On the second day staying in Gyor (third day of the project), we woke up in our rooms after a night of engaging with our fellow participants. We headed to breakfast in the restaurant across the road from the accommodation where we sat at tables with participants from all nationalities to engage with each other. The Brazilian participants brought along a book with Portuguese- English translations in, and we all had a go at learning a few phrases in Portuguese which was very fun despite a lot of us were not very good with pronunciations.
We then set off for another day at the European Youth Olympic Festival. When we arrived, some of us went to watch Judo, others watched gymnastics and visited the gift shops. Ellie and I were able to watch Team GB competitor ‘Archie Platt’ win a round in Judo which was very thrilling to watch. When we were in the Judo, we were able to cheer on other nations aswell as GB as we were with other participants from the seminar which was really exciting.
After the morning events, we met outside the building where we played games on the grass such as ‘Splat’ and ‘Horses, Knights and Cavaliers’ which we had to teach the other participants despite the language barriers. We were also able to learn games from the other nations such as a Brazilian game where we ran around in a circle trying to catch the person on the other side which was hard but very fun. We also met some Team GB medics who were at the EUOF and were looking after the team.
We then went to the other EUOF site where we were unfortunately too late to watch the basketball. Some of us went back to see rowing finals and the others went to see another volleyball match. As we were on our way to the rowing, we stopped at the park for a bit, and took some pictures which made us connect as we were all having fun together. When we left the park we were on the way to watch the rowing when it started to heavily rain! Unfortunately we had to take shelter in a cafe, but we met some German athletes who had just competed in cycling. Amy and Becca used their knowledge of GCSE German to interact with them, and we were able to ask them simple questions which was very interesting and definitely worth the rain for.
After the rain had calmed down, we made our way to join the others at the volleyball where we tried to get dry and shelter from the rain whilst watching a very intense match. We then headed back to Budapest where we gathered back and decided to bond more especially with the Brazilian participants. We put blankets down outside under the stars in the dark, ate some traditional Hungarian food, and talked to the other participants using lots of hand gestures to communicate. Later, we had a mix of Brazilian and English music playing and we all gathered together around an empty firepit and danced together. This was incredible as we learned some Brazilian songs which they liked, and we also we able to engage with them despite our language barriers.
By Grace Armstrong, British Participant.