Blogging about 10 days would be an impossibly boring feat. But blogging about 10 incredible days would be more difficult than chewing my fingers off.
IOAA 2007 was just fantastic. Because it’s more than just a competition. Alternative names for it can be anything from “The Great Polluting Journey of Kia Boon’s Squeaky Clean Mind”, or “Crash Course to Swearing in Polish”, or even “Yet Another Fabulous Vacation”.
So here goes, a rather summarised review of the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2007.
If there’s one picture to summarise the trip, DW’s blog said it well.
If a picture says a thousand words, I have about 238,000 words to say.
…
Fun fact 1: We have been trying to take part in international astronomy olympiads for years. One of the major problems which held us back was that we were unable to find team leaders willing to follow us into the competition. The team leaders usually have to be professionals in astronomy education (eg. Professors), and above the age of 26. Which leaves a mere few capable people in Singapore who matches the two criterias. And besides, no one was willing. This year, with a tip-off from the organisers of IOAA, we found a former-IPho Singapore team leader, who was willing to follow us and pay at his own expense. We also requested for a special ‘grant’ to Singapore to be represented with one team leader instead of two. And it went through! But due to how busy he is, we would be settling all his required work (as team leader) for him, and… won’t be meeting him until we meet up at the airport.
Day 1
Terrible morning to wake up to, with lots of last minute packing to do and clocking in 2 hours of bedtime which I couldn’t sleep at all.
After all, we had to meet up at the obscene time of 5.00am at Changi Airport. That would have been great with Changi Airport’s world-class standard, providing free Internet services and a nice warm carpet floor to walk on. But we weren’t that lucky.
Not looking one bit ‘budget’ until you enter.
Because we have no clue as to how our team leader looks like, we spent many miserable minutes looking around the budget terminal for a man who might be him.
All we got from his wife was:
- He is bald from forehead up.
- He left his house long ago.
- He wears glasses.
And so we started to search for a bald man with glasses. Don’t get me started on how embarrassingly stupid we looked asking every bald guy with glasses whether his name is Mr Willie Yong.
Sometime later, we found him.
This is Team Singapore, meeting up for the first time, minutes before flying off to an international competition.
In flight.
After 3 hours, we touched down on the Land of Smiles.
Arrival was a pleasant surprise, actually.
Checked into our Uniserv hostel room at Chang Mai University. It’s a pretty decent hostel, with hotel-like room services and stuffs.
They also kindly provided a refrigerator. So what did we use it for?
Cryogenics for flowers. We wanted to preserve it for 10 days until the closing ceremony and wear it, while people give us the WTF-Your-Flowers-Are-Still-Alive face. But nay, KB wasn’t supportive enough.
And we met our team liaison-thai friend extraordinaire, Pooh. A really wonderful person, who made our time in Chang Mai more awesome than it could have been.
Went online for a mere short while on the first day as a final fantasy. There was a weak wireless connection available in the hostel, but IOAA was really strict and serious. Basically, they prevented any form of communication with the outside world until all the competition papers were taken. The hostel rooms were stripped of their phones, mobile phones and laptops were confiscated. You’re not allowed to use your own calculator or stationary. Everything would be provided by the organisers.
At night, we were invited to the Welcome Party. It was located beside the pool on the roof of a hotel where the team leaders reside, overlooking the city with a great view, and the dinner itself was near wedding-dinner quality.
…
Day 2
We had our first taste of the American buffet breakfast we’ll be eating for the next 10 days. Good stuff!
After which was the Opening Ceremony. We travelled in open-air electric cars with flags hanging out from sides, on public roads which made everyone driving past give a WTF face. Hell, we even had police escorts.
And Opening Ceremony itself.
And lunch looked great, until we realised everything was either spicy or vegetarian.
Followed by excursions around the Chang Mai University Campus. Apparently CMU is some mega large university that could be mistaken for a small town. They even produce their own brand of bottled drinking water from their reservoir.
At night, we visited the Sirindhorn Observatory and had our first taste of good Thailand suburbs skies. Hah! You'll have to Login or Register to read the hidden content that's behind this!
For the first time in my life, I saw Andromeda Galaxy and a Comet (Holmes) with my naked eye. And they were even more amazing with a binoculars. Oh first time star hopping with Polaris too.
Day 3
In the day, we visited this exhibition center about a theory the Thai King came up with. Some ‘economy sufficiency’ thing. Which simply means: DO NOT LIVE A LUXURIOUS LIFE OHOHOHOHO. And thereby not wasting the country’s resources. I refuse to openly comment on this propaganda theory.
And our afternoon was spent on a Walk Rally. It’s basically a camp-style obstacle course without instructors, and all done above an ultra muddy stream. Muddy enough for you to say, “drop and you’re GG”. Surely there were a few army guys standing by at each stations, but all they do is stare on and laugh.
Station 1
Station 2
Station 3
Station 4
Station 5
Station 6
Station 7
Station 8
Station 9
Station 10
Station 11
And we realised that the others who weren’t enjoying themselves at the walk rally were having other forms of fun.
Sitting around was quite popular too.
And observation round!
We were all quarantined in a freezing air conditioned room, and assigned to different shifts to take our observation exam. There were two parts. One involving a zero-magnification telescope (aka. a PVC tube) where we had to point at various objects listed. Another involving using a real binoculars to observe listed objects and draw/infer stuffs from there.
