The Stara Zagora Exchange

The bus stops in front of us and my heart skips a beat. Most of us start screaming, crying out of happiness, waiting for the people we have waited to arrive for so long to recognize our faces. That's when I see her and…

You thought you were about to start a book for a split second, didn't you? That you are at the wrong place? Well, you are at the right place, that's my personal response to our exchange that took place the last week of March.

24th of March - Sunday

...we hugged. I can admit, it was emotional,but nothing can beat our arrival in Poland last year. However, my sweetheart (Julia) met mom and we walked home since I live really close to our school. And since we haven't seen each other for like a year we talked about everything you can think of. She was kinda tired so we had dinner, had a small talk and went to bed.

25 of March - Monday

With having our breakfast- scrambled eggs with Bulgarian cheese- we left for school, met up with the other students and registered! In the morning we were basically introduced to the 17 sustanible development goals and shared some thoughts about it. After having lunch, we went to the Ayazmo park where we played some outside games like bowling, and others. We witnessed (absolutely by accident) seniors dancing a traditional Bulgarian dance - horo! We went to the Zoo, which is very close to the Ayazmo Park, and after that we hunged out at the cafe close to our school. I am really glad that we got to hand out with almost every exchange students that afternoon. That's the day that I met most of the students, had small talks with them and most importantly- got to laugh together.

For dinner mom prepared many traditional Bulgaria dishes so our exchange student gets to experience most out of everything.

26th of March - Tuesday

That's one of my favourite days. Long story short we started our day with reflections of what we did the previous day, then we played this game of pictures- we were given a picture and we had to connect it to a future trend, very creative game if I need to be honest. In the afternoon we visited the District Court where they showed us a presentation about cyberspace. We had the afternoon for ourselves. But there was one thing I really wanted to do with her - to bring her to my trainings. I've been training archery for couple of years now and it's an extrodinary sport that many people haven't even heard of. So I asked Julia in advance if she had any interest in trying this sport and she was actually interested in trying it! Me, her and my mom went to the place where I train for the last 20 minutes. Couple of my teammates met her and I introduced her to my coach! On top of all, she tried shooting after I showed her and gave her instructions(no one was hurt during this period of time).

27th of March - Wednesday

Again, out day started with reflections, after which we started woring on our dream city. We were given supplies to draw on and to draw with and we had 40 min- 1 h. to start developing our dream city. I think me and the team got along - we split and everyone started working. I could tell we were having fun - we talked, listened to music - I was really enjoying the athmosphere. In the afternoon, we went to the City Hall and we met the Mayor, the Ombusdman and the young Ombusdmen of our city. They gave us speeches, one of those speeches were translated by one of our Bulgarian students(really proud of him) and after that we were free to go. But our day doesn't end here. In the evening, we went to a Puppet Show. That is my favourite part of the day - I got to talk with most of the students there(while we were waiting of course). One of the Swedish students even played us the piano and we sung together(it was Bohemian Rhapsody you guys)! At the end of the show, we had the opportunity to dance horo with the actors and the audience! I really enjoyed that part mostly because the students from the other countries got to try and learn one of our traditional dances!

28th of March - Thursday

Finally Thursday - that means trip to Plovdiv! I was waiting fot this day for the whole week with so much excitement! Traveling is maybe my most favourite activity to do in my free time. It is in my nature - I have grown travelling on buses, cars, because my mom and my dad have been separated since I was 2, my dad living in my hometown and my mom - here in Stara Zagora for the past 5 years.

Our first destination was a very exciting one - a chocolate factory. In the begining we were introduced to the process of making chocolate and after that we had the chance to witness it and even make our own chocolate! I had mine with dry fruits, but you could put nuts, chocolate particles ect. At noon, we travelled to the city center, where we had free time to wander around. Some people ate, but some people like me just wandered around, observing the place. Of course, me and Julia had to visit the bookstore :). After that we had a small tour around the Old city and left for the Bachkovo Monastery. The Bachkovo Monastery is a major Eastern Orthodox monastery in Southern Bulgaria, which we had the chance to visit. Inside the monastery there is a church, a small one. I enjoyed it, even thought I am not very religious myself. On my way back to the bus, I was joined by one of the Polish students, who I met last year. Some other people joined and we actually had a great converastion! On our way back to Stara Zagora I just relaxed - listened to music and talked to the teachers. In the evening me and Julia enjoyed dinner and maybe went to bed later than expected - practice makes perfect.

29th of March - Friday

So you may be really confused about that last sentance - what we practiced were speeches, because we, as Bulgarian hosts, were organizing an event based on a Ted Talk one; if you don't know what a Ted Talk is it's basically an oraganisation that hosts oratories, speeches and all in between. And we had something like that. Me and a friend of mine, also a part from the project, presented an oratory on the topic "Anesthesia Awareness", which is basically a condition where you are awake during surgery, but you are paralyzed and can't signal that to anyone. It's a really hard topic to talk about. Ovarall the event went pretty good - I liked the speeches that everyone gave and even thought every one of them had to be connected in some way to the goals, they were still interactive and creative. The rest of the day was free for us - me and Julia spent it by ourselves - and I'm actually not mad at that - we ate Sandvichak, we went shopping, we watched a movie and a half (which we finished later that day) and basically we had the rest of the afternoon for our own. But because it was our last day (as sad as it sounds) we had a party! We sang with every vocal string that we had, leaving the night without any voice. So many people cried that night - those were one of our last moments together. But as I always love to say "Be happy that it happened, don't be sad because it's ending".

Last Day - 8am