Bring it to Poland

It feels I am  a one step forward and I am going my destined way.

 Two years ago I contemplated studying in Poland yet I chose a different path.  One week before the deadline I had gathered all the documents required and applied to the American University in Bulgaria(AUBG). Undoubtedly, the AUBG summer camp in 2012 left too many good memories which led me through the next, the hardest one, school year so I was eager to come back and revitalize them. It took me a year of intensive daily courses of the English language in AUBG so to become a fully accepted student. Could I but not believe I would ever be able to pass the SAT successfully. In May 2014 one of my "child" dreams was succeeded,  I was accepted to the American University having been a mediocre pupil in school, who had not got any diploma of excellence. Yet my destiny chose me the another path. Because my family couldn't cover the tuition offered I was ought to change my place of studying.

Considering different conditions and opportunities it is Poland where I decided to study. I was not excited at first to be going to Poland yet the very first day changed everything! I can not describe but be grateful for being able to study here and not anywhere else. To clarify: I will be studying at the university in Kielce, Poland and at the moment I am having a 2 months course of Polish. Right, I will be studying in Polish considering the fact that I am a complete zero at it yet I believe everything will be fine as far as I am ready to study hard.














It feels like home here, I have never experienced the feeling of being satisfied and relaxed in the place where I lived. I do not want to go anywhere at all. I do not want to go home or any other country, I am fine here. The feelings I have are confidence, satisfaction and happiness. Lviv ( Ukraine) and Poland are the places where I am happy to be. Just watching out of a window, glimpsing random pedestrians passing by, I understand that I was meant to come here. What is interesting is that this city in Poland resembles me of Blagoevgrad a little bit!

About Polish people and University:
I am literally LITERALLY  in such a huge over-emotional amazement of hospitality that it is really hard to be described. It was not like this in Bulgaria though we did have an orientation week yet what we have here is wordless. It is not even an orientation week here as we do not have a free day to spend in front of our laptops. Every day we are asked and offered to go somewhere.

Some situations that left me numb:

• We were on our way to a Centre when we were asked to wait near a supermarket. Could not we but imagine to be treated with ice-cream for no reason just right there and later with juice and cookies in the centre, in which people did not have any affailiations with whom we were. 
• After telling how we boil rice and sausages in a kettle with the students ( because currently we do not have kitchen) the next day huge! pockets with food were brought to us for no reason just right there. 
• We went to the grill-party in the local restaurant where we ate fried sausages and meat for free. 
• On the first day of our lessons we had a very good breakfast and lunch- for free. 

I also should mention that we have lots of fun with Polish people here, jokes and smiles are always on our faces. I am seriously mesmerized and can not describe my emotions. Though I am sure they have lots of fun with our (or my) pity tries to speak Polish. So hard to do Polish when Bulgarian is screaming out loud in your head! Also it is hard to forget when we sang the Polish song about Sokoly and Ukraine at the party.

I love it here, I feel numb but I am happy to be here. I like the architecture, style and buildings in Kielce. Nothing happens for no reason.

I will try to enhance the topic of living and studying  later.

Step 3, SAT, Accepted. (omg) (pt2)

It was so awkward to be  the only one on the whole floor studying. My mornings usually began with rushing and rushing later on the 30-min break I bought a cup of Lavazza coffee and sometimes dyuner with chicken. You simply get veery hungry after 1.30 h. of studying and you need to release off  the nervousness of the upcoming SAT. However, keep reading there'll be a huge omg at the end. ^^

At the beginning of the semester I did go to the club with mostly Erasmus students from abroad and far away countries. No wonder, it was almost the only party I've been to because the rest of my time I spent studying, not fun. Anyway,  I really liked that party due to dances and fun. Although, there were too many smokers but the music was fine and dancing with Americans felt different. And every time I had to go to the campus I was afraid of the darkness and homeless dogs these were the disadvantages for me.
 

The next 3 months were very tough:

• waking up early in the morning
• math. MATH was the biggest problem to me!  I didn't really study it at school because my teacher hated me openly and I usually had lower marks than I deserved to hence I stopped learning math eventually. I was very afraid of math on the SAT and our math classes weren't enough to me because mostly we got the explanation of the tasks given and the new tests to be done at home. Clearly, I, having no idea of most of the formulas needed, was scared and nervous. I felt math was my soft spot.
• Every, every single day I learnt math on my own in the library. It was very tiresome because in addition to homework on words, essays and math I did more math actually I studied it from the very beginning. There was a huge book contained all the math needed with practice tests that I studied thoroughly.