I was in the last, last, last shift, and was quarantined for 4 hours through the night. Till today I wonder how I managed to keep myself awake.
Being the first round, it affected everyone’s psychology a lot for the subsequent rounds. It would be good to do well here. I managed a 9/10 for the telescope part, but silly mistakes along with a horrendous marking scheme for the binoculars part gave me a 3/10. Crap.
Day 4
In the day was the practical round data analysis paper, which was a tiring 3 hours long. If you thought the NUS-NTU data analysis round where you had to figure out the relationship between 70 meaningless numbers. Try handling 3000 terrifying numbers representing celestial coordinates of 4 objects and working out the names of the objects from there. That’s right, terrifying.
But it was among the bestest exam I’ve ever taken. You’re greeted with some sweet stuffs on your table when you enter the room.
All exams should be like that. Students treated like royalty.
At night, it was just… shopping in the nearby market.
And Rong’en tried out fortune telling!
Day 5
It was break day with excursions.
First was Chiang Mai Zoo. No offence but it was just… a zoo. Nothing special if you’ve been to other zoos.
Then we proceeded to visit some… temple. I had this poor memory for thai names. They have 1000 steps leading up to the temple, which itself is on a tall mountain overlooking the city with a beautiful panoramic view. The main attraction is a golden pagoda, which claims to contain a piece of Buddha’s bones.
Day 6
This day could be effectively summarised as: 5 hour killer theory paper + King’s birthday celebrations.
So it began at 8.00am in the morning with a 5 hour theory paper. 4 questions. 60 marks. It was least forgiven with the refreshments they provided on the table.
After the 5 hours.
DW: “C.O.P.”
RE: “…”
Me: “Did I just take a Physics paper?”
Ng Kia Boon: “STILL CAN DO LAH.”
WTF T__T
After that was some free time so we travelled to buy some original crispy video games and DVDs. We sat this taxi-bus hybrid thingy. Basically it was a really cheap low quality bus, much like a lorry with shelter. It’s open air, open door and you can jump off to your death anytime. It fits like 10 people much like a bus, and you can ask the driver to take you anywhere in Chiang Mai (much like a taxi) for a extremely reasonable price (much unlike a taxi).
In the evening, we headed over to some Royal place (I told you I can’t remember thai names) to celebrate the king’s birthday with the residents of Chiang Mai. The king’s based in Bangkok, so we had a giant photo of him as replacement.
Despite being the pyrotechnics veteran that I am, the fireworks display was… unique. Because it lasted for a full THIRTY MINUTES. By 15 minutes, everyone was evidently bored and some even started leaving the place. Something I have never seen in any other fireworks display.
Day 7
We visited a Elephant Camp which Chiang Mai is famous for. It was… pretty good, I must admit. Something different from the Zoo where the usual animals doing tricks are monkeys and dolphins and other more intelligent creatures (or at least known to be). The paintings from the pictures below are done purely by Elephants!
And some Orchid Garden.
And had our most awesomest awesome lunch ever. In some country club. A similar buffet lunch like what we had would easily cost over $50 in Singapore.
Followed by some handicraft place. Rong’en decided to screw with his NJC sweater.
Hot springs! The last geyser I visited was in Yellowstone National Park in the US, but I was 5 years old then! So this is practically the first time I’m seeing one while knowing that I’ll remember it.
And at night, we decided, because we did so badly for the theory paper (and knowing for sure that Gold and Silver is out of reach) and couldn’t get over the disappointment, we should… DRINK.
Under 18 FTW.
We settled down, the three of us without KB because he did damn well for the theory paper wanted to stay squeaky clean, with our 5-6% alcohol drinks and played cards. The drink recommended by Pooh tasted like fruit juice with minor alcohol content. HOW TO GET DRUNK?
Soon enough, the Romanians and Polish guys joined in with their own alcohol.
Time for quotable quotes!
Me: “How do you find the drink”
One of the Polish who bought the same drink as us: “It tastes like cheap champagne.”
Romanian guy drinking beer: “Romania… we’re democratic. When you have beer, you have democracy.”
Polish guy: “-blahblahblah-… kurvva …-blahblahblah-… kurvva …-blahblahblah-…”
Romanian guy: “Hey, you guys say kurvva too?”
Polish guy: “It’s the same word in Romanian language?”
Romanian guy: “Yeah. Our languages share the same words!”
-We Singaporeans stare on-
Me: “What does it mean?”
Polish guy: “We use it like… ’spacebar’. In every line, very often.”
Me: “Huh?”
Polish guy: “It means bitch.”
Had great fun without getting drunk one bit!
Then halfway through, the Iranians went out to light their… what’s it called again? Just see the pictures dammit.
During the observation round, KB looked east where Mars was located. These… whatchamaycallits looked exactly just like Mars when they’re high up in the sky! Reddish-brown and bright. And KB was wondering why there were 7 Mars in the sky. Too funny.
Day 8
Travelled to Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand. Over 2.5km high.
We really felt like VIPs. All of us were sitted in high-class comfortable vans, forming a line while flashing the hazard lights. And we had military escort in a truck leading us.
Lunch was interesting.
Some King’s and Queen’s pagoda place. Beautiful scenery.
Some waterfall.
ACCOUNT
STATUS
SEARCH
Loading ...
Loading ...
