My Experience at IChO
July 18th - The day before
To begin, I got the bus to DCU where I would be staying the night before leaving for the airport. I walked around a bit and just generally dossed, and got some oreos in a nearby Spar. I then returned to my room and waited for Philip to arrive. Being tired, I spent some time playing the new BTD6 game on my tablet. He arrived shortly and I came down to reception to greet him. I guided him up to our room and we just kinda started chatting together and wasting time together and flicking cards ninja style at the door. Eventually, we succumbed to reason and went to sleep.
July 19th - Arrival
We woke up at around 06:00 and got ready to leave on a taxi at 06:45 as we had arranged with Erin. The check-out was closed, so we simply left out cards on the ground nearby. We got into the taxi with Erin and made our way to the airport. Talking to Erin, she said she was less excited than worried about coming last, but I think her views changed as the days passed. At the airport, we went upstairs and sat at a table for a while to wait for the others and talked about chemistry for a bit. We then decided to look for the others downstairs and found they had all conveniently just arrived, and so we checked-in our bags and went through security. On the way to our gate, we stopped in Carrolls to get some souvenirs. We got a mug, a leprechaun and a few dozen lollipops to share around (we later found out that this was not even near enough compared to how much stuff some other teams had brought). We then continued on to the gate and were offered to get something to eat in a coffee shop yet we didn't really have enough time to get anything as we had to board the plane.
We all had to sit separately to one another, and in the flight I decided to play a bit more BTD6 and looked over the problem 12 I missed because of maths training. When we arrived, we got out of the plane and onto a bus to the gate. The bus moved the better part of 200m before stopping at the gate, which we made fun of. We got out of arrivals and met our IChO guide, Jan. He was quite organised and put tags on our bags and took our photos and gave us all we needed. We were then guided to coach where the Irish team an nobody else got on. Along the way, Jan told us a bit about what we would do and a bit about himself. As we arrived we got out in front of the dated student accommodation and Jan gave something to eat as lunch had just ended. He gave the others some Slovak wafer bar thing and me a different vegan bar thing with seeds. We went up to our rooms on the top floor 7 using the novelty old soviet elevator, and went in to see our goodie bags on our beds. We were excited to look at them and find a glass IChO beaker mug and a custom IChO Casio calculator, among other things. The bedrooms were nice enough but the ones at the IMO were nicer. We that we were sharing the apartment with 4 others, but we hadn't seen them yet.
We left our bags and went on a tour of the main surroundings, and were shown the Eat & Meet food place, the main activity rooms, the other accommodation buildings and the location of the supermarket. We then went into the activity room for a bit and met the Brazil team. We introduced our selves and played some ping pong with them and a couple of other teams that came and left, before we decided to go to the supermarket. We looked around and saw that there was shockingly strong alcohol available (72%) for those who drank. There was also a distinct lack of vegan options but I decided to get some juice anyway. Along the way back, we sat down in the park between the supermarket and other buildings and went through the whole schedule for the event, such as when our phones would be taken off us. There was a distinct lack of scheduled sleep which was somewhat worrying.
We then went up to the Eat&Meat, and queued up for food. Upon arriving at the counter, there was a lack of available vegan food yet again. The cook offered a dessert after I stated my dietary requirement, but the menu clearly showed milk and eggs in the contents. Jan was quite annoyed as he was reassured there would be vegan options available for me, and a cook made me some fried vegetables, which while being a bit plain and oily, I was happy enough with.
Following this, we went down to some informal party. They had some food I couldn't eat, as well as a very wide poster, maybe 10m wide, that had all of the participating flags on it. Each team member put a fingerprint near their flags, and some wrote a little message also. We decided to make a shamrock shape, which was a bit messy but got the meaning across. Next, I decided to say hello to the Russian team, as well as some from Latvia and Lithuania. I mainly talked to Aleksei as he was most my type of person.
After talking for a bit, I decided to play Durak with some cards I had brought from Romania, and the Irish team and Anna from the Latvian team as well as some others joined in for the first game, then many more joined for the next, to the point that we had to couple people up to play as teams, and it was fun. After this, we went back to our rooms and to bed. David and I talked for quite a bit before falling a sleep, discussing life, and Trinity College, and how we both decided to study Theoretical Physics and how we decided on choosing it.
