I think I am still amazed by myself from what I decided to undertake this year...Student Council was something I had never considered as something I would enjoy. However, this year from 1st being chosen as a class representative- I then decided to run for Vice President. I got into it that fast :D And I won the elections..I still find it hard to belief this, I am not sure why exactly. Student Council was something, which I had never, ever done before. I sued to think all sorts of things about it, and it being meaningless, but this year those thoughts completely changed. Maybe it was the people, or Radi (the President of STUCO) and thus the fact that we actually did (and still are doing) things.
We made changes. We represented the student body by innovating our communication system with them and eventually got good results. We considered every single proposal from them, because those are the people for whom we “work”. We managed ourselves very well in my opinion (of course with the help of our advisor every now and then).
I must admit- I liked being in the place of the President when he was not able to attend our meetings. I am happy that I enjoyed it so much considering my past (veeery past) problems with administrating a large group of people and being their leader. STUCO certainly developed me a lot- it was more on a personal development level, rather than on a more grand scale. As I mentioned, my skills as a leader broadened massively. Speaking to a large number of people as well. Managing people so that we get the necessary work done and prosper. And I am happy to say that these changes began happening very early in our reign :D
I really never expected this from myself and honestly, I think I regret not doing this before- so much things could have happened..But better late than never. This was an experience which for my surprise actually develops an individual in so many areas. I only hope that those after me and Radi continue doing the fantastic job that we have done thus far. Good luck!
There is this one very negative side within the IB Diploma Programme- we do not have any mandatory class were we have physical activities. Well, for CAS we do need action hour... but this is still somewhat different than those PE classes, which we used to have before.
I suppose this is a major reason for why I want so much to take part in any type of activity- I simply have so much physical power to release :D
Volleyball, however, was not an activity I decided to take simply because of that- I actually really like this sport. This is one of those games, which falls apart if there is no team work- we have to work together in order to achieve anything really. I guess I have a thing for teamwork games, but this one in particular has always been the one i like the most...I remember how when I was younger my PE teacher would tell me to practice with basketballs every now and then, because of the amount of power, with which I used to service haha. These were fun times- I am not sure if i want to know the amount of times i have thrown the ball out of the school premises and have had to go and get it back in :D
Volleyball reminds me about good times- reminds about old friends, whom I have not seen in years. The team work needed in it has always seemed a bit different from any other team work game...I am not sure why exactly. Taking part in this year’s team was an amazing opportunity, which even though I grasped at the very last moment- was absolutely worth it. My desire to more around more grew more and more, my skills improved more and more. I also managed to finally almost completely get the way we are supposed to rotate on the court- something I struggled with very much the very first practice. Most importantly, though, I had a lot of fun. I learned. I laughed. I danced. I was sad and very confused every now and then- I am happy that I did it :)))
Even though my exams are soon to come, I was considering continuing Volleyball a bit more...I hope that I really can do that because it would relief stress from over-studying and give me the good vibes, which the teams has at all times :)
LUX is the literary magazine here at the Anglo-American School of Sofia. This is a piece of art, within which you can find anything created by the beautiful minds of the students- art, songs, poetry, short stories, even some of the Internal Assessments created by us IB 2s :}
Becoming an editor in LUX was something I wanted from quite a long time now and I am sincerely happy that I was able to be made one in the end. I have had pieces published within the magazine every single year ever since it became reality and I somehow wanted to be one of those people who look at so much art and creative writing and try to make the hard decision of who to accept and who not to. Indeed, this is a tough task but we had more fun than anyone could imagine. Being an editor at LUX was something, which even further enhanced my own creative work and I am very happy for this new critical way of thinking, which I ended up developing. Not only that, but it made me know some of my friends a lot better- reading somebody’s creative work is as if having an eye to eye conversation about their inner self. It made me understand some people better than ever before, which eventually lead to a better relationship between me and those friends of mine. :)
This experience was something extraordinary- as a person who admires any kind of art, I was happy to have this opportunity to develop myself as a critical thinker towards art and to also do that, which I like doing. I am certainly going to miss...
