Halfway Through

Hallo dear followers, workers and travelers!

Today’s post will not be the usual interview with someone who has experienced the Work and Travel adventure but it will rather be a summary of what does the blog contain so far and the things I’ve learned in my Multi Media Journalism class.

To start with, it is the first time in my life that I am using WordPress. At the beginning it was something new, unknown and kind of difficult, but after a while I understood how to work with it and now I don’t feel uncomfortable anymore.

I decided to make a blog which will not only be interesting but also helpful for students. Since many AUBG-ers are going in the States during the summer break, I chose the topic of my blog to be connected to the Work and Travel program.

One of the things we learned in the first classes is how to make a slideshow. Although it is quite easy, it looks nice in a post and gives visual information to the reader. Here you can see the people who I interviewed so far:

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The first story that I posted was that of Ivan Hristov. He had an adventurous summer- his job offer appeared to be fake, he witnessed a shooting fight, he had nowhere to sleep… However, as in the fairy tales there was a happy end- Ivan and his friends were helped by the local Roteract Club.

“I explained them everything, I explained how I spent all my life helping people by this organization and now it’s time this organization to help me“, remembers Ivan.

This was the first post in which I put audio. I learned how to work with audio editing program and how to upload audio files on soundcloud.

My second interviewee was Anna Bashuk. She went to Wisconsin, Dells for a second consecutive summer. This year she fulfilled one of her dreams- to go on Linkin Park concert:

“… it was August 29. That was the day when I decided that I should stop saving money for school related stuff and I bought myself tickets to the concert of my favorite band, which is Linkin Park, and I went to their concert in Chicago, Illinois

Vera’s Favorite Nikes

My third post was the story of Vera Daskalova. She spent her summer in a National park. The interesting part of her story is that she did not go so much for the money but for the adventure and experience. She spent a nice summer managing to combine work, fun, training and… love . : “A summer without love affair is a wasted summer“, Vera said.

My next post presented the story of Mario Grachenov. He spent two summers in Nantucket, a destination that is a desire for many Work and Travel enthusiasts. What was interesting about his story is the fact that Mario did not push to the limits to work as many hours as possible, on the contrary- he worked enough and managed to get the most of his summer and to make a travel around many States. In this post I put a five-shot video with Mario. Thanks to it, I realized that I enjoy shooting and I am really eager to continue learning more in this sphere. I always ask my blog guests about their best and worst memories during the summer. On the question of the worst moments, Mario was certain:

“I enjoyed the summer at a top level. All the memories I have right now are only good ones.”

While Mario did not work crazy hours, my last guest before the break- Adri Llapi did! He was in Martha’s Vineyard for a second year and he was working over 100 hours per week. Still, he managed to enjoy his summer and he is considering going back there next year.

 “ I would recommend it to everyone because you learn so many new things. You learn how to survive by yourself”, Ardi said.

What I also learned from the course so far is that Twitter is a vital social media, although here in Bulgaria we do not use it a lot. However it is important if you want others to know about you, to promote ideas, campaigns, etc.

What is coming next? Well, more WAT stories, more adventures and more things to learn, I guess. As for this post, I decided to interview someone who has not been on a Work and travel yet, but is willing to try. In this short video you can watch Iva Naumova, a junior, explaining in a nutshell why did she not go to the States:

Iva Naumova enjoying the weather outside                                                while sudying.

As you saw: you can always wait and make up your mind before deciding to try the WAT program. Naumova does not regret that she devoted her summer to an internship but she is definitely eager to try the program since she thinks it will test her psychological sthrenght and will leave her with a completly different experiencce from this that the internship gave her.

This is it for now. See you after the break! Meanwhile, follow me on facebook and twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/aubgWAT

https://twitter.com/aubgWAT