1-2nd Days, first lessons, I’m an ELI student, impressions

Monday 8:30 AM !! YES, so early!  We had a meeting in AUBG with our future teachers. And guess what again? I just felt  and guessed, who will be my teacher. Have no idea how, but I just looked at her and thought, that “ Yes, she might be my teacher”. And it happened. I wasn’t impressed that much, but it was a little unusual. As I  already have my lessons, I feel as I must write everything without mistakes…oh-oh.

Soooooo, my impressions.  I love green color. )))) Okay, the lessons here  are COMPLETELY different from those I had in my school.  The same situation is with language courses.

• ·         We don’t feel here (finally) pessimistic energy from teachers ( Well of course not everyone were so pessimistic in my school, but sometimes it happened. For example ( we don’t know anything, shouting at the whole class, if you want to express your opinion it means you are bad and you are arguing with a teacher, you’re shaking because you’re scared to be asked by a teacher or to receive a bad mark etc…But again not everyone and everything was so bad)  So, back to ELI, we have a relaxing atmosphere in a classroom. The lesson is fun, interesting but at the same time full of important and necessary information. We learn everything in a completely different way. Like: associations method( that really works), nobody shouts at the whole class… Well teachers just love what they do! And when they do love their job, you really feel like a human, like a happy human.  We receive positive energy here.
• ·         New classrooms, air-conditioner…BUT we don’t have a window in classroom, I’ve just noticed it ( buuut it doesn’t distract your attention from lesson, that’s plus).
• ·         Different countries , I already have students from India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Bulgaria in my classroom. But believe me there are much more nationalities here. There are students from Belgium, Tanzania, and my rockfriend from Macedonia.
• ·         We have long lessons, but frankly speaking, they are really fast. We have 30mins break and 1:30 hour lessons.
• ·         We have good teachers, with real accents!!! There are two of them who lead my lessons. What is really  really really amazing, that our Bulgarian teacher has a real American accent….Well if I didn’t know, that she’s from BG, I would think she’s  an American. And that’s great!!! Because we listen to  a real  American, and  good English. Also we have a teacher from the US, and yes, he has an American accent too. :D
• ·         Different way of giving an information to students and different way of teaching… English tenses, my gosh, believe me  it’s  completely COMPLETELY different than what we have in Ukraine. None of my teachers has never explained this topic in such easy way. It’s really different. And in reality it’s much easier than we thought. Now thanks to lessons, all English tenses are in a proper list in my head. You just think” What kind of action is it” And yay, you use the right tense. All clue words ( like if we see “always, usually” in a sentence it means we must use only Pr.Simple and that’s all, NO it doesn’t work! It depends if it’s a single or repeated action, if we have specify time or not, etc, etc, etc…). The way we learn here, is much better and more understandable. Love it!
• ·         We’ve already written 2 essays, we have homework every day, and we learn vocabulary…not just simple words and their translation BUT we always do a collocation using this word, synonyms, antonyms…And it also impressed me. But again, it’s amazing and helpful, because now, you know not just a word, but you can explain its meaning, and you can say lots of synonyms to this word.  
• ·         OH AND YEAH, WE HAVE A COFFEE AND A SNACK MACHINE IN OUR CENTRE!!!! Yeeeeeeeees 

In conclusion, my general impression is  great, and I really enjoy the lessons. I feel relaxed, happy and smart here.  Moreover, Boryana and Dave  know what they do and they also love what they do, anyway, they have soo cute and sweet story of their marriage, that even inspired me….too sweet.

Okay, that’s all for today, future journalist needs a rest.

Romania-Bridge-Bulgaria-Twins reunion-Sofia-Starbucks!

