Saturday four of us traveled from our village to the Bulgarian National English Spelling Bee Regional Competition in Veliko Turnovo. Our contestant was Simona and her father kindly offered to drive us. I also invited Maria who placed second in the local Bee at our school.
It was exciting - there were a total or 27 students from 4th grade to 7th grade who were competing for the opportunity to go to the National Bee in Sofia in May. The top three from this Regional would go to Sofia. All the contestants were nervous and filled with anticipation. As usual the first couple of rounds sorted out all the weaker contestants. By round 6 or so - there was a solid core of more than have of the participants successfully spelling English words. Simona was well prepared and finished 7th overall. She had an unfortunate moment during round 11 when she misspelled a word, not because she didn't know it, but because her brain and mouth were working on different frequencies. I know how that feels! Of course, she was very disappointed when she couldn't continue, especially since she was so well prepared.
One of my favorite moments that made me smile was a moment of synchronicity. About 15 minutes into the Bee, one corner of the Spelling Bee Banner (or sign) came loose from the tape and flopped over on itself. The contestant at the microphone was in the process of spelling the English word, "sign."
Congratulations to all the participants for showing up and having the courage to participate.
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