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.