Mountain hiking and creative photo shooting

Last promenade - last pictures. The best ones. A picture should reflect on the inner side of the person that is being portrayed - and the ones we did - do reflect. Soft light, innocent looks, dreams, new horizons.. and memories that will never fade away.

Drawing landscape postcards

We finally got to the last and most important part of our stay in Chiflika - the painting outdoors, that I was personally very enthusiastic about. 

En plein air  is a French expression which means "in the open air," and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors, which is also called peinture sur le motif ("painting on the ground") in French.

Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism. The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes (resembling modern toothpastetubes). Previously, each painter made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil. 

Making a "My Face" collage for a competition

Next to last assignment for our Plein air, we`re leaving tomorrow. :( We had to make self-portraits once again using papers and magazines. Collages ftw! This was a nice way to express myself on paper. Eyes of clouds and a nose of plane, mouth of food and hair of favourite activities. Everything I love - travelling, food, sports, cats, blue, nature, customs, traditions -  I put into building my art image. I was satisfied with the result - an accurate self-portrait inside out. 

Costumes` review and award giving

We were all satisfied with what we did this morning. Both teams made A-M-A-Z-I-N-G eco-folk costumes! We might event start our own fashion line! Who knows...

Mountain hiking and creative photo shooting

Some more hiking after the "art classes" felt like a breath of fresh air - literally. This time, we took our cameras with us and managed to capture a few moments of joy. Like this one:

The teacher is well and alive, though. The boys were just trying to scare her! :)) Up in the woods we found a nice old Trabi and we were like "Oh, look, a Trabi, let`s climb on to it!" And here`s what happened:

A nice photoshoot. And then some more photos. Photography is another thing that makes me joyous. Pictures are moments captured and kept from running away, aren`t they? :) 

 I like that one:
“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” 
― Susan Sontag

Making of eco-folk costume

Next assignment: make a folk costume out of eco materials! No cloth, no fabrics - just old trash bags, old magazines and papers. Bulgaria is a country rich enough in folk costumes and each of them - very unique and hard to reproduce. So our teams had to come up with an original design of a male and female garb. Evani and Memo agreed to be the Silent Assassins` models. Evani`s costume was inspired by the changing fashion trends in the 19th century - women started mixing the traditional Bulgarian patterns with Eastern European motives - hats, jewelry, etc. So we dressed her in a nilon dress with a traditional ornamented belt. Some gold coins on her neck and an extravagant hat on her head gave Evani just the modern look we wanted for her. Memo, on the other side, wore more of a traditional garb - a vest and full-bottomed breeches, again with an ornamented belt. A band saying "Bulgaria" on his head and a pipe to make him look more influencial. The moustache was definitely a 10 points bonus!
We all had a lot of fun designing the garbs, despite all the hard times we faced while trying to put the clothes together. :D 

Collage presentation and award giving

Tired after the long walk, dinner was quite a relief! :D We presented our collages and were given little awards. I am sure we won! Yes, both teams got a certificate, but I`m sure we made the best poster. Look how happy we all are on the pictures. Another evening of positive emotions. I love that!

Eco adventure in search for eco materials

Nature

The sight of the hills is a beauty
The bright moon is the sign of purity
The flow of the river is a murmuring music
The act of the sun is so philanthropic.
The rain of the clouds is very refreshing
The blowing of the wind is so soothing
The roaring of the ocean has its own reason
How charming is the changing of the season! 

Nature. Nature. Nature. Silence. Peace. Harmony. That`s all you get while hiking - and all you really need! We found a bunch of materials that might be used for tomorrow`s assignment and enjoyed a nice long walk through the forest, accross the river, together with the wind.

Making a collage for International Earth Day - 22.04.2013

 Our first ART assignment for the Plein air was to make collage posters for the International Earth`s Day - 22.04. Divided into two teams - the Silent Assassins and the ...., we were given the chance to let our imagination fly. What my team did was to make a world map out of magazine cuttings. It was all worth it - the effort that we put into creating this poster. And we also felt determined, united, real team players! I can proudly say that our poster rulez! The heading is the thing that contributes a lot to the message the poster conveys - "Look at all that beauty. It`s our responsibility to keep it!" People need to be more environmentally aware and try  to do their best to protect the planet. Otherwise, it will soon vanish...

Playing the "Who is Who?" game

Have you ever played this game? "Who is who" a.k.a "Guess who" It`s a really nice one. Not only is it entertaining, but it also helps our minds develop. The person standing in front of his audience has to describe a movie/character/animal etc. This person is not allowed to use words - just body language. So it`s quite catchy trying to figure out what your mate is showing you. Our first evening in Chiflika was definitely fun and we were all surprised to meet the hidden actors that live inside us. :)

Swimming competition

What`s a school trip without a challenge?? Everybody loves swimming, so there was this little competition during our stay in Chiflika! Did you know that even a gentle swim can burn over 200 Kcal in half an hour and a fast front crawl can burn as many calories as an 8mph run? Sounds reaallllly nice, doesn`t it? 

