Alumni Magazine #3

A l u m n i r e u n i o n i n S o f i a / ”A A S w a s m o r e t h a n a f a m i ly t o m e ” s h a r e s A n n e J a h n k e , b a c k i n S o f i a after 20 years/ Radi Skipp on being a pilot/AAS hosts a cricket match in memory of Roger Short/ What’s happening @ AAS/ London reunion coming up

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ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

CONTENTS

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<< “AAS WAS

MORE THAN A FAMILY TO ME”

shares Anne Jahnke, who came back to teach in Sofia after 20 years

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24

ALUMNI NEWS

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT AAS?

>>

>>

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CONTENTS

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<< AAS ALUMNI

REUNION IN SOFIA, JUNE 2016

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16

RADI SKIPP

AAS HOSTS THE

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ON QUALIFYING

ROGER SHORT

AS A PILOT

MEMORIAL CRICKET MATCH

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>>

LONDON REUNION COMING UP

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S OF I A R E UNI O N

A LUMNI

REUNIONS

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ON A LOVELY, SUNNY SATURDAY AFTERNOON, only marred by a very short shower, around 20 alumni and teachers gathered in the amphitheatre of the school FOR OUR FIRST SOFIA REUNION of the AAS Alumni Association.

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REUNIONS

1st

SOFIA REUNION JUNE 2016

A LUMNI REUNI ON S

...OUR SCHOOL CATERERS PUT ON A WONDERFUL SPREAD OF SALADS, MEATS AND DESSERT AND WE WERE ABLE TO SIT AT TABLES ARRANGED IN THE ATRIUM...

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Our school caterers put on a wonderful spread of salads, meats and dessert and we were able to sit at tables arranged in the atrium to eat, drink and chat.

A surprise guest was Irena Todorova, who had been the finance officer at the school 25 years before when it was at Knyazhevo. She had never seen the new campus so we were able to give her a grand tour of our fabulous site. She in turn shared tales of the small school, with a handful of pupils being taught in classes located in cabins.

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Others brought guests of their own and took them on a walk around the school complex, sharing memories of their time at AAS with fellow alumni.

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A LUMNI REUNI ON S

WATCH OUT FOR DETAILS OF THE NEXT REUNION WHICH WILL BE ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 2017 IN LONDON, UK

PLEASE CHECK THE ALUMNI FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/194415734253545/

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12 AAS THROUGH THE YEARS

“AAS WA S M O R E T H A N A F AMI LY T O M E ”

Anne & John Jahnke at their son’s Graduation, June 2016

shares Anne Jahnke, who came back to teach in Sofia after 20 years

I RODE WITH MY ONE YEAR OLD SON ON THE TRAM INTO TOWN. It

was the summer of 1996 and my last day before leaving Sofia. I tried to take in every detail because I never imagined I would return to Sofia and AAS twenty years later.

At that time I lived in Boyana and walked to my teaching job each day because Jon took the car to the American College campus. My route took me down a back road through the woods, across a field and through some village houses to Knyazhevo.

I could deal with the distance, the smell of burning fuel, and the icy path in winter, but what got me were the dogs. Sometimes I met a pack of them crossing the field. Others were ‘guard dogs’ that came out of houses, barking and nipping at my ankles. I couldn’t avoid

them and started carrying a big stick to fend them off. Jon bought me a can of pepper spray, and others told me to carry rocks in my pocket. It made more sense to throw rocks at them before they got close enough to bite. I put up with this for nearly a year before I finally asked for help. The school quickly arranged for me to be picked up in a school van by one of the drivers.

The Knyazhevo campus housed the Kindergarten through 4th grade classes. We felt like a big family sharing the grounds. The students ate lunch together in their cabin-like classrooms and played in the small back yard. At that time the 5th through 8th grades were on the College campus which was being renovated and more closely resembled a construction site than a middle school. The teachers ran the school on both campuses. We taught, supervised, and

AAS THROUGH THE YEARS 13 led after school activities.

However, for our daily living in Bulgaria, we were totally dependent on the school support staff. We went to Ellie with every need from car repair to doctor’s appointments. The drivers took care of us when we found ourselves stranded on the road to Greece. Dora would take up our cause and make phone calls for us. Elka kindly accompanied me to the doctor when I was expecting my first child. Diana was known to help babysit after his birth and give me advice on childcare. The director and the board arranged for my maternity leave as I was the first teacher to find herself in this situation at AAS. This group, many who are still working at AAS, did so much more for me and my family than any job description would suggest. I am eternally grateful to them, and could not have functioned in Sofia without them.

