My first Publication Alumni Magazine21-online | Page 13

ISSUE 21, JUNE 2019
Sava, how did you come to enroll at the College?
One of my cousins, Siyka Savcheva, Class of 1928,
graduated from the College in Samokov. Actually, many
boys and girls in my home town of Cherven Bryag
had graduated from the school, so it was well known
there. Additionally, my mother was a close friend of
Venera Yankova, math teacher at the College, whose
husband Konstantin Yankov also taught math there.
In the summer of 1938, I attended a summer camp
in Chamkoria, organized by the American Embassy.
They used to organize such camps by the sea and in
the mountains. One of the camp supervisors was Mr.
Allen, the husband of one of the English instructors
at the College, Mrs. Ada P. Allen. My camp experience
allowed a sneak peak of a different atmosphere that I
liked. So, I expressed my wish to go see the school for
myself. Later that summer, my mother and I visited the
College and the Yankovi family. My impressions from
the visit reasserted my decision to enroll at the College,
and so it happened.
“I remember the pool. Every time I visit
the College, I plan to go look for the pool,
yet the time is never enough to actually
do that. Our campus escape route to Sofia
started right there.”
Was it hard for you to live away from home and
family for the first time when you started at the
College? Did you make friends quickly?
I had classmates, who especially in their first year hid
in the lockers built in the walls of our shared bedroom
and cried for their families that they were missing
terribly. But that wasn’t my experience. Several weeks
into the school year, Mr. Yankov asked me if I already
had made friends. The truth was that, clumsy and
hopeless as I was, much different from the sociable
kids from Sofia and those of Jewish origin, I hadn’t
made any friends yet. Mr. Yankov approached me once
saying, “Look, there’s this nice kid from Lovech in the
bed next to yours. Why don’t you become his friend?”
That’s how my friendship with Mihail Radionov
started. His father was member of the Parliament
before the communist regime.
became my best man,
we had an agreement
that the first one to
marry will have the
other one as their
best man and I was
the first to tie the
knot – and I escaped
from campus one
weekend during the
day. I don’t recall
why anymore, could
be it was just for the
challenge of doing
something forbidden.
What are the memories you keep from the years But Mr. Black found out, and on the following
spent at the College?
Monday we were summoned to his office to
explain. Radionov started stuttering an apology
I remember the pool. Every time I visit the College, when Mr. Black interrupted him saying, „Before
I plan to go look for the pool, yet the time is never you speak, you better button your trousers.”
enough to actually do that. Our campus escape route Can you imagine the embarrassment Radionov
to Sofia started right there.
felt! No wonder he didn’t manage to formulate
I recall this one incident – at the time I considered it a meaningful answer to Mr. Black’s question
embarrassing, though now, with the distance of time, I after that. I think that I escaped again after that
find it funny. My close friend Radionov – he later even though, on at least 2-3 other occasions.
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