This year I was lucky, cuz. I’ve had quite good neighbors in a train-room, than last year. I’ve practiced a bit of Bulgarian , and relaxed for 2 days. I really liked a train station in Bucharest, Romania, that time we’ve had 40 min of break, so I decided to come out of train and breathe  a real Romanian air.  Well, my impression ( of what ive seen at least) of Romania, is that this is  a country of differences.  It has an awesome train station, and even double-decker trains!!! Yes, ive never seen them. BUT at  the same time you can see really old, broken seats, walls, old buildings. A really nice mix. People are really different you can see poor people, local citizens, and really European style people the same time. Also, there was a strange runner at 12am on a bridge 

AND finally I came back to Bulgaria for 3^rd time already!!! And I was really happy about my coming because guess what? My Bulgarian sister-twin-best friend has met me !! This is sooo sweet that I want to cry even now. Twins   have too much in common, like she came with Katelyn (cuz volunteers were allowed to bring their students) and then I became Katelyn Junior. We both have tooooo much stories to tell about, and yep we’re left-handed…so im really grateful that I met Pavlena.  But let’s stop the crying sweet story, and just move on :D

Just after I’ve arrived, I screamed “ Starbucks” OMG!!! And I did it!!! AAAAAHHH…. We went to Starbucks, I took Frappuccino-mocca-crispy with cookies and then Americano.  Ive felt American, like, you know, coffee cup in your hands, American style ahahh, nice…).  Then we hanged around a city, and oh my gosh, I tried Bulgarian subway, there is even subway there in Sofia! :D It’s nice, it’s new, I really liked the idea of historical posters ( mini-museums) in subway, but ahah, my first words were “ OMG it looks like public toilet” Well, don’t take it really close, because what I’ve seen next!! Impressed me,  super-new –European carriages which I didnt expect to see. Then I’ve visited Russian shop, that had Ukrainian salo , but didn’t have Ukrainian sweets and ice-cream.  ALSO, I tried Bulgarian tram, wohhoo! Then there was a strange guy-actor-chaplin, who wanted to take a pic with me. And the best part of Sofia, was a completely brilliant present from my sis – frame with photos of us ^_^  and sweet. Cute, honest, nice words on its back. Now this present is on my desk in dorms : )   Sofia was great, but I’ve had a bus at 5 pm.

On a way to Blago there was huge thunderstorm! So, surely after I arrived to Avtogara, I decided to take a taxi, and to go right to Dorms. Well nothing really changed completely, but I have ants in my room. Just imagine, nice morning, coffee,  and there are crowds of ants in your bread,  good. But, hopefully, they fixed it, because I wrote in a book of damages about this problem, and actually there are still ants in my room but not so much…( they still hope that I’ll leave bread for them in  a shelf) .

Let’s move on, this year I live in a Resident Assistant room…woohhoo! On the 2^nd floor. My neighbors are from Russia and Moldova…so actually we have a Russian-speaking community in my room. :D  Unsleeping, insomnia, homework, starving are almost my everyday “friends”.  And yes, I might be on BgTV, because at time when I was signing the papers, the television began to shoot us. Awwww.  The first day was okay.

Visa-Jumping in the Embassy

This week was, perhaps, the most nervous I’ve ever had.  Right after I came from camp GLOW, I applied for a Bulgarian “D” visa, which is a really long and terrible process.   I’ve booked train tickets on 22^nd of August, and had to arrive on 24^th. ( right on Independency Day of Ukraine). For a week I was calling to Embassy with a hope that I got my visa, but every time  I got the answer that my visa is on agreement process. The worst words to hear really. Sooo, time flies, time comes,  a date of departure is closer and closer and I still don’t have visa.

21th no visa. I asked them if there were a possibility of receiving it on next day, but as they explained; I could get it only if Bulgaria accepts my application between 9-10am, then maybe I can get it. But well I was ready to sleep over at the Embassy, begging for visa, because acc I’ve had 2 options either I return my train tickets and maybe come late, ( and just not really cool when everything messed up and you need to start everything from the beginning) or I come in the morning ( because I had to take translated docs )and my parents will bring me my luggage, that ive packed, again having no idea what to expect.   This awkward feeling, you know, when you are packing clothes, having no idea of what will be the next day, of this visa, of nothing at all!

Well, it’s better to call everything as “ A long hard road out of hell”. Earlier, before applying I just joked that “I’ll receive my visa just on a day of my departure” And actually, I don’t know what happened, but it was a Miracle, a real Miracle!!! At 11 am I was already at the Embassy, I waited for a long, again I met an awesome Bulgarian guardian : ) , waited, and I was informed that I’ve already got my visa. I was too shocked, I jumped and screamed just right there in a centre of the Embassy made other laughing. I couldn’t believe, I thanked to everyone there, hysteria!