So my usual routine was:
-classes
-lunch mostly I ordered food to go and ate in my room and whilst eating I studied >_< I studied words for the SAT on vocabahead.com.
- 4pm  library => homework and the rest of free time - MATH!
- library clothes 9.30 mini-dinner contained of salad or some sandwiches with pate.
- more homework
-sleep

• Clearly this routine was not very healthy and I caught cold very fast. I think, the 1st time was 2 months before the SAT I almost had the high temperature, sore throat and  my voice disappeared but I felt compulsion in studying. I remember how my instructor was persuading me to stop studying so hard and have some sleep but I knew I didn't know math at all. Simply I cried most of the time because I was disappointed in myself. I had like 460 rarely 500 on math. and yeah. not good.
   The 2nd time I got sick was just before the SAT almost 1 week before it. Nervousness, lack of sleep made it happen. However, in 2-4 days of very hard work on my health,  drinking vitamins in pills, lemons, hot milk with honey, onions, every day mouth rinsing to be precised. 

However, despite my depression over math, hard work on it, crying in vain because usually I had 1000 points in total but on the real tests it gets worse I kept studying. There was about a month until the SAT and I realized that my scores  left  a lot to be desired - again my cries. I didn't go out because I felt I would have blamed myself of not studying. 

Anyway, in March was my 18th Birthday! It was the best and the most international( well supposed to be) birthday I've ever had so far. At the end I was left with Ukrainians and we had Loud and Long talks on everything. I ordered several big pizzas and reserved a lobby with sofa. This was amazing to feel honesty and happiness coming from my friends. A birthday cake and balloons. Eating. I truly had a great time. I was about to cry as far as I was truly very happy. 

After my b-day and studying hard the biggest day came. The last day in ELI, the last spent minutes, the last practice test and the last lesson, feeling cheered up and spending the day before IT watching to the Ukrainian show\program Revizor, where a very pretty lady checks restaurants' and hotels' service speaking very good Ukrainian. This lady has so special energy which cheered me up and distracted from thoughts about the SAT. I was happy and missed Ukraine so much. Also that day I spent with my Ukrainian friend, we went to the grocery and later I was treated with grechka ^^ (buckwheat).

And there it was, SAT. Having woken up at 7 am my friend and I went to the local cafe to get some coffee and try to relax before IT. But ukhm, I think the SAT was on Friday and while I was waiting for my friend to come in the morning, ukhm ukhm very accidentally did I witness for a sec as someone continued to having "great" time on sofa in the main lobby together. There were a coffee machine operator and cleaning ladies so it was pretty crowded there and Ouch It was soo __ unexpected. So, I received a portion of good spirit before the SAT. YEAH! 

After having coffee we headed to ELI and after some waiting randomly I was assigned to the same classroom I was studying in for almost a year. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous at all I knew I did my best and on the actual SAT I did everything with pleasure. Time was enough to me, reading wasn't smth. we weren't taught and math, well I skipped several tasks, which  I was nervous of later. 

However, the next day we had TOEFL and nah who cares about TOEFL? After the SAT, doing TOEFL grammar was fun. So, everything was fine. 

On the day, when TOEFL occurred, I was leaving to Sofia because I had a flight the next day. Ohh, you should have seen How I packed my stuff. 30 mins until leaving and I couldn't fit anything at all in my case anymore but still having bunch of stuff to be fitted in nah. I had a book under my jacket, socks\glasses in my pockets, several layers of clothes on me and this was because I had about 5 mins until leaving. Gosh. Can't believe I did it. Taxi exactly 4 mins until a bus leaves, a very nice cab driver driving the longer way to the bus station. The 30kgs suitcase and I with bunch of clothes on my running through the station to bay a ticket first and then to the bus. Gooosh. This was heroic! 

Afterwards, I spent a night in my roommate's parent's house that I am very grateful for. The last Bulgarian food and Bulgarian hospitality was amazing and I was treated with salo ^^ Love it here every time I am staying in someone's house I'm usually treated with salo ^^ Then again I spent the night trying to repack everything so to in the range of limit which was 32kgs on a plane. The suitcase was hard to fasten. And yay 29 kgs! Great job.

