“On our day of arrival, we arrived at the camp late, but were still met with energy and happiness.
When I got out of the car, I saw all my old friends from last year’s Youth Exchange in Rio. There were lots of joyful faces and hugging. Rather than feeling we had been gone for almost one whole year, it instead felt like we had been gone for only a matter of days. My favourite thing from this moment is that it proved how lasting the friendship between us all is and hopefully will be.
After we put our bags down in our cabin for the next few days a little way from the centre, we went to a little book filled building in which we had our dinner- rice and a large piece of chicken or a huge fish for the vegetarian. After dinner, we stood in a circle and played a game in which every person has an action to accompany their name, then you go round the circle, performing your actions and trying to remember the actions of people that had come before you. This was a great way of remembering the names of everyone, learning some new ones and just having a laugh.
Then we headed back to the main hall to get involved in the camp’s evening activity- dancing. A DJ was at the front of the room and to begin with, we had our names shouted out to everyone and then the lights went off. Everyone else was very comfortable with dancing but it took us aa while to get used to it, being new to the environment. Luckily the Hungarian participants did a great job of integrating us and making us comfortable.
Finally, after a log day, it was time for bed rest in preparation for what the next day would bring”.

Rebecca Atkinson, British participant