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 ;)

4 months in AUBG\Meeting the Bulgarian President

Despite studying in ELI  many unbelievable things occured during my surviving.

First of all, I was lucky but surprised to meet the actual President of Bulgaria. Accidentally did  I meet him. I was surprised by the fact that no huge-preparations were done. Nobody was obliged to wear uniform or follow only a particular path. The day seemed completely the same as the any other day. I did not even know the President was coming although there were some ads but I didn't pay any attention on them. Rosen Plevneliev gave a speech at the university, which I didn't manage to attend because I was making varenyky. In fact, I  was surprised how the atmosphere was so  relaxed and unpretentious. I faced with the President of Bulgaria on the  first floor of the campus I lived on. Basically, everything happened all of a sudden. I was giving back an iron when the  President came. Unbelievable it may seem. The President shook hand with the students, who were there at that moment. Someone said : "Guys, if you don't speak Bulgarian say "hi" in English". I did not expect to meet the President and I've been in shock for a long time since then. I'm really impressed there were no huge  preparations; nobody stopped the traffic or blocked the road ; in my country when the president even a mediocre politician  comes all roads are closed and the traffic is stopped. Surprise.

Secondly, we had a Christmas Bazzar in AUBG and we raised over 100 euro. The money will be spent on shoes and clothes for the local kids house. I'm happy being involved in charity and  volunteering. I spent the whole day selling food  albeit I had been tired couple days before but I enjoyed selling and serving.

The most interesting part of these 4 months was making  varenyky. To begin with, I had spent 3 hours cooking them and 5 mins cleaning the kitchen from dough-mess because  I was run out of time. Everybody liked varenyky. I was so happy to bring a piece of the ukrainian culture on campus!  Later, I was teaching how to make varenyky to Americans and not only to them. I must say we managed to make a huge number of varenyky for 1.5 h. Amazing! Varenyky a little bit  resemble dumplings but can be made with both sweet and salty inside.

Also, I was taught to do CPR.
These 4 months were significant with Ukrainian meetings. We  cooked  Ukrainian dishes only such as : borshch, mlynzi ( pancakes), salo with bread, crabstick salad and kiev's cotelettes. I'm happy that  Ukrainians are gathering on campus time to time. So  we spent hours  talking in Ukrainian. Also, the day before leaving we gathered again and ate salo. Although we were happy eating salo we also watched movies and on the 3rd movie we dropped off. It was so unusual but sweet to sleep in a coat sharing a bed with 3 other people. It was pointless to leave a room because most of us had to wake up at 7am.

 I passed my finals successfully so Step 3 is waiting for me. These 4 months were full of changes but full of obstacles. Step 3, here I go.

Two weeks, too impressed.

The orientation week  finished with a big cake and  picnic party. I was lucky to talk and to get acquainted with the President of the  University and his Wife, who also gave me a very useful advice. It was so nice of her. Surprisingly, I didn't recognize them at the first glance but i was pleased and surprised, when  discovered I was talking toTHEM! My American scarf attracts people.

The 2nd week was good. I became a coffee-addict...literally. I will drop off if I don't drink a large espresso without sugar. My typical break-snacks are coffee and kit-kat...too American. Thanks to AUBG we have a really good coffee-machine with a nice coffee, which makes coffee not only instant but also natural. As I wrote before, we have really fun lessons, which are just more American.

I went to acquapark, where water was quite cold. I go to the gym almost every day.  Such a pleasure finally to be able to exercise. I've been pretty busy these days, homework, tests, events, food......food....and food.

Here are some specials, events and impressions of mine:

• Floor party !! Suddenly, we had  ice-cream floor party, where we had looots of ice-cream ( of any kind) cola, juice and cookies. GOSH I was at the gym that day and ice-cream party made it special to me. Furthermore, I met a Ukrainian there.YES.So we spent 3 hours chatting. Finally found a Ukrainian soul out here.
• A door access broke down! The whole night with the beeeping sounds. This is Skapto life
• I attended the lecture which was about elitism-populism because I love history. I was curious about the way, the lecture was taught and given. After the lecture finished  a small-food-party occured ...again food but  nice cookies, blue cheese, which I've never tried before) and other appetizers  made it special.  I got acquainted with the Professor of History and we discussed the difference between Slavic languages and their history.  I really like Professors' attitude here because you can easily  come to any of them for an advice, asking a question or presenting an idea. They usually welcome to hear and to talk to students. There is no wall or upNdown feeling.
• Also, I signed up for a Cooking club. On wednesday we had a meeting  hence we will prepare some food  for its club's birthday.  I couldn't decide which process  I wanted to participate in as far as  there were lots of options but my choice was cooking brownies. What's interesting that I'm in one group with a Professor. Unusual to see your teachers in my case professors being involved in the same projects along with students. Hence on Monday we'll be cooking brownies in the professors' home. The fact we'll be there is very surprising to me as a student studying and living all my life in a different society.  Moreover, as far as I'm fond of GB suddenly I'm hearing a very strong British accent. Exactly, British. Unbelievable but we have a chef from Manchester! Still can't believe it. Where is Blagoevgrad and where is Manchester, where is American University and where is England. I've never thought that  I would ever meet a true british (especially not a student) in this university.
• We have sushi in the canteen. Isn't bad, huh?
• We had a Ukrainian Party where we sang Ukrainiansongs finishing with the Ukrainian Anthem. I was wearing the embroidery shirt. Hearing the Ukrainian language was so nice.
• We had a test which I passed! But I need a higher result so I will work on it.  By the way, tests are evaluated in percents ( the passing score\percent is 64).
• Today was a nice running across the city because a shop sign stated visa electron cards are accepted there. So I wanted to buy a sim-card and already signed up to get it when it figures out they don't accept paying by cards. It was a Sunday evening banks were closed (to exchange the currency) the sale assistant spoke neither English nor Russian  so he stared  at me without a piece of understanding what I was saying. So I was trying to explain everything in BulgarianoRussian.
• I took part in the community service because I've always dreamed about being a volunteer and helping others. Actually the territory was clean enough so in vain did we volunteer.

Also, I love doing my homework sitting on grass which doesn't appear here as smth. bad or awkward. The last time I was sitting on grass was in my hometown when suddenly someone started taking photos of my friend and me, while we were eating  ice-cream.

Anyway, living here is fun but hard. You can observe a plenty of students in lobbies studying. But it's impossible to study here because every day at the same time at least 3 events occure and almost every of them accompanied by food. America.

This is too pretty to be able to concentrate on  homework

   

To be continued...

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.