This school year I took part in the national competition called ‘Treasures of Tolna County’, which tests participants’ knowledge of values located in Tolna County. As I currently study in this county, I was eager to learn more about my current place of residence and willing to do some research on it. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s competition couldn’t be held in person, so teams had to complete online tests. We initially prepared at school, but soon we had to go online because schools switched to distance education. Despite the difficulties we did well thanks to frequent mails and the meetings, which we held every month or two; of course, we wore masks, kept to health guidelines and met in the open air. The tests were diverse: there were multiple-choice questions, but we also had to write recipes and propose a local ‘value’ to be recognised as a county value. We chose Dombóvár soda water, but it didn’t make it into the county’s collection of values this year. We also proposed this delicacy in another competition to the national Hungarikum Committee. The officials of the Tolna County Vocational Training Centre, including the principal, congratulated us in person for achieving second place, which is a very respectable result considering that we were competing with bigger schools. Our reward was a bag, in which there were a book, a pen, a large notepad and a bottle of Szekszárd must and we also got some ‘Rákóczi’ cottage cheese cake in a gift box. I’m happy about the result and I can’t wait for the next competition, though I’d prefer if we could complete it in person.
Nándor Dausek