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.