July 20st - Opening Ceremony and Castle
The following day, we woke up at 6:00 to go to the canteen for food. We came early so there was little for us to queue, less than 20 minutes, but It quickly grew in length. I got a bit of everything available to me, some fruit and some granola, and was happy enough to eat it. After this, we returned to our rooms to put on our smart casual/formal clothes for the ceremony. (I would have preferred not to have warn long trousers on such a warm day but oh well). We arrived by bus outside the Bratislava old town market and met Brian and Mercedes outside in the hot sun. After talking for a short while, we entered the hall and sat in our assigned rows of seats.
The Opening Ceremony began with a grid of 8x8 luminescent balls glowing the copper blue dropping from the ceiling, and the presenter lifted his hand to hold it from beneath in an iconic fashion. The ceremony was quite entertaining, and compared to the IMO had fewer speeches that were less repetitive. The presenters kept the tone lighthearted and had 3 different dance sequences in transitions, which was interesting even if I don't know much about it. They also released the new IChO stamps and the new IChO flag to commemorate the 50th year.
After that, they went through each country in alphabetical order, showing a live video footage of the camera moving along the rows on the main display, and gave a small fact or two about the country as they smiled and waved at the camera. The fact about Ireland was the windmills rotate in the other direction to the way they do in any other country.
As the Ceremony ended, we had a quick trip back to the accommodation and got changed before going to the castle. We ate a packed lunch on the bus, which was for me a couple small rolls with the veg from the day before and some fruit, and arrived at the Castle after a semi-long trip. As we got out of the bus, we were greeted by a woman dressed in medieval-looking clothes telling us it was the 12th Century AD, and went on a tour of the main activity areas on the castle grounds. Our group began in the archery area, where we we got old-fashioned long bows and had to shoot arrows at a round hey target. If one got a bulls-eye, then that made them eligible to compete for some sort of souvenir, After waiting for my turn, I managed to hit a single shot on the edge of the target, but not a bulls-eye.
While waiting, Philip managed to meet the Japanese team after studying Japanese for the leaving cert, and met a guy called Yuta, who was pretty nice, while I talked a bit to the Russian team, mainly with Aleksei.
Next we went to the workshop areas, with people such as the coin-maker. potter, candle-maker and leather-worker, and looked around at what they would have done back in the day. We also got to make our own coins using the shaping machine. We had to smash the top of a held metal bar with the coin underneath with a hammer as strong as we could, and it turned a plain copper disc into a coin. Mine turned out a bit feint, but others had it too feint and got one from the maker instead.
Next we went to some sword-fighting area. A couple men and women demonstrated their sword-ing against each other in duels, and had a bit of humor thrown in also. They showed off them fighting for a woman, and then the guy fought with one of the women. They also had some old jokes on gender inequality thrown in to make the times feel more 12th century. We were then handed some foam-covered swords to have a big battle between 2 large groups of people, s.t. if somebody got hit they had to sit down. I of course died quite early on, but so did a lot of people, and the rounds were quite short.
After all of the activities were over, we would finish off with some dinner. We were guided down many sets of stairs into the castle dungeons, and saw impressively tall narrow rooms with food tables evenly spaced along on of the long sides, and picnic tables in rows perpendicular to the long sides. The rooms were made of old stone, and illuminated by lights of different bluish colours. There were few options available for me other than salad, and I wondered around to see if there was anything else, but to no avail. In the end I was still not to hungry. We sat with our mentors and discussed what to expect for the upcoming exam as well as other things.
After the food was over, we went up to the castle courtyard, where there was loud music and activities were happening. Philip, David and I joined in a game where people had to stand in a circle and take the hat off the person in front of them and place in onto their head in accordance with the music. One lost the game if one didn't have a hat on their head. I made the mistake of being behind David, who would I would wait to put a hat on his head, and he would put it on at the last second before the judge disqualified me. This same thing happened to Philip, and we we both watched as he made it surprisingly far into the game, yet didn't win.
Then the activities ended and we were left to do as we please. Jan talked to our team to inform is of there being an early bus. While Erin and I weren't particularly fond of the surrounding loud music and alcohol, we didn't want to ruin the fun for David or Philip or Jan, so we decided to stay around a bit and study chemistry. We were allowed to leave the courtyard to the path in front of the castle and sit on some benches under the trees where it was much quieter, and I began to look at some chemistry app I had previously downloaded. It showed a few reagents and two possible organic products for a given reaction in steps until a final product is formed. Erin decided to join in on the app, and after a while, Philip did too. We could deduce some of the reactions without too many problems, but others we lacked enough knowledge to the point of it being a complete guess. It was quite fun.
