. It is November, but I see the end so clearly that I can't believe it.

Enyovden (Year 1 Term 2)

Enyovden is a holiday in Bulgaria with rich historical traces and interesting beliefs. It is also the day when our college celebrates its own holiday. The previous years instead of studying we had had spots days or hikes, but this year a richer and more interesting program was organised. It was generally many games, with the classes being the different teams.

Generally, the IBs did not play, but rather participate in the organising. My participation was in the first round, when I was a co-presnter of the questions in a "Who wants to be a millionaire?"-style. The next rounds included karaoke and searching for hidden stuff in the building with maps given. The winner was 11b class, after the 11a losing with one point. Congrats!

Exhibition Set-up Annual (Year 1 Term 2)

An annual exhibition in our school is a mark that the academic year is coming to an end. It is made in the entrance of the college so that everyone who wishes can have a look at any given moment. The artworks included were made b the 8th and 9th graders, the art club and during the Plain-Air in Troyan. Usually it is our Arts teacher who curates it, but this year the whole IB helped. Mostly we chose the artworks and curated them and she guided us through the process and made little changes at the end. I think the final product was an interesting and intriguing exhibition with lots of nice works. What is more, it was a nice experience for us, the Visual Arts students, as part of our grade is from making am own exhibition.

Plain-Air in Troyan (Year 1 Term 2)

 The Plain-Air was the trip of the year. Seriously, the coolest...

First, after we left with a 30 minute delay, we went to Troyan, a small and picturesque town in the Stara planina mountain. There we did some interesting stuff like visiting the national crafts museum and drinking coffee. Then, after a small delay, we left for the nearby village Chiflik, where our hotel was located.

From there on we dedicated our time to three things:
1) Doing artsy stuff (I'll explain more later),
2) Swimming in the pool (Mostly late at night, but so cool...) and
3) Talking about the glorious number 23 (I won't be explaining this)...


About the art we produced (because that was the purpose of the plain-air) - each day we experimented with different cool techniques. We made papier-mache masks and then clay dishes. I tried to integrate the traditional Bulgarion decoration that we had seen in the museum on mine.

We also did some site-specific landart and of course some traditional painting. Overall it was very cool. I learnt and saw so many incredible things (Tsvetlosar for example) and did some stuff that I wouldn't have been able to do back in school.

Pictures by Adriana Hristova

Goodbye Ceremony

It is a tradition to organise a "goodbye" ceremony for the twelve graders a little before they graduate. During this ceremony we gather in the aula and a nice decoration raises the emotions. This is the time when the students who graduate can receive their special "Arcus" shirts, but they can also give their presents to the teachers as a way to thank them. We heard many kind words that afternoon....

My classmates and I even got a small present for the 12 IB students. We paid an artist to paint portraits of them and we organised it as a postcard with some nice words inside. Actually, they we very surprised and liked them very much.

Colouring Easter Eggs at Home for Elderly People

From the voluntary club we very much like to do initiatives for the Home for Elderly people "Veneta Boteva". On the 1st of May it is the orthodox Easter and the tradition is that on the last Thursday before eggs are coloured. So on the last school day we gave our afternoons and went to the home to bring a little colour to the elders' lives.

Actually everything was almost ready - the eggs were boiled and we just had to colour and decorate them. I think the grandma' and grandpas were very happy. We even had one more surprise - our coordinator Mrs. Petarcheva had bought books for them and now they can have at least a few new ones in every room.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musical "Joseph"

The Varna Theatre is doing the musical "Joseph" by Andrew Lloyd Webber in theatres in cities all over the country. On the 21st they came to our town - Veliko Turnovo. Because art is such an important part of life we decided to organise ourselves and go to see the musical.

I must say that I was impressed. The musical was top-notch. The dancing was almost as good and the singing was absurdly good. I spotted a few other minimal downsides but all in all it was very good, especially for a troupe from our country. Not all of my classmates shared my amazement, but I guess they did not like the genre. Maybe if they had seen an opera they'd think differently...

