One of Us @aubg2022 - Tumblr Blog

"I wanted to cry and to go back home. I called my father: "Can you take me back home?" But then, in the evening, I meet people, my friends, because we know each other before the university. They were in the same situation. They also wanted to go back home. It was a big experience - the first week."

Ibrahim Djukov photographed and interviewed by Dana Lurina

“I didn't know the RAs are students. They are really sweet. But I don't want to be an RAs because it's a lot of work. Respect but no"

ARINA AGAYEVA photographed and interviewed by Ngan Ho (NJ)

Kosta Plevneshti, Tirana, Albania

Kosta Plevneshti is a 73-year-old nature lover. Every morning she gets dressed up to go to “Liqeni” park, and sit in the sun for about two hours. She spent 50 years of her life studying biology and chemistry. She feels the calmest when she's outside and close to nature. Kosta can’t stress enough on the importance of protecting the environment and spreading that message. Everyday she wears a new handmade necklace, but all of them have colorful flowers imprinted inside. “Green is the color of life”-said Kosta. “I have always loved colors and I don’t think I own anything black”. As soon as I told her that this photo was being taken for a project in Bulgaria, she asked me whether her last name rings a bell. After I didn’t come up with any possible solutions she began explaining that her last name is a deviation of Pleven. Her father was originally Bulgarian and her mother was Albanian. Oddly enough they fell in love in Macedonia, but decided to move to Albania. Kosta remembers her roots and has visited Bulgaria twice. She really wanted me to capture her whole outfit. “I wish this wasn’t a Portrait assignment because I would have loved to show my shoes to your fellow students” (the shoes were green too) :)

Story+Photo by Edea Demaliaj

My biggest fear when I was a kid were black and white pictures. I had to see them when I studied History, so I learned to live with that fear and, eventually, times changed. Nowadays, my biggest fear is breaking a relationship with friends. But I’m learning to not care about it, and to survive with myself.

- Gerhard Mema, interviewed and photographed by Javier Jennings Mozo

“The thing I like the most about Political Science is that we study the history of politics and at the same time about modern politics. The articles we read are all from big media platforms like BBC, CNN, etc. We are aware of what is going on with politics nowadays in different countries.”

- Yoana Vuchkova, interviewed and photographed by Velislava Stoitsova

The highlights of my orientation week. Let me think. At first I was very scared internally, I wasn’t showing it. It was more like a mess inside me, I couldn’t understand what was happening, and I thought this was just like a normal feeling. Like being myself, being calm, not something that was bothering me. And then, after a couple of days I realize that there are other people in the same condition as me. It became more easy to bear with it, to feel more comfortable. I met some very good people, friends that I’ve made so far, and it turned out to be something very interesting, because everyone was sharing their experiences and we were all doing these new things together. That really gave me the impression of a family at some point.

-- Klea Muka interviewed and photographed by Alexandra Gouleva

“It was a bit scary but, then I realise that I want to do it. That was something important for me. First of all, I wanted to prove to my parents and to myself that they can be like on my own “

Anastasia Mozgova- interviewed and photographed byVladyslav Kuzyk

I think it was in early 2018 I applied to a competition here. It was the AUBG MultyTalent Quest. And the application process actually required me to get out of my comfort zone. I had to shoot a video, I had to do a math test, and I think I had to answer a couple of other questions, but for me, the video part was really demanding because I’ve never done a video before. I had to post it on YouTube, but I was like “Why not? Why not try something different this time?” and I did. I shoot the video, uploaded it, got accepted into the Quest and came to AUBG for a weekend. I participated in the event and got to see the campus. I also talked with AUBG students and learned more about the university. The facilities here are very impressive. And from then on, I set AUBG as my goal. And when 12th grade came, and I had to choose where to study—AUBG was my first choice.

- Kris Petrov, interviewed and photographed by Denislava Angelova

My favorite sport is skiing. Because I always watched it on the television and I support our Bulgarian competitors in winter sports. Six years ago, when I first started skiing, I was amazed. I learned a lot of things pretty quickly and by the time I was sixteen, I was already going down mainly on the hardest slopes or even outside the slopes in the forests. It is pretty freeing for me to go skiing, listening to music just by my own in the nature. - Alexander Nikolov, interviewed and photographed by Svetoslav Zhelev

The most important thing is to be disciplined and to have this in whatever you do. Because you can be motivated to do something but eventually the motivation will fade. If you are disciplined about something then you keep on doing it and doing it. I think this is one of the most important traits you can have.

- Dori Elron, interviewed and photographed by Lina Chakarova

We had a band. We were called FlipStick and we were all at the same high school. It was kind of a high school band and I joined. Basically, the bassist and guitarist formed a band and they were looking for the vocalist. I just showed up and met them super randomly. It was a talent show in high school, and then we found a drummer. Then we hit it off immediately and we had our own songs that we wrote. We had a chance to record songs. There are some on Youtube even which people are listening to still. We kind of separated when we all went to universities and different cities. And we never got together to like play anymore. - Boriana Ivanova, interviewed and photographed by Rashid Beissov

My biggest achievement so far is developing an Android app for my high school because it’s not so popular in Egypt. My high school has an admission test and they wanted to have an application for students where to upload this information with samples of the test, a location where the exam is going to be held, pictures and such stuff. And I made it.

– Abdalrahman Sameh, interviewed and photographed by Aleksandra Dimcheva

When I was younger I used to dance, I was training ballet and hip-hop dances for 14 years, but now I prefer music and I am playing guitar.

- Teodora Emilova interviewed and photographed by Kostadin Davidov

In terms of social life, I did not know anyone at the beginning because I’m coming from a different country that is very far away. Landing from the airplane felt like ''Oh wow, what am I even doing?''. It was not like a fear because I knew it would work out in the end but it was just the excitement of starting something new. I am feeling very good now.

- Spencer Collins interviewed and photographed by Emanuela Kerencheva

I think that, it is actually my motto in life. To consider every person as a good one. And no matter what he/she is doing or how he/she behaves, for me every person is good and you have to work hard to find his/her good side.

- Radoslav Rusinov interviewed and photographed by Desislava Arnaudova

Classic ballet requires you to be very dedicated because it’s the most difficult dance there is. If you can dance classic ballet, you can learn to dance anything. It is the foundation of any other dance. It requires technique that you develop throughout the years. In order to be good you need to practice a lot. I started when I was five.

- Margarita Arsova, interviewed and photographed by Adel Bali

#aubg #classof2023

Even if you are growing up in a small village, like I did, you can still, like, get in contact with people over different platforms and you can always visit new places, and get what you are looking for. That has had a big impact on me. I love reading other people’s stories and learning new things in general. Having access to people from different countries definitely helps broaden your mindset on general problems. I have made online social media friends, and I think it is a very good experience to have. –Kliment Stamenkov, interviewed and photographed by Yoana Misheva

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