So, it's pretty much of my time spent and my story about facing the SAT. 

Finally, I received my scores, which surprised me because I got more points on MATH really! Afterwards, I took the official SAT in Ukraine on the 3rd of May again I studied hard and actually isolated myself whilst studying in my room. Miracles exist, I got 600 ( This usually was my maximum score on math). I enhanced my score and eventually

I was accepted to the American University in Bulgaria.

Nothing is impossible, even if you don't know math at all, work really hard and it's real to receive this score on the SAT. Trust me I was a complete zero in math! I didn't even know how to find the area of a circle and nothing is impossible, right?

So, if you don't know math then work hard, never give up and remember me. I did it and you'll do it even better. 

PS. Also we had a great time learning math with Rafa - a guy from Brazil. As usual for the American Universities on the last lesson we had some snacks to eat^^

All in all, it was a great semester because I got acquainted with many international students.

Also, I attended this year AUBG musical which I loved! And everything can happen in this university for example Mongolians speak Ukrainian. I've been to a one more party at the end of the semester where I danced finally danced a  l o t

Thanks for reading, keep updated some very totally big news coming soon.

Step 3, SAT, Accepted. (pt1)

 Step 3! Having no clue of math and definitely not being ready to face the SAT I entered the classroom and was happy to see the same instructor. I was feeling proud being there and for the last moment could not believe my presence in the classroom as a student of Step 3. There was A Huge Bunch Of Work ahead, a VERY Huge.
My very first impressions coming back:

•  A FREEEEEZING ROOM. ELI's aka the champions were the first to enter their rooms, emptiness, darkness and frreeeeeezing very freezing cold in the room.  Sleeping with two blankets for the rest of the time.
• Shopping. The first thing was shopping at the grocery, bunch of coffee for the biggest semester of hardworking needed and a couple of tea boxes, I guess.
• The next morning classes began at my favourite 8.30 AM I am there! 8.30 a m for the rest of the semester tannndandan. ELI!
• Coincidence, surprise, destiny? One of my closest friends lives in Svishtov, Bulgaria whom I also got acquainted with being in the AUBG camp and coincidence the new student in our classroom, whom also I first got acquainted with and was sitting sharing the same desk in the classroom was also from that city from Svishtov! It felt creepy. Svishtov is not among the biggest cities so seeing anyone from there was really surprising. Love coincidences! 
• The question bothered me on the 1st class was what would happen to me as I did not pay the tuition yet because I had not been told to do so.  When one of the ELI's heads entered yeah my question followed. But still it was so good sitting in the same classroom, felt I was back home. The answer was : " You should already have done it" - was not inspiring. But everything turned out very well because no one really paid for the tuition so Okay!

Mostly my routine was consisted of fun  studying.   Hence nothing extraordinary happened during my living surviving.    But some things DID happen.
I was invited to the American b-day party after some rushing we went to the local cafe. Actually, this was my very first time being at the American b-day I don't know how much american it was but some stuff I noticed. 

After everyone ordered food and me from moment to moment translating cheese into bulgarian we sang a happy b-day song and ate a cake at the end. And here comes the interesting part was it supposed to be so or  I was just out of the world but everyone paid for themselves. In my country, when it's smn's birthday the guests don't pay for anything as usually pays the person invited everyone. Different customs it may be. But believe it was surprising expecting nothing of this kind ordering food, coffee and tandan you pay. I was a little surprised but it's totally okay, it was just different. 

That night was long and full of obstacles___ Firstly, there was no light on the campus at all and me disastrously and ponderously afraid of the darkness and dogs. Then I was saying the word "borshch" all the time I saw a dog on the street coming toward. Haha guys had a great time observing me saying borshch to a dog. I was  just afraid of dogs and borshch was the first thing popped into my head which eventually kept me calm! Afterwards, we were back on the campus, which was filled with complete darkness _ after sooome obstacles I spent time with my Latvian friend. Finally, I know someone from Balkans Baltics personally. Viva Latvia^^ 

Whoops, 5 am and too much  text. Will tell you more of my experience in ELI  later! Some party stories coming soon ;)

Back in Ukraine. Winter holidays.