Internet Safety Course

Nowadays it is the age of computers. With all the positivities that computers bring to our life, some negative aspects come as well. Violations through the internet have become very common and people need to know how to protect themselves and for what to be careful.

This is why the internet safety course, which was conducted at our school, was very useful and quite interesting. I could say that I didn't know much of the stuff before and now I am somehow prepared to act in every case.

Much of what we heard and saw was actually a little disturbing. There are some people who are extremely creative in the awful deeds like abduction that they do. Our instructor, a woman who professionally is concerned with violations of that sort, instructed us what to do in case we suspect something.

Organising Open Day

Every year we do an "Open Door Day" in the college when regular classes are not conducted and anybody who wants can come to the college to have a look at our school, classes, teachers and how it all goes.

The students choose a subject and a room to work in. I chose biology and with all the others who did as well we did biochemical experiments, which were very interesting. We had photosynthesis monitoring, qualitative reactions and an  impressive "volcano", which "erupted" 3!! times.

The majority of visitors were young children who will probably come to the college in the next years or their parents. I think they were amazed by the interesting stuff we did and they'd now have more reasons to study in Arcus.

Sports Day

It was nationally decided that all students must go to school on the 12th of March, to compensate for the 4th, when we had a short holiday. But our college decided to organise a "sports day", to free the students from a tough day behind the desks. I am very happy that I spent the day outside, not at school.

We went to the newly rebuilt "Sveta Gora" park, where there are many fun things to do, like walk up the ~300 stairs. It was also good weather for pictures, and some people, with the professional cameras, did quite a lot photographing. Sadly, very sadly, not the whole IB was there, but at least Ivonka brought her dog.

Laying Flowers for National Liberation Day

The 3rd of March is the National day of Bulgaria, our Liberation day. It is a tradition that student from our institution pay tribute to the heroes that fought for our freedom. As a way to show our appreciation of their feat we laid flowers in front of the Maika Bulgaria monument in the center of the city.

This year we were a big group of 8th and 11th graders and the day before - the 2nd of March, we went to lay the flowers. We were one of the first, but later on thousands of flowers adorned the monument. We chose the 2nd, because the 3rd is a holiday, plus the day is so important and there are many official celebrations.

Surprise for the Students and the Teachers

Because in March we celebrate "Baba Marta", we, the voluntary club, decided to do something as a surprise. It is a tradition, as old as one can remember, that everybody puts a martenitsa on their hand. The martenista is a typical jewellery on white and red threads, knotted together. For so long, thousands of different kinds of martenitsi have been made and there is no Bulgarian, who does not appreciate the holiday.

Our surprise was in two stages - firstly, we gathered at the entrance of the college quite early and tied a martenitsa, previously made by the arts and crafts club, on every student's hand. Then, during the second big break, we went to the teacher's room and gave one specially made, fancy, awsome martenista to every teacher. After that, I asked, in order to be sure, and understood that most* of them were really surprised and actually nicely.

* Now looking back, I realise - some certain teacher(s) were not happy, but this might have nothing to do with us, or our deed at least.

Mid-term Art Exhibition

As a part of our Visual Arts class and in connection with CAS, me, Polya and Teodor curated the annual "Mid-term" exhibition. Firstly and most importantly, we chose the best artworks, made bay 8th and 9th graders. I am free to say that there are some very talented kids there. it sure took us a lot of time to reach a consensus as every one of us has a slightly different taste, but we ended up with a nice collection of different in technique, size and meaning paintings.

We chose the college's entrance for the exhibition - a place, where everybody could catch an eye when they go through. The curating process was not easy, plus we had to do it all alone, so that it was more like an exercise. The whole process took nearly two hours. At the end we completed a quite nice exhibition, especially given that it was our first try.

First CAS Meeting 2nd Term

The first CAS meeting of every term is very important. At those meetings we structure the whole ongoing of the upcoming term. We talked about the Art Trip and the one-day forms in the next months.

Of course, we filled the Planning Page for the second term and we started the attendance sheets. Plus, we now understand and do everything almost alone, unlike how it was in the first term. By we I mean me and the few other people that care about CAS and thus about their education in the IB programme.