When I woke up today I was so full of energy. I usually don’t like to go to school like most kids, but today I couldn’t wait to get to school. The reason for that is nothing else, but that I knew I could spend the whole day with our American friends. I was so excited to get to know them better and to make new friends.
We started our day with davening and breakfast. After that, we had some ice-breaking activities. It helped us start the conversations. I really enjoyed both games. Everybody was so nice and it was so easy to talk to them. When we were finished with the games my friends and I gave a tour of our school to the BT kids. Then we left the school and went sightseeing in the Jewish quarter. A few kids from my school talked about the places we went to see. Abel, a 13 grader from SSG, guided the main part of the tour. We saw many interesting things and ended our tour in the Ceremonial Room near Dohany Synagogue.
We had the privilege that the chief Rabbi of the Dohány synagogue, Rabbi Róbert Fröhlich, hosted us for Lunch in the Ceremonial Hall. It was a fantastic and fancy lunch. I was impressed and so were our American guests. We had so many tasty meals in such a beautiful room. I felt like I was in a posh restaurant. I think I can say in the name of all of the students and teachers that we are extremely thankful for the hospitality and kindness that we got from Rabbi Fröhlich and all the leaders from Budapest Jewish Religious Community who supported this lunch in all way they just could, especially with their presence.
At the end of the lunch, Adam Jusztin, the head of the Hungarian Maccabi and his colleague György Szász, the cultural director of Maccabi gave us a presentation about the history of Maccabi VAC and the European Games, Maccabiah, which is going to be organized in Budapest this year.
After lunch we continued the day by walking to the shoe memorial and paying our respects for the victims of the Holocaust. It always makes me so sad when I go there, but we have to remember the victims so that nothing like that can happen ever again. We closed the day with a lovely dinner at Hunyadi Square Synagogue, where Rabbi 
Gábor Fináli was so nice to host us for dinner. In the name of our group, I would also like to thank him for his hospitality and kindness.
In conclusion, we had an amazing, long and tiring day, but I enjoyed every single moment of it. I had a chance to meet unbelievably nice and awesome people. I had so much fun talking with them and spending time with them and I can’t wait for tomorrow. ~ Alexandra Dévényi