Good things ought to be done all the time, if you ask me. But there is something special about the things we all do around Christmas time. This year I decided to help out for the first time in the charity Christmas bazaar here at out school, particularly helping a couple of friends with raising money for the Angelia Foundation.
These were a few hours which I gladly dedicated to painting little kids' faces and turn them into whatever they desired. A couple of hours of helping out friends. A couple of hours for a truly good cause. I was actually very unhappy to leave at the end of the day. If I have to be honest, those few hours flew by so fast, that I couldn't even believe it. But it was a good opportunity to develop a bit my creative skills- face painting kids. Also organisational skill were very important here, seeing as we had to deal with money, food and a lot of people at all times. If I had the opportunity I would certainly do this again, because it was a great opportunity to be around friends and do some work and have a great time. :)
HOSIC this year was a lot of fun. The main topic was "The Human Brain" and from it we decided to create a presentation and a short study about the human dreams in particular. Technically we talked more about the concept of sleeping and what exactly happens to you while in that semi paralysed state. For this presentation I personally read multiple books on human sleeping, various sleeping disorders, dreams, etc. I decided to expand my knowledge more even though we each decided to dedicate our research to only one- maximum twi areas.
This experience was very important for me because the exploration of the human mind is something very important to me. How it works, why it works the way it does, the different states of it, the different disorders, etc. All these concepts are things which fascinate me more than you can imagine. That is why I was very excited about the main topic this year.
Here is a link to the presentation if you decide to check it out and learn a few new things about something so natural to us :)
MS Boys Football Tournament- A tour around Sofia + Pizza
This was probably one of the biggest challenges I had ever undertaken. To create a couple of different, but yet the same routes around the centre of the capital of Bulgaria. To time it, so that we get on time for our reservation in a restaurant. First of course to go and order what we are going to have, because the total number of people on that very day was almost 100. It was scary- I have to admit. But I am happy to say that we managed (me and my friend Barbora as organisers) to not loose anyone along the route and safely get all the boys to the restaurant, so that they could finally get some rest and eat after a long day of football games and very cold weather.
This experience thought me so much. Working with kids (in a way), being in charge and actually having full responsibility for so many people. This was both petrifying and exciting at the same time. Honestly, it somehow helped me in my personal development, seeing as I am about to graduate and begin an entire new life (almost). I see this experience as a great start to my upcoming new way of life, even though this may sound a bit too cliche. The vibe which it gave both Barbora and me is something which I will always remember. And let us not forget the amount of time we dedicated to this project... simply everything about this project made me genuinely happy about both of us, because we did it and we were more than successful (I hope).
Vitosha- planting trees with friends and naming them ^^
So about a week or so ago, a group of 3 friends decided to go and plant trees on Vitosha mountain and help out Greenteam Bulgaria in the creation of a forest at a place where there once used to be one.
We spent pretty much the almost entire day there and managed to plant a total of 20 trees. The entire thing has the idea to plant "One Million" trees only through volunteers and we were one of those people. The day spent there was a great opportunity to get away from our usual daily life- out, the weather was great, with friends and doing something to be genuinely proud of. We had some problems in the very beginning because we had only one, small shovel- but this was something and a lot better than nothing :) So we had to be creative- Joao and me (Barbora was the smart one to bring a shovel) and use broken tree branches as tools to dig halls with...It was hard, but we succeeded somehow. However, after that we had real tools which we could use, since the foundation did mention that they would be bringing some for the people to use when being there (but that was rather delayed since the bus with all the tools apparently had a flat tire...I like to stay informed so I quickly asked the correct people and knew this info).
Anyways, another pretty cool and fun thing we did was the decision to give names to each tree :) most of the names sounded very ridiculous and funny, but honestly we could not have given them better names :)
I would recommend this activity to many other people- just think about it. You are surrounded by nature, by people who care about nature, you are with friends having a great time, learning new skills and doing something important for absolutely every single person on Earth (when you think about, you are planting trees, which give you oxygen in order to breath and survive and technically every single person benefits a lot from each tree there is). I would love to actually do this again :)
So I never had the chance to talk about the IB retreat which we had just a while ago.