Then I called to parents, and yes I go…I go to Bulgaria. 

Heeey heeeyyy G.L.O.W. !

General super-impressions and information

July has gone far far far away,  so here is my report. As you might know this month was really amazing: full of useful information, experience, Americans, friends and just fun! So,  in 5 days after a  festival I've attended a really awesome and inspirational camp G.L.O.W. ( Girls Leading Our World) that's organized by Peace Corps Volunteers from the US, and almost free for campers, because lots of  good people donate their money into this project. The main idea of this camp is  to show us the main world's problems and to teach us tolerance, leadership and teamwork as well. We talked about gender discrimination, human trafficking which statistic is really impressive!!! ( 1% of women escape from slavery! just imagine that!!!), domestic violence ( the main rule of its is do not , do not, do not stay with a person who forces you to do smth. against your will, do not stay with this person!), HIV\AIDS and many many more interesting and useful topics.  We've had guest speakers everyday who talked to us, we've had like 3-4 lessons each day, with small breaks ( when we've had snacks wooohhooo!!! :33 mostly it was coffee with some cookie or biscuit and ice-cream ). 

It was an English camp! It was  a really fun camp! It was an amazing camp! 

Only what i can say now are:

WOW, I want to share these topics and ideas with others

AWESOME now i will and i'm able to help people. 

YES i'm strong enough and i'll achieve everything

STOP  discrimination, putting tags on people, gender violence.

And randomly we have WAYS, and really! WAYS of help, of work, of living, of our decisions!

Everything depends on us and on the WAYS of our decision or behavior in one or other situation. 

Talking about ways of escape there are two emergency numbers ( for Ukrainians) that are free, you just call there in a case of slavery, or if you need any help. These numbers are FREE!

386- is a number where you can get an advice if you have some troubles in your family, or with your friends, or you need an advice of  a professional lawyer , or psychological help.

527-   is an International Organization for Migration in Ukraine, you should call there if  you decided to go abroad, or some " work-company" offered you a job and you want to work there. Calling to this number you can check that your work-place-company really exist! And that everything is official, they'll give emergency numbers of Embassy in a country where you go etc. 

Just PLEASE do not be lazy to check any place where you go!!! Calling to one of these numbers you'll spend about 10 minutes, but  then maybe you'll save your life! 

Despite lessons, we also have had lots lots of fun! And yes we've had a campfire! with smores!! It was sooo awesome cuz. it was with American marshmallows! In the morning we could attend different morning activities like parkour!, aerobic, pilates, dances, yoga ahhh lots of ! Also there were different team-building activities, and my favorite big-roll hug :), and yeees water-balloons fighting, photo hunting contest....aww lots of fun.

G.L.O.W. is my 2nd FAMILY! 

The best part  of a camp were energizers! Cuz. yyees we were exhausted especially on the morning meetings, AND do not let us sleeping, guess what? aha, we've had super energizers...Crazy  stuff really!
My favorite was 60's party from a 60's movie ....chaotic, fun thing!

Also I liked the activity when we've made ribbons for HIV-kids, it was really my dream to help at least a little bit them!

Acivities time!

Leadership lesson!

Energizer time!

And a Family time!

I'm really impressed of camp and so happy that i've had an opportunity to go there!
As I know this camp  should be next year too!  And any of you can attend it!
When there'll be an information of when, how, where, applications. Be sure,  i'll let you know!

And now you can attend camp-groups in VK and FB where all information will be too and where you can ask questions if you have them!
http://vk.com/club45798489
https://www.facebook.com/groups/364164293679015/

If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask me!

And to sum up all my awesome impressions, here is a video, which was created by our awesome volunteers,  of our camp G.L.O.W. ( or just how i've spent these fantastic 5 days)

Enjoy

I love love love love every detail of camp!  It was just CAMPAMAZING! :)

P.S. and yes i've already applied for Bulgarian "D" visa and went to a Bulgarian Embassy, so they promised that i'll receive my visa on time! almost 2 weeks till the new life! Excited!