These days I can still walk across a field to the AAS campus, watching out for the dogs in the same way I did 20 years ago. But now I find beautiful new grounds with modern buildings for a much bigger school. I can no longer walk straight in, but present ID to the guard at the gate. Everyone seems to speak English and I have no excuse not to take care of my own problems with the bank, phone company or doctor’s office. It is true that I am no longer dependent on the AAS staff and community like I was all those years ago.

We have both grown up,

taking responsibility for ourselves and sharing our achievements. However, there is nothing like the pulling together of people in times of adversity to build bonds. And now, as Jon and I leave Sofia for the second time, I hope we never lose contact with those special people we worked with and taught at AAS with from 1993 to 1996.

Anne and Jon Jahnke Anne’s BLOGs written while in Sofia 20152016: http://eatlaughandlearn.blogspot. bg/2015/10/living-local.html Follow Anne’s further adventures on http:// annejahnke.blogspot.bg/

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R A D I SKIPP ON BEING A PILOT How did you decide to become a pilot?

Being British-Bulgarian I spent my childhood travelling between the UK and Bulgaria. I was interested in planes from a very early age. I wanted to be the one in the front, not just a passenger.

What’s the most exciting thing about the job?

One of the things is that you get to see the best aerial views. The hours are quite strange, but you get used to that. I like the challenge, the fact that every day is different, that it is like a collection of random knowledge and when you put it together, you get the flight out of it. It is interesting how it all comes together and that’s for me the best part of the job.

”The working hours might be strange, but you get the best aerial views”

What would be the most important skills and personal qualities for a good pilot ?

There are a lot! First of all – you need to be openminded. You need to work with different people every day, so being open to different nationalities, different ways of doing things is crucial.

Also you have to be able to work under pressure.

Did your studies at AAS help you in flight school?

It helped me a lot, although the AAS program is tailored for going to university and the Jerez course is a very different one.

Firstly – at AAS we deal with different people from different nationalities, similar to the job I am training for. It helps a lot having the international background and being able to understand the cultural differences. IB is also helpful in terms of workload management.

As we got very restricted time at flight school, it helps knowing how to prioritize things. The background of different subjects in grades 9 and 10 and the IB is also helpful, as it made ground school studies easier. And of course the principles of IB learners – being open-minded and ready to accept ideas, being open to criticism and Radi Skipp (third left) with his fellow trainee pilots improving.

A LUMNI SHA RE S 1 5 What would be a typical day be at your flight school?

Jerez is a commercial flight school in the south of Spain. We have everything on site, so we are actually at the airport. That’s where you live, where you have your ground school, where you study the theory. Actually, it is pretty much like a day at AAS – we have one hour classes with 15 minutes in between from 9 to 5. Usually you do ground school one day and you fly the next day.

It wouldn’t happen that you do theory and practice in the same day.

My class was 20 people and the whole school probably around 120-150 people.

What was most difficult during your studies?

The most difficult thing is that everything is compressed – you have very little time, no breaks, you just have to finish everything. Because of the timing it is difficult to get your theory done. We had 14 subjects and 14 exams respectively. Also, you need to have 150 flying hours to get the license.

How long is a normal flight?

The shortest flights we would do are one hour, typically training flights would be approximately one and a half hours. Solo flights are usually longer.

What planes were you training on?

At the beginning of the training you would use single engine aircraft – the type of plane you would typically go out in for a weekend with your friends.

We use those for 100 hours. After that they let you alone on the twin engine light aeroplane. That’s where you do your exams and everything. At the end you go on a commercial aircraft simulator.

How many flights are you allowed to do within 24 hours?

There is a legal restriction, but every company has their own restriction too. It is measured by hours. The absolute limit is 900 hours per year. My limit per day was 8 hours from checking in till end of flight.

How much earlier do you go to the airport before the flight?

Usually you go 1.5 – 2 hours before the flight. If it is the first flight of the day or there is bad weather expected, I would go even earlier than that. We look at the weather, at our “news”, which shows us if something is not working, if there is any airport that is closed or if there are a lot of birds for example; we check the aircraft documents. The pilots have their meeting, the flight attendants too, we brief each other as needed. By that time hopefully the aircraft has arrived, so we go there to check it and do another brief.