The venue was Karlukovo- a lovely spot not that far away from Sofia actually, with lovely and amazing climbing spots and caves and many other natural beautiful things. We were there for a couple of days and even though day 1 was indeed horrible- the next two days were wonderful...except for the last one which reminded us of the first one (but it was not as cold). Over those couple of days I managed to once again get into my passion- climbing! I love doing it, somehow it makes me feel amazing and alive and I always have so much power for it no matter what. I had the chance to climb in caves, through a "chimney", rocks, rocks and more rocks. Wow, it was so awesome :D Climbing gives me a lot of pleasure so by now you should know that no matter what other conditions might have been (cough, cough food and me being sick) I still enjoyed everything to the fullest.
Except for climbing I got to do something so cool- zip line from one side of a canyon to the other and also go down on a rope from a cave (I will add pictures later so that you guys have more visual on what I am talking about). Yes, for almost a week- the adrenalin was always at its highest.
Apart from these activities, we also biked around in order to get to the point were we would do some of our Service work- the town church. Honestly, I have to mention the fact that our group, Green Grass, we were the best and we were the first ones at some activities :) I loved our group, I suppose that this is a huge part of why I had such a good time there. Haha, did i mention that our guide for the bike riding let me lead the group? This was pretty cool too, I managed to memorise the road back easily :)
This year's retreat was amazing, although perhaps I would have preferred if we were by the sea like last year. But the venue none the less, was breathtaking and I managed to have a lot of fun not only with my group, but the teachers in it and let us not forget the instructors.
May 19th- Kayaking and Picking trash around Pancherevo
On the 19th May another activity which we did with my school was going kayaking in the lake right next to our campus and also to clean up the area around the lake.
I have done kayaking quite a lot now- I did it during the summer in Slovenia even. However, this time it seemed like we were doing it for sooooo long :D I had never been to Pancherevo for that and I think it was a great opportunity for me to develop my skills in kayaking (after all I did end up needing those skill for Slovenia). And as mentioned, we also did some trash picking...which scared me slightly. I did not expect to gather so much trash from around a place where people actually like going. I mean it seems logical to me that if you like being to places like this- you would not make it dirty and look horrible...right? We gathered about 20 huge plastic trash bags (may be even more) from different places around the lake and I think that I could see how everyone was pretty much as surprised as me about this. And not to mention how much of this trash was actually gathered from the water- this made me sad. But then again I was happy because I manged to help out in getting rid of this. And may be, just may be- we were able to show this small group of kindergartners what should be done. Where to throw trash and where not to. Well, to me at least they seemed very interested in what we were doing and I overheard their teachers explaining to them what exactly we were doing.
Wow, my blog is certainly very not in order- everything is just scattered around it...So even though it was quite a while ago, I am going to talk to you about something very interesting that we did last school year- on the 22nd May, 2014.
It was an intense day for me-due to various reasons. However, we went to a place just outside of Sofia and along with the organization Habitat for Humanity- I managed to contribute to the building of houses or at least a part of the process, for people who don't really have the money to live as they should (in a way). It was a very warm, very sunny day- the beginning of summer. The main work that we did was digging and as most teachers and the other workers there said themselves- we got to be there for the hardest of work. But this was definitely worth it. I think it was an amazing opportunity to taste of some of the harder aspects of life- as honestly, I am not sure that all of the people from our school that were there, had ever dug with a shovel and moved the dirt from one place to another. It was very hard work, which made me at least think about the privileges that I have and that if I am to have more than some people-I can always find a way to contribute to their life in one way or another.
It was hard- I have to admit, although I don't usually admit it. I may not look so strong physically but I certainly can make myself keep on going with the cart with dirt around and digging with the shovel. But by the end of the day the tiredness I felt was one of those very nice types of being tired :) Because all we did was important.
Then there is the main part of the previously mentioned creation of a workshop. The actual doing of the thing, which for me personally was amazing. Yes, it was just some workshop that we did with random people from Slovenia. However, the people form the group I was a part of... we as a group made everything perfect.