We then decided to get the next bus back close to midnight, and walked to the car park with Jan and some other teams. We waited around, but it was quite a while before any bus came. By the time one came, a pretty big crowd had formed in the dark and panicked as a single bus entered the car park. People swarmed the bus entrance and we were told this was the bus for mentors, which we thought had left ages ago. Then a next bus arrived and was also swarmed, but Jan managed to get us on, and people's panic slowed as other buses began to arrive in too.
We arrived back a bit past midnight, somewhat exhausted after the long day, and sorted out our devices to be given to Jan. We put all our internet-connectable devices and chargers into a large seal-able plastic bag and gave them to Jan. David and I went to bed not long after he left, and only talked for a short while before going to sleep.
July 21st - Rocks
We woke up v early yet again and went down for breakfast. Had like syrupy fruit and granola and vegan yoghurt but wasn't really hungry idk. Then we got on the bus for a long trip to the rock activities. The bus took like 2hrs which was v long. We then arrived at our first destination that day which was the quarry. We went out and walked along a path past some trees and got to it after a v short walk. The sun was splitting the stones that day and it was very warm. We were given some shovels and a small number of pickaxes and we were allowed to mine at the rocks. I just tried to hide in the shade from the sun neat the steep part of the quarry. David and Philip joined in and Philip managed to break a big crumbly stone in half. We then joined in with Erin and she managed to find a bunch of small crystals in a small area, then her gold rush ended and we had to leave. We walked down the hill and went to the public bathroom in what was literally a small home and shortly after got onto the bus to another place.
We arrived in front of a closed bar place and walked along the path to an outdoor restaurant place and got food there. We sat down after I got my salads and chips on an outdoor picnic table under an umbrella and the Latvian team joined us. We then sat down on the grass and began a game of Durak, which was never ended as we needed to get onto the bus again.
The next destination was a mine, and we went up a hill on the bus. I walked into the gift shop quickly before going to the joining the group to watch a video on the advance of mining technology. We then got into long plastic coats and hard hats and got a lamp between every two people (me + Erin). We then walked down the steps to the entrance of the mine. Minecraft memes were made. we walked along the tracks and it was a nice experience, We got to a part down some stairs and were told about some history of the mine being really old, and continued to see some of the previously shown mining equipment, and a horse operated machine. At the latter, the lights turned out and that scared some people for a short amount of time as the air got cycled through or something. We then went back up and I got a couple small Quartz stones (a heart for Laura, and a spike thing) and was rushed onto the bus.
We were then brought to a rock museum with hundreds of rocks. I was pretty exhausted at that point and didn't pay too much attention, but we saw hundreds of rocks. There was a periodic table with all sorts of elements as they appear in rocks, such as Cesium bound to a bunch of things. There were also some v nice v big crystals there too. One thing that caught me was a puzzle like clay mold made to fit some rocks, except there was a rock split in half and a missing rock so it was confusing to do. We also went down to a little self-contained mine tunnel which had moveable mine carts.
Next we went back to the accommodation on the bus, which took a long time also. We stopped half way again and had our lunches. I had the same rolls with the fried oily vegetables from the 1st day and a bar. We then arrived and had some free time so we went to the supermarcado and did some study and went to sleep.
July 22nd - Activity Centre
The next day we had breakfast and walked over to the labs. We had a "hydro-mineralogist" speak to us about the mineral water in Slovakia and how there were very many sources there. She talked about the different classifications of water to be rich in something if they have over a certain concentration. The whole talk was pretty boring and I kinda started a game of Solitare by the end. We had to feel sorry for them though as it's not really their fault as we're just not a good target demographic for the one she showed us. .We then went out to taste like 4 mineral waters that all didn't taste that great, but we had to choose which we liked best, which really meant which we disliked the least. There are a lot of mineral water springs in Slovakia and many of them have Carbonate dissolved in them (fizzy). Then we watched a lab safety video which was made humorous so was actually pretty good, which made the lecturer seem particularly bad. Wealso had a chance to use some of the equipment such as the bulb pipette-fillers and the pasteur pipettes (droppers).