What`s more, swimming is very good for our health. Here are some interesting facts:

• Female swimmers have been shown to experience significantly less tension, depression and anger after exercising than before.
• At least one in six people in Britain suffer from depression at any one time - rhythmic and aerobic forms of exercise such as swimming can improve psychological well being.
• Swimming can support up to 90% of the body’s weight in the water, meaning that those with disabilities, injuries or illnesses such as arthritis can take part in a comfortable and safe environment. It also means you gain a full body workout.
• The support of the water for arthritis sufferers allows less painful movements in affected joints as well as toning up the supporting muscles. Swimming can also reduce the risk of arthritis by helping to retain normal muscle strength and joint structure.
• Taking part in physical activity such as swimming can prevent diseases and conditions that cause loss of function in later life. 
• Different swimming strokes challenge different muscles within the body so you can choose where you tone up.
• The pressure of water causes a shift of blood volume from the periphery of the body to the thorax. This increases venal pressure and so leads to a decrease in heart rate of up to 20bpm lower in water than on land. The same intensity of exercise at a lower heart rate. Only in the pool!

And that`s how our humble team had a lot of fun and crazy moments into the pool and also managed to take care of our health. It was such a pleasant experience swimming into the warm water while raining!

Hip-hop classes

22.03 - Open Day in school

` The Open Day in school went great as usual! There were many people that came to visit and they must have been fascinated by the experiments made in the Biology/Chemistry lab, by the presentations on the multimedia boards, by the demonstrations in each of the class rooms. I felt delighted myself, because I did what I most enjoy - art. I got to represent club "Applied Arts" and I decoupaged a nice transparent plate with beautiful flowers while people were stopping by to see what I`m dealing with. It was a pleasure for me making that demonstration! And as seen on the pictures below, the IB guys were having lots of fun as well!

Dayan making the "colourful flame experiment"

Memo and Velislav selling our special newspaper edition

My decoupaged plate

Local Project: Club "Young Journalist": Making of special newspaper edition

We came up with a great idea for the Open Day at school. A special newspaper edition: "What you don`t know yet about American College Arcus". What a crazy week we had while gathering the information. :D Iveta had to count all the paintings in the school three times until she got the final number - 146. Impressive, huh? We also found out that there are 84 computers used, 5 multimedia boards, 31 teachers aged 38 on average. It`s a good thing we did that, because we did not know many things about the school ourselves. I had no idea there were 11 556 books in our library!?

We hope that people will like the special edition just as much as we do! Here`s a glipmse of the final version:

Organization of trip to Chiflika and to Troyan

Wooo! So excited, we`re already planning the April trip to Troyan. We chose this place - Chiflika - for our Art club`s Plein air because it is surrounded by pure nature and the air is fresh since it`s kind of remote - just the perfect place to be creative. What we`re about to do is some mountain hiking, painting, collaging and probably swimming since there`s a warm mineral pool outside the hotel. Sounds nice, doesn`t it? :)

Hip-hop classes

Celebrating the Bulgarian Liberation Day - 03.03

It`s a huge day for Bulgarians today! 135 years of liberty! On March 3, 1878, the Russo-Turkish War ends as Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of San Stefano. Our school always takes part in the annual celebrations - a street parade that ends with laying flowers on "Mother Bulgaria" memorial monument. It was definitely an emotive moment for me waving the Bulgarian tricolour under the sound of the millitary marches. I felt part of a whole, of a nation, and that doesn`t happen very often. 

Proud to be Bulgarian!

Celebrating "Baba Marta" at the local RHOP "Veneta Boteva"

Yey, it`s finally Baba Marta in Bulgaria - the first day of March and also one of our most unique celebrations. As folklore there are different versions of the Baba Marta (Grandma March) tale. One says that on that day she does her pre-spring cleaning and shakes her mattress for the last time before the next winter - all the feathers that come out of it pour on Earth like snow - the last snow of the year. Another version is that January and February are the grim brothers and Marta (March) is their sister that is either smiley and kindhearted or unexpectedly evil.  She is a symbol of the upcoming spring. The tradition of giving friends and family red-and-white interwoven strings - Martenitsi - is believed to bring health and happiness during the year and to be a lucky charm against evil spirits.The white color first symbolized man, the power light solar zone. Later, under the influence of Christian mythology indicates the integrity and virginity – the white is the color of Christ. Red is the woman and health: it is a sign of blood, conception and birth. In ancient times women’s wedding dress were red. The martenitsa comes in all shapes and sizes - from building packages to strings on a newborn's arm. Children usually compete who will get the most.

People wear martenitsa for a certain period, the end of which usually is connected with the first signs of spring - blossomed trees or spring birds like storks, swallows or cranes. Some people than tie their martenitsa to a tree, others place it under a rock and based on what they find there the next morning guess what kind of a year this one would be.

This year, we celebrate with the grandmas and grandpas at the residential home. They did surprise us with the oldest woman in there - 105-year-old Marta, being dressed like Baba Marta and giving out Martenitsi. People were smiley and friendly as always and they enjoyed every part of our little contribution to their celebration. We sang song together with them and performed the traditional Bulgaria horo. I personally feel very delighted now that I had made someone else`s day bright! :))

  

Hip-hop classes