Today was the second full day of the academy! We were invited by the Irish Girl Guides to walk into Slovakia for a spot of breakfast! We found a lovely bakery and enjoyed the morning sunshine as we sat on a bench and ate our yummy treats. Visiting a different country before 9am got us excited for the day ahead and an unexpected country ticked off our lists!
Walking across to Slovakia!
One of the sessions today was entitled "In the shoes of the migrants: playing the 'game' of their journey to safety". It was an exciting and eye opening session which centred around a board game that had been created to help us understand the plight of the refugees. We learnt a lot of things about the refugee crisis and it's definitely a resource that can be used within our units when we return home.
Each day we are able to sign up to an optional 30 minute 'Points of Light' session and several of us chose "1 in 3 Voices against Violence". We learnt about the different types of violence, the warning signs of violence using scenarios and how we could use the resources to educate girls in our unit.
Today we were given a Hungarian Challenge to complete during our time at The Academy! We have to complete them before the closing ceremony on Saturday evening! The first challenge was to eat some hot chilli pepper sauce - a few of us stepped up to the challenge straight away, but regretted it!
Kat, Becky & Siân trying hot chilli pepper sauce
During the lunch break, a few of us had time to visit the city's Basilica which is the 3rd biggest Basilica in the world and the tallest in Hungary. As part of the challenge, we climbed an impressive 580 steps to the top of the dome - just for a selfie! It was a beautiful building and the sight from the top was well worth the climb.
After the afternoon sessions, it was time to get ready for the International Evening; a chance to showcase delicacies from around Europe and we didn't disappoint! Everyone made a great effort and showed a lot of enthusiasm. We created an 'afternoon tea' vibe with scones, jam, clotted cream and of course, pims and lemonade. The Scouts also complemented this with gin and biscuits from around the UK. Needless to say, our stand was extremely busy the entire evening! We all worked together as a great team and it was fantastic that even though we only met each other in person a few days ago, we pulled together and created a great stand!
The UK and Irish Delegation
Our afternoon tea stand