Being accustomed to do everything by myself I was astonished being helped by a Ukrainian guy to place my Huge luggage on the customs' machine. There it was, Ukraine. The first thing I needed was ..no, not salo..coffee! Still feeling drowsy after any flight so a cup of good coffee always cheers me up. After my luggage was picked up my family and I destinated to the small cafe which was adviced by our friend. And there my soul felt happy eating only ukrainian stuff: borshch with pampushki, pickles, mini pies with cherry jam, salo with garlic and black bread!

Afterwards, I felt compulsion in going at the main square where Maydan was and there I saw a well organized living system, the Ukrainian language speakers,  performers singing ukrainian songs wearing our national clothing, tents for helping English speakers. After a while I spent the New Year at this square where the crowd welcomed the New Year singing the Ukrainian anthem. It was great being a part of really patriotic activity.  Never forget when a huge crowd went downstairs in the metropolitan and continued singing the anthem. Many people of different backgrounds but were so tied up with the coherent target and mind.

In January, I could not skip a chance to stop by and to see the teachers of  my ex school. The first visit to the school was with my exclassmates and there were talks on where everybody is studying. What I liked was seeing our classteacher and school. A little bit later I lured my friend tostop by a school principal and we definitely didn't regret coming by. The principal was so happy seeing and hearing how we were doing. Definitely, I am lucky with most of my school teachers whom I like visiting and talking to after my graduation. After a while, I stopped by the school again and that time I spent 3-4 hours chatting to my teachers and drinking coffee. Felt so happy seeing some of them but more happy were them seeing me. Totally the best memories left after visiting.

All in all, I had only 2 weeks to spend in Ukraine so the rest of my holidays I was at home eating and accumulating the energy for the hardest  and sleepless course coming soon.

Svishtov or Bulgarian London?

 As far as I have not been posting anything at all for a long time I have decided to catch up on these  margins beginning with my Christmas trip to Svishtov or as I call it mini-London.

I was impressed by the huge amount of fog there. Clearly, due to my fascination of London and the UK I preferred to imagine that I was in London. Never have I seen so much fog in my entire life! Hardly could I see what was towards me!  No people due to holidays and so much fog recalled me of the city nearby Chornobyl.

Shortly, the city is so small that my Bulgarian friend and I were able to cross the whole city within 2 hours.

I loved the archaic architecture in the city and people estranged by our talks in English. There it was aka celebrity life, meh not fascinating though.

The city may not have anything in common with old London but my will and imagination made it similar to it.


I observed Dunay river (or Danube, nah Danube?) and Romanian border from the bridge. Plus a one point to Europe, surveillance cameras were everywhere even on the bridge.

Next day I visited my friends' both grandmas' houses and yeaahhh food and customs. I do not know why but due to my observations Bulgarians usually eat meat, fish, salads etc without a garnish. As far as I understand,  garnish ( like mashed potatoes) with fried meat is too heavy for stomach. Many times I saw people eating fried meat without even rice.  Oh these Ukrainians with their food habits :)

Anyway, I tried a lot of new stuff in Svishtov like Pitka ( baked huge bread with my faaaavorite sirene) those rolls made of grape leaves with minced meat inside and much more other food .

BUT food was very good and tasty so I liked it. Also, I just love my friends' family as they bought SAALO (lard) for me. My gosh, I was crying of happiness, it was soo nice of them. Have no idea where they got it but it tasted kinda in a Bulgarian way ( chubriiza) but it was still salo, I ate it whole day by day.  Typical me.

I liked everything in my trip:  the weather, the people, the architecture, salo and hospitality.

Also, there was a very small cute cafe with cakes and coffee. I loved that place.

All in all, I liked my trip and yeaa Christmas in Svishtov. I would definitely love to come there again.
Coffee and fog must be at the place where I want to be.

And Turkish channels on a TV made my trip.

Coming soon

Here are some posts that are coming soon:
1. My trip to Svishtov (Bulgarian London), Bulgarian Christmas.
2. The celebration of the New Year in Ukraine at Maydan.
3. I'm back. Bulgaria - the new differences\ similarities.
4. I'm growing, I know. How big my views have changed, my new aims\dreams\misunderstandings.  Naivity.
5. The SAT. Final.
6. Plans for the summer. Volunteering\festivals...
And much more to come...

I am here!

 For those of you who's  still reading me, I have not forgotten about my blog. Every single day I am full of tests preparing for the SAT I am on my final way. So keep updated!

Love.