Family Day with a Plan B
Just as the school ceremoniously opened its doors with the falling of autumn leaves, Group 2 of Kaposvár also began a new academic year within the Foundation. We made sure to celebrate this event properly. Despite the cool, windy, and rainy weather, which wasn’t in our favor for the long-awaited dragon boating and kayaking (yes, we love you too, dear weather!), we didn’t abandon our plans, and we’ll surely make up for it during the blossoming spring! However, we didn’t get bored and adapted quickly, as our mentor organized some truly exciting activities within the walls of our Community House.
The day began with a parent-teacher meeting, where students and their parents gathered to discuss the upcoming period, our commitments, the work of junior mentors, and to give a report on the happenings of September at the university. Afterward, parents, couples, friends, and our group, already full of enthusiasm, reunited after the long summer break to share memories from camp, chat about vacations, and engage in deep conversations about starting university and high school. In addition to all this, today’s “Plan B” program featured: virtual and augmented reality. We first clarified the difference between the two. Wearing VR headsets, with the help of István Marics and his team, we embarked on a world tour, with a little space adventure thrown in: we roamed Dubrovnik’s main square, visited Tutankhamun’s tomb, crossed the ocean to Mexico City in the USA, explored the capital of France, or even wandered Mars filled with excitement—all while sitting together in the activity room in Kaposvár. We had the chance to observe the anatomy of animals and humans or even engage in sword fights—but only in the virtual world, of course. After returning from our great journeys, we hopped on roller coasters with similar headsets in the basement or participated in the musical Jedi training of Beat Saber.
The group took care of lunch together: our mentor, in the spirit of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, brought plenty of fruit, while the hardworking mothers of the Cookie Club and the junior mentors helped prepare pizzas, and of course, we crowned the day with countless homemade treats.
Even those who tried every headset didn’t get bored; the tables were loaded with new and old board games. The house was filled with loud laughter, cheerful chatter, and deep, thoughtful, sometimes tactical looks and voices. In the kitchen, diligent hands were making pizza, and at the tables, we enjoyed the cakes and snacks everyone brought. We didn’t even notice how the time flew by; we only realized it when we saw that the sun had long set outside, and the yard was already dark—yet we continued playing tirelessly.
We had a fantastic time on Family Day, and I think the expression “simple and wonderful” fits perfectly. But the adventures are only just beginning, as next week we’ll have our first hiking club of the academic year! The location ties into this year’s project. Our project this year is to explore the rich river systems of our county, examining them from historical, geological, and biological perspectives, collecting data, and performing statistical calculations. We’ll learn how natural rivers influenced the establishment of settlements and how they served our ancestors. Our first trip will be to Libickozma, where one of the oldest water mills is located—though is it now just in ruins?—and during our hikes, we plan to discover several similar ones, leaving data, photos, and information for future generations in the form of a digital travel journal.
Jázmin Pretz és Sarolta Kovács-Nagy