At first not many people came and this frightened the entire group. We had two hours for everything and with only a few people we thought that everything would be a major disaster. However, eventually more people came and everything began (almost) as planned. The first hour went by rather awkwardly and as soon as we finished our entire group knew we had to talk about it. People were nervous, they did not know us at all. We pointed out the fact that a young boy with special needs was amongst the people at the workshop and how everyone (without telling anything to each other) knew how to work- we gave ourselves a huge "Well done!" for this. :) Apart from that we knew we had to make the people feel a lot more comfortable so we slightly changed our activities, so that they don' t feel like we are bombarding them with questions and serious topics all the time. As a matter of fact, I actually thought about this in advance and gave the idea about the relaxing piano music at the end of both hours earlier when we were making the schedule. The members of my group were glad about this idea because even though the participants seemed nervous, the meditation at the end made them feel better.
This entire thing was completely new for me. A new skill, to work with people, to teach them something...it felt great and I can not be happier about it.
Here is a link to a video during our workshop, just to give you an idea about the feeling we had in the school music room :) (please check it out, Fabio is very talented)
Creating a Workshop for Youth with Fewer Opportunities
This was the biggest challenge during the training course in Slovenia. However, working with the people I was with, made everything a million times easier. Everything started of as group of 7 people who had to make various activities for each other and by the next morning these activities along with a couple of ice-breakers were turned into a 2hour workshop for the youth of Zetale- the town from which most of the Slovenians who were with us, were from.
From this experience I was able to see myself as an individual, with various skills and abilities, because as mentioned before- even though I was the youngest, many of the people highly valued what I said and gave as ideas. :) We worked as a great team, even though we had a couple of fights, literally a hug was what fixed everything in the end. All of this was an enormous challenge because I had never done anything of this sort- usually I am on the other side of a workshop. We planned everything and I eventually wrote down all of our activities (which were supposed to be 7 minutes each... but that did not really happen :p) in a GoogleDoc in order to send it to our trainers and have everything as a memory and guide. We engaged in something which was an amazing feeling itself. Working with people had never felt better before (at least for me) and at the end of everything you kinda felt very accomplished and happy about what you had created with your group [but this is something I would evolve more in the blog post about the workshops themselves].
Here is the GoogleDoc mentioned above:
Ema- Hugging each other for 7 min
→ Description: Each person goes to the other and they hug for approximately 1 min. It has to be a proper hug, otherwise the exercise will not be effective
→ Aim: reduces stress, connects people, sprays love
→ Can be done with a maximum of 7 people (may be even more)
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Alina- Trust exercise
→ Description: 1 person has to lay on the ground and close their eyes. The person has to be very relaxed and all of the other people are to lift him/her in the air. Each person takes care of only one body part (being most careful with the head)
→ Aim: trust, relaxation
→ Can be done with a maximum of 8 people (the 8th person being the one on the ground)
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Christos- Write 3 things you like about all of the people in your group
→ Aim: connect people, get to know each other better, make others feel good in the end
→ Can be done with as many people as you’d like (in this case it was 7)
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Kevin- Trust Exercise
→ Description: divided into 3 - person groups, one must be in the middle with another person holding his/her hands (in front of him/her) and the other behind him/her (ready to catch him/her). The person in the middle has to close their eyes and let the person in front of him hold him/her by the arms. At the time at which the person holding the hands decides- the middle person’s hands are let and he/she is to fall into the arms of the person behind.
→ Aim: trust and relaxation
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Asijata- Unfold your fears
→ Description: The entire group is divided into groups of 2 people. One must lay on the ground and close their eyes. After being relaxed- he/she starts thinking about all of their fears and bad feelings and becomes the shape which all of them make him/her be. The other person is to unfold him/her after they have finished in order to make all of those bad things go away
→ Aim: ( Person unfolding) Trying to feel each other, to look at each other, to give this person the best of yourself at that very moment
(Person on the ground) To feel, to be aware of his/her own feelings, to receive the concern that he/she is giving, to accept being taken care of
→ As many people as you want can be in this exercise
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Fabio- Counting
→ Description: The group must be in a circle and they have to count (do not choose a big number) but they must not talk to each other (a tactic must be thought of)
→ Tactics: eye contact, lift your hand when you want to say the next number and then you say the number or go one after the other (as you are standing in the circle)
→ Aim: teamwork, thinking of tactics together
→ In order to play- a group over 5 people is prefered
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Gennaro- Trust exercise
→ Description: In this game, one person is in the middle of a circle. With their eyes closed and feet stuck to the ground (do not move them) he/she must be very calm and relaxed and the others around him start ‘passing’ him from one to another. They have to catch him all the time and be prepared otherwise the person would fall.