On a normal flight you have a captain and a first officer. There is a legal requirement to have 1500 flying hours + certain other service hours to become a captain. If you have covered that, it’s up to your company to promote you to captain and if you would want to become one. It is important to know that the FO is as qualified as the captain. The biggest difference is that if there is any disagreement, the captain gets to make the final decision.

Do you do some kind of team building for the crew?

We tend to constantly switch the people we fly with.

To minimize the human factor, we have standardized procedures. This way – even if you are flying with someone you do not know – you know what you can expect. We also get a special training every two years on crew resource management and also a multi-crew cooperation course – where you learn to work with different people and how to divide the work.

Pilots would divide the work between themselves – one would be flying the plane and the other would be pilot monitoring. And of course we communicate with the flight attendants team to make sure they are up to date and have everything they need.

What would you say to someone who is afraid to fly?

Fear is understandable. In a way, when you know more about it, you are even more anxious. But people should know that even if there is a problem, if you run out of fuel, the engine fails – the plane will fly perfectly well. We train for this kind of thing, so we are well prepared. Of course it is normal that you would hear a lot of different noises and feel a lot of different sensations that you would not normally experience while on the ground. You need to trust the crew – they are well-trained.

What do you think about the future of flying?

Besides the new things passengers are getting like cell signal and wi-fi on board, we have better detection of air traffic, better detection and prediction of weather. In general, technology is making aircraft and flying safer.

How are your parents and friends accepting your unusual job?

Actually my parents really like it. My dad is also very interested in aviation and since he couldn’t go to flight school when he was young, he is happy I am doing it. My friends are also quite interested in what I do and vice versa – we have some really cool stories to share with each other.

What are your plans now?

I am waiting for my license now and starting to look at interviews for commercial airlines. I would like to be in Europe, preferably in Spain, but I am open to options.

Eventually I would like to be doing longer flights. At the moment I would like to get as many take-offs and landings as possible, as these are the most fun for us.

Since giving this interview Radi has been offered a job with a charter airplane in the UK.

16 AAS TRADITIONS

AAS HOSTS CRICKET MATCH IN MEMORY OF FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR AND VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD ROGER SHORT Tim Buisseret with a picture of Roger Short The following is an interview with Tim Buisseret, the Head of Trade & Investment for the Department for International Trade at the British Embassy, captain of the British Embassy cricket team and current Vice-chair of the AAS Board. Here we describe how a special match came to be played at AAS and how the reason for the event has surprising connections to the school.

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Roger was the British Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1994-98.

While in Sofia he served on the board of AAS as its Vice-Chair, making him one of the school’s alumni.

He was working as the British consul-general in Istanbul when he was killed by a terrorist bomb which exploded at the consulate on November 20, 2003, killing him and 9 others.

The Roger Short trophy

HOW AND WHY DID THE ROGER SHORT MEMORIAL CRICKET GAME START? The idea of a having cricket match between the British Embassy and expats started in the late 90’s, before I came to Bulgaria. After the tragic incident of Roger Short’s assassination in Istanbul in 2003, it was decided to start playing the game in his memory, as he was actually a great fan of cricket. Mark Stevens, who was representing “British Aerospace” in Bulgaria at that time, kindly donated the trophy, and Roger’s friend Mark Thomas captained the expat team. We’ve managed to keep this tradition playing for the Roger Short trophy every year since then.

IS IT ONLY EMBASSY STAFF THAT PLAY ON THE TEAM? It has changed over the years. When it started, the Embassy team was predominantly Embassy staff. Now it is more Embassy and diplomatic community - over the years we have included the British Council and the Indian & Pakistani Embassies. This year we had players from AAS, St. George’s School and the British School.

Although it has been changing, the purpose remains the same - fundamentally it is about playing a fun game of cricket and keeping the memory of Roger Short alive.

WHEN WAS THE FIRST MEMORIAL GAME PLAYED? I am not sure of the exact date, but it was in 2004.

For the first few years, the expat team, which was called “St. George’s Cricket Club” won the trophy.

Then, finally, in 2008 the Embassy team managed to win it from them.

Since then it has been going backward and forward between the teams.