Next we went back for lunch, and went by bus to the action activity place and did a bunch of activities. We were split into A and B, and then into groups by numbers. Our group was doing the competition thing first and we did an array of activities. First one was to shoot an arrow at a target using a bow, which had a long queue. Next was the maze one where there was a grid on the floor and we had to go on the right path. Next we did chain reaction, where we all got small half pipes and had to move a ball from one bucket to another without moving our feet while it is in our half pipe. Our group actually did quite well and ran out of golf balls and had to ask for more within the designated 12 minutes. It was a fun yet quite tiring activity. After that there was a relay race with obstacles, but our team was small so a couple of people had to repeat. Another activity was one where we were in a box and had to figure out how to get out first through some ropes. Lastly was the blindfolded things were I had to run blindfolded while holding a string, and the rest of the team had to tell me when to duck or slow down or when I was going up a hill. I volunteered to run blindfolded and i couldn't get over my instincts to not run incase there was something in the way, but did my best anyway. Then I queued up to go on a big drop swing thing with a guy from Georgia. The wait was quite long and I played some durak with other people in the queue while waiting. The thing was quite cool but less scary than some people made it out to be. The guy from Georgia said they have loads of scarier things in Georgia but that it was still fun.
We then headed back to the accommodation and had dinner when we came back, followed by a club. I didn''t want to go to the club and neither did Erin, and Philip and David both kinda wanted to be well rested for the exam the next day. So Erin decided to stay in her room after forgetting that it was going to happen, then we went over there to sit in the corner of a different room and playing durak as well as chatting a bit. We got 2 free drink vouchers each and I got a "sex on the beach, virgin" drink just cause, while David got a couple cans of red bull. I went back early and the other guys followed not long after. I looked at some notes on indicators, but in the end none of it was actually needed.
July 23rd - Practical Exam
Then the next day was the practical. We had to wake up at like 5:30am which was quite a trek. We went down pretty early for breakfast and dropped our bags into a lecture hall and were called in groups written on our lanyards into the labs. They had like a plastic basket for each experiment; The one for the first one on the desk, and the other two in the cupboard below as well as a pen, pencil ruler etc.. in a pencil case, and goggles, and of course, the exam in an A4 envelope. We were told to begin and we had 15 minutes to read w/o being allowed to write a thing. The problems were pretty long and I could barely finish reading P1. I set the first step of P1 and finished properly reading P1 and P2 writing littles notes on the side to be sure what I was going to do, and had a quick attempt at P2. Well into P1 I had a bathroom break and thought things were going pretty well when I talked to Jan. However, it took me a long time to finish P1 and by the end I was stressed for time. I barely managed to finish P1 as I had a problem with my separation when I looked at the TLC, and had to not only request more TLC plates (as I ruined one of them, which used up my penalty-free replacement), but also redo the separation consuming more time. I managed to complete P1 by the end but had barely an hour left (out of 5) for P2 and P3. I got some results for P2, but they didn't coincide nicely with each other, and I didn't have any time to write down any workings, which was quite stressful. At the very end I also realised that the P1 was worth only 40 marks while P2 and P3 were worth 70 each, making me realise that I had gotten, at most, 30%. It said at the start to do P1 first but P2 and P3 seemed much shorter and were worth more marks ao wish I did those. I came out and it was a tricky test but a lot of people managed to get 2 problems so was pretty disappointed and was almost in tears.
We then walked back to the Meet&Eat for lunch and got changed for sports activities in randomised teams. I was on team 'Oestrogen' and everyone was exhausted from standing for hours. We had some football, some sac racing and some volley ball. For the football I mainly stayed out, while for the other two I played, and we won by a large margin in the Sac race, but in the Volley ball we were deciated in the first half but rapidly improved for the second half. All meanwhile I contemplated my failings and gathered information from other teams.