→ Aim: teamwork, relaxation, trust the people around you
→ In order to play- a group over 5 people is prefered
→ Feedback at the end is very important
School Workshops (Additional things we added to the actually workshops we created)
Zip- Zap- Bong
→ Description: In order for this game to be successful- many people should play. A lot of energy is needed. Make a circle.
First you have ZIP which you clap turning to the people next to you (either left or right). Make eye contact
The you add the ZAP which is a clap to a person not next to you (somewhere in front of you). Eye contact is specifically important here!
Then you have BONG which is a wall, so the ZIP or the ZAP which someone has sent is blocked by a wall- BONG and the person who has sent the ZIP or the ZAP has it again and has to send it somebody else.
The last thing to add is ZIPPITY DOO which when done means that you have sent the clap to the person not next to you but after him/her (both left or right)
→ Aim: teamwork, paying very close attention to every one, eye contact (connection), give all you energy
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Don’t let the chairs fall
→ Description: Make a circle of chairs in which the chairs are very close to each other. Every person in the game is to hold a chair with only one hand and the idea is to make an entire circle (of the circle) without having even one chair fall on the ground. NO TALKING!
→ Aim: create a tactic in the beginning (while you can still talk- 1min)
→ Tactics: Have a person making a countdown (with his/her fingers), look at each other, hold the chair at end closer to the next chair you are going to hold
→ Feedback at the end is very important
“Stick” together
→ Description: Make a very long “stick’ out of rolled paper (carton) and tape it together. It is good to have a very big group for this game and an equal amount of people should be on both sides of the stick- holding it only with their two index fingers. The idea is to put the stick on the ground. Make a tactic and do it without talking after. (1 min)
→ Aim: “stick” together, teamwork, tactic
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Slap your knees :D
→ Description: A big circle must be made with everyone sitting on chairs. Each person has their left hand on the right knee of the person next to them and their right hind on the left knee of the person next to them. The one who starts the game simply slaps (DO NOT DO IT VERY HARD), he/she has to choose the direction and the hand after theirs is to slap and continue all around the circle. If somebody slaps 2 times, this means that they have changed the direction.
→ Aim: teamwork, connection, paying close attention to everyone (concentration)
→ Feedback at the end is very important
Piano music
→ Classical music is proven to be very calming and perfect for relaxation. Sit in a circle with the entire group, close your eyes and simply listen to the piano. Relax, breath (VERY IMPORTANT)
→ Aim: relaxation, good thoughts, relieve the stress
Summer is almost over and that honestly saddens me. But I have (so far) managed to have amazing experiences with amazing people at amazing places :) Going to Slovenia was very random and to be honest I am more than happy that at the end I decided to actually go for it. The entire thing was actually a training programme by the European Union (so it was actually a pretty important thing). 27 people from 9 different countries attended the course near the small Slovenian town- Ptuj. Slovenia, Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Georgia, France, Serbia and Latvia all gathered in one place made the entire week seem like yet another school week for me :) Surprisingly I was the youngest one there but it took me a couple of hours to understand that age did not really matter. Haha, actually almost nobody believed me that I was so much younger than them. People were genuinely surprised that I was soon to be a senior, who knows English so well and the knowledge which I displayed was in reality (a lot) higher than theirs. Yes, this amazed me quite a lot but it made me smile as well (of course it did :))) )
The name of the actual thing was "Start up...Your Future" and the main idea of it was to raise awareness to European unemployability, as it is indeed a serious issue amongst youngsters nowadays. We discussed many different topics and had even more ice-breakers along the way. People shared their experience with the others and these were some of the most valuable lessons there. Attending this was a challenge at the beginning, but it was more of a mental challenge rather than something else. By the 3rd day, I freely expressed opinions and ideas, communicated freely with my new friends and developed myself in ways about which I never even knew about :)
gummygunk
kianamaiart