WAS ROGER SHORT THE ONE WHO INTRODUCED CRICKET TO BULGARIA? I am not sure what his role was, as I was not working at the British Embassy when he was Ambassador. When I came, I got involved with introducing cricket to the National Sports Academy (NSA). At that time (2001) cricket was not played in Bulgaria, apart

18 AAS TRADITIONS

Roger Short (front left) with fellow members of the board ( 1997) from a few expat games. We helped the NSA to get in contact with the International Cricket Council and the UK Cricket Board and eventually cricket became part of the curriculum. They also built a cricket field, which was opened by the former Ambassador Jonathan Allen several years ago.

The first Bulgarian cricket team to participate in a regional cricket tournament went to Slovenia in 2003. Since then, Bulgaria takes part in one or two cricket tournaments at regional level each year.

I SEE A SYNCHRONICITY WITH YOU AND ROGER SHORT - HIM BEING AN AMBASSADOR AND CO-CHAIR OF THE AAS BOARD, AND YOU, ALSO WORKING AT THE EMBASSY AND BEING THE VICE-CHAIR OF THE BOARD. Yes, there is some nice continuity from Roger Short. I have been on the school board since 2007. In the meantime I have swapped sides as far as cricket is concerned - for a large part I was playing for the expats.

WHERE HAVE YOU PLAYED THE GAMES BEFORE? Before the Sports Academy field was built, we tried several other locations. We played at Ihtiman golf course, at St. Sofia Golf Club at Ravno Pole, which was quite dangerous as it was on their football field which was quite uneven. For the last few years we have played at NSA, which is a proper field. However, we definitely prefer playing at AAS - it is probably

one of the nicest fields in Bulgaria. It is also a nice way to mark Roger Shortâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s association with the school.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE FAMOUS CRICKET TEA? A professional test match can last for up to 5 days and the hours of play are broken up with breaks for lunch and tea. At an amateur shortened match you would often find refreshments provided in the afternoon of sandwiches and cake and of course tea to drink. At our match at AAS the embassy arranged for the school caterer to provide sandwiches, British Victoria sponge cake and cream and jam filled scones, all made to traditional British recipes.

TELL US MORE ABOUT CRICKET Cricket is a team sport, so it tends to teach the ethos of playing as a part of a team - I think this is one of the things that makes it attractive.

Essentially you have a team batting and a team fielding and the team batting tries to score runs and the team fielding tries to get the batsman out. Whoever scores more runs - wins at the end of the game.

Some professional matches can go for 5 days, which sounds incredibly boring, but if you understand the complexity of the game, it is really interesting. It unfolds over time and that makes it quite compelling. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a bit like watching a chess match.

Many amateur teams would play for half day, so the Roger Short Memorial match took an afternoon.

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It would be nice if we could have cricket as an extracurricular activity at AAS. There is a version for younger kids with plastic balls, called â&#x20AC;&#x153;quick cricketâ&#x20AC;?, so it is possible to play from an early age without concerns about safety.

It has been agreed that AAS will hold the annual Roger Short memorial cricket match at the school every year on the Sunday afternoon before the end of the school year in June. The next match is scheduled for June 17, 2017

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What i s

Although the exact origins of the game of cricket are not known, it

is believed it started in South-East England with the first recorded reference to the game being as early as 1597. It is highly probable that it evolved from the game of bowls with a batsman trying to hit the ball away from its intended target. World interest and participation in cricket spread with the growth of the British Empire and beyond. It is

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c r i c ket?

probably most akin to the American game of baseball.

Despite a complex set of rules, which even your average Englishman may struggle to explain and a match which can last up to 5 days and has been described by those who are not aficionados as ‘more boring than watching paint dry’, today it is the world’s second most popular spectator sport after soccer.

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IT RUNS IN THE FAMILYâ&#x20AC;Ś On 24 August 2016 Cem started at the school in Kindergarten. This in itself is not unusual until you know that his father John is a former student of AAS! This is the first time that we know of that a child of an alumni has been enrolled at our school.

John left in 8th grade as he was a student before the time that AAS had a high school and the campus was still in Knyazhevo. He is delighted that Cem now has the opportunity to be a student at AAS. John, Cem and mum Hristina posed in the fabulous late summer sunshine on Cemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first day of school.

Gene Vincent,

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former director of AAS (1994-97)

Gene visited Sofia in October 2016 and met some of his friends â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Maria Mihailova, Dora Nikolova, Elise Staevska, Anna Boyadjieva and Pepi Mincheva. Currently, Gene Vincent is a Marketing lecturer for International Schools at the Endicott College.

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W H AT â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S H A P P E N I N G AT A A S ?

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26 LONDON REUNION COMING UP

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