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Attending the HOSIC conferences in Vienna.

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Towards the end of the calendar year, I have managed to participate on the HOSIC conference in Vienna. HOSIC stands for hands on student involved conference hence, these conferences deeply involved my critical thinking skills as well as my communicative skills. My creativity and teamwork was developed throughout our preparation for the conferences, seen as we ourselves also had to contribute to the discussions by a presentation. The big topic was "The Human Mind" and we have decided to explore the sleeping processes of the human body. This was very interesting and enlightening. I enjoyed working in my group as we were all really close and tried to help each other as much as we could. I have also developed myself as a public speaker, because we had to stand in front of a group of people to deliver our presentation. This wasn't that much of a difficult task for me as I am a performer since an early age and enjoy stages. Nevertheless, it has developed my delivery patterns of a formal speech.

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Welcoming PSI middle school boys at the airport in Sofia

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While I have traveled to Helsinki during the soccer season, the middle school boys' soccer team came to the tournament taking place here, in Sofia. Our school was organizing this event. I have volunteered to design the cultural trip for these boys, that was supposed to occur during the 31st October- Halloween. I have decided to create a treasure hunt map of Sofia, which gave the kids directions to move around the downtown and find different stations. Other volunteers would be at these stations giving out candy, so essentially it was a trick or treating treasure hunt. It was very difficult to plan as I had to design the map, which greatly contributed to my knowledge about Sofia. I was designing this map along with my fellow classmate, which developed my team work, as well as communication skills. Moreover, we also had to organize the final dinner for the children. We went to a restaurant, where we ordered meals previously decided on, and negotiated the prizes. This gave me a taste of the business world and what it really takes to organize an event. I realize that it must be very difficult to be able to take care of everything yourself, and it is important to divide the responsibilities.

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Soccer During the months of September, October, and November, I have participated in our school’s soccer season. At the end of the season we have traveled to Helsinki, Finland to a CEESA tournament where we won third place. I have enjoyed this soccer season very much, as we had a team that worked really well together. While we were all from different grades and didn’t necessarily talked to each other before, I feel like soccer brought us all together. It taught us a great team work and developed our communication skills. Our team had a great perseverance as the final tournament was played in the snow, and it was very difficult to run, kick, or to even see where the ball is. However, we have overcame all of these challenges together and really helped each other on the field and outside of the field. We became great friends, and had a lot of fun. I learned that nothing is impossible. In our last game, as we were playing for the third place against Belgrade, we were all pushing our limits. We went beyond our own boundaries and played the best we could. Even though sometimes it seemed like we were going to lose the game, we did not give up and played on. This brought great results as we won the bronze medals.

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Soccer games in Helsinki

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getting a 3rd place award

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At the end of September I went on the IB retreat where I experienced a lot of unexpected things. Even though the weather wasn't too friendly the overall experience of this retreat was amazing. I was able to connect with my peers as well as enjoy doing activities I've never done before. I got to climb rocks, up-sail 50 meters down, jump off of rocks, went kayaking, bike riding and many different activities. We have also explored caves and practiced our orientation skills. It was a lot of fun and a great team work practice, seen as we were divided into different groups. We also got to be creative and rehearsed a short pirate play. While having fun we have also managed to do some service, and helped with painting a church and planting flowers. I really enjoy this trip, it is just sad that it was the last one.

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For my mom's birthday, we have planned a surprise and "abducted" her to Austria. There is a huge lake called Neusiedlersee, around which is a nice path for biking that is about 90 km long. However, we have only decided to bike only half of that. It was very difficult because while it was really beautiful weather and sunny in the morning, later on a thunderstorm came and we were biking with thunders and lightnings all around us. It was a great and tiring adventure. Austria is a beautiful country that I personally am in love with.

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Most of my summer I've spent working. I got a great internship in the Psychological Research Center, that has greatly contributed to my future. I decided to take this internship, because I am playing around with the idea of studying psychology. My work consisted of taking care of mentally disabled people, and teaching english to more cognitive ones. It was amazing to see the development within the people with mental disabilities. Not taking english classes before, one girl was able to speak almost fluently after two weeks. Every single person I met there made a huge impact on me and my emotions. These people were filled with humor, and positivity. They were really funny and always told me jokes. We really grew on each other and many of them brought me presents when they knew it was my last day at work. It was such an enhancing experience that made me open my eyes to many psychological illnesses, and how difficult life is for some people. We had dance classes, we were learning, we played games, we went grocery shopping together. It was really amazing and I wish my internship could've been longer. I also developed my team work skills as I had to be able to connect with my colleagues and work with them on different projects. We became an amazing collective and they have accepted me very well.

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During the sumer I got an opportunity to make an art exhibition of my paintings as well as my poetry in the Hilton hotel. This experience has greatly influenced me, because until that point I never wanted to show my art work, or poetry to anyone. I never imagined I could've had my own exhibition. I really developed myself as an artist and became more open minded. It was very successful and I met a lot of inspiring, and interesting people. I enjoyed it very much. At the moment I'm working on more paintings and getting ready for another exhibition, which should be even bigger this time.

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The school year is slowly coming to an end the graduates of 2014 have already left the school. I have decided to help during the graduation to support all of my graduating friends. I was ushering and welcoming people to the event. I really enjoyed it, because I like communicating with different people and it was a lot of fun.