by G.J. (8th Grade)

The 2024–2025 school year at SCA has passed by quickly indeed! Not 252 long, tiring, enthusiasm-depleting school and week days ago, school had just begun. I remember the year so well that it feels almost like yesterday, if yesterday involved over a semester and a half’s worth of homework, apprehension, and assignments turned in late. And travel, and celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter (ordinary yesterdays don’t include all three of those holidays, but this yesterday, I suppose, was unique), and… for your sake, I’ll stop there. Anyway, in truth, I don’t actually remember the year that well.

My point is, we’ve had approximately two-thirds of a year’s worth of wonderful, sludgy, and all-out dismal days (often all three combined). So, I’ll share with you a few favourite memories of mine:

Though no SCAers were involved but those of my family, one of my brighter and more recent memories is that of going to Romania. Just a few weeks ago, during Spring Break, my family hopped into our car and embarked on a five hour car ride, stopping in the city Craiova to spend the night at a hotel and eat at Popeyes (Bulgaria, regrettably, has none. But do not let this deter you from coming! What the land lacks in American fast food, it makes up in pigeons, stray cats, and graffiti!). I won’t go into all the details, but the highlights of Romania include the following: my mother reading Dracula aloud in the car; touring Bran Castle (which historically has nothing to do with Vlad the Impaler, and, contrary to its advertisement, is not the castle mentioned in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula); and taking a walking tour in Budapest. All in all, it was a good trip, if you ignore the many hours spent in a car.

We have a tradition that on the Thursday of the last week of each quarter, we Upper Schoolers have a quarter party, eat pizza from Domino’s (that’s about all we eat in Bulgaria), and watch a movie. This year we’ve watched How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, and Shrek 2, all in Bulgarian, which means I only understand every other other word, or something. We also watched Arthur Christmas for our Christmas party, and in bygone days, the Upper School watched The Princess Bride, as it is our Bible teacher’s favourite film.

We’ve also recently had our second EVER Sofia Christian Academy Upper School Academic Showcase (known by some simply as SCAUSAS) of this year, in which we tried to prove to parents that yes, we have been learning stuff the past quarter. I, of course, felt very uncomfortable and tried to avoid all interaction (c’est la vie!), which was rather hard, as we were each required to do presentations of sorts up front. Everyone else probably had a great time, which is surely due to our most recent completion of a board game for our history class, which was displayed and playtested at the Showcase.

This time, I hope school ends forever.