Then an unnplanned activity occured. As we went up to our rooms, I was going to empty the stale-tasting water from my water bottle, then I decided that I would just chuck the water off the balcony. I watched it as it fell and it made a very satsfying sound as it made a dampened hit on the concrete all at once. I decided to show david, and he wasn't so impressed as I did it another couple times. Then, some other teams noticed as water fell in fron of their balconies, and it quickly became a game where some people from team Spain began to catch water in a cup a few stories down. Others began to look and watch and it was quite entertining. Philip then poured some water down also and was just as intrigued as me by how the big droplets of water suddenly split into tiny ones all at once when they reached a certain velocity. We were then scolded by a guide, as people were scared (as you could hear through the screams of laughter) that we could begin throwing people down the balconies instead of water, yet the only valid arguement I could think of was the negative environmental effect if we did this consistently, though as the quantities used weren't particularly high in volume, and were bottle-necked by our small water bottles, I felt the fun that we had out-weighed the small amount of water we used.
We then had dinner and after that was a movie night with popcorn. There was a Slovak cartoon and a Documentary on Uranium, but we went to the supermarket first so missed the Slovak cartoon. We looked around and I couldn't find any vegan treats but wanted to return with something, so despite not drinking, I decided to buy some 67% Tetrata tea liquor for me school friends as Jan told us it was good, and since like kinda abandoned my previous pland with them for the summer. On the way back, I wondered if the documentary on Uranium was by Veritasium, as I had wanted to watch it a couple years ago, yet never got around to it, and when we arrived, it was that one indeed. We knew most of the theory as it wasn't too difficult, but It was interesting as it gave context on developments. I had previously wondered why Feynman would work on a bomb but the rumors that Germany was working on one during WW2 (and like then it would basically be GG for the rest of the world so couldn't do that like), and plus he was Jewish so kinda easier to understand why. Then we went to sleep
July 24th - Bratislava & Aqua Park
Then on Tuesday we went to a guided tour of some of Bratislava and looked at the city. We were told of the University of Bratislava and the guide was really excited to go there, but the lecturers didn't care enough about her because they were underpaid, but it was free so it was "really amazing". She also talked about how they have nice wine but don't export very much, and then we went to the Bratislava Castle. Supposedly it was built and the only royalty that lived there was Maria Therisa who didn't like it because it was a boring city, and her daughter which thought the same. I also got scammed 80c to use the bathroom nearby. The view from the castle was pretty great though and you could see how close bordering countries were to the city. We then walked down past a load of historical sites and heard a lot of things that the Slovakians were proud of that weren't that impressive. For example, when the Church let Bratislava have full ownership of an old building that used to be kinda nice but was run down, and they found some expensive fancy tapestry that was made in Slovakia for the British, and the Church demanded it but they got ownership so kept it ha. We viewed other things too and then stopped in a main square briefly where we went to a nearby McDonalds for the bathroom and I got a magnet and some Slovakian Cards.
We then got a bus back for food and to get stuff fot the aqua park. It was a bit of a bus journey and we were slightly dissapointed with the size of it when we got there, but when we went it it was actually pretty good. We went down like all the rides and Erin and I magically lost Philip and David and looked for them and gave up and found them. We went down the 4 lane slides and raced down and I won most of the time and went down a twisty flush one and I thought I was pretty good with 4 spins (as while we were queue-ing, we saw other people on it and few people got to 3 and most got like 2 or less) but Jan got 5 which was quite impressive. We then met the English team and they were doing more of those annoying word games, such as the Black and White one which I actually got, and then I spent the 3€ on my wristband on a drink and some chips.
We then took a bus to some park place and there was an area reserved there with a barbecue and food there. I had some nice warm vegetable curry along with all the usual salads they had. We then went on some circular swing thing and I pushed David and Philip on it a bit as high as it could go. We then decided to go back on an early bus as we were quite exhausted. We then studied a tiny bit but then decided to sleep not long after.
July 25th - Theoretical Exam
Woke up quite early, had small breakfast and left our bags in the big hall. We were then called up in order of country and number, and went to the sports hall we were in previously for the sports day. I sat down in the middle of the second row on a right desk, and were provided with some food and drink. none of the food was edible except for a piece of fruit and some water so I just had those. The exam began and I looked at the paper. The 1st question was pretty grand, then I looked at all the marks of each. I decided to to Q8 which was a fun organics question worth the most, but also took very long and I only got like a quarter of the marks. I then started Q2 and was shocked when the last 90 minutes were announced. I managed to get Q2 finished and some of Q3 done but completely ran out of time in the end. I struggled with a couple relatively simple maths questions by over- complicating them but got them right in the end. We put our work booklets and took our pencil cases and our calculators were checked. Apparently a couple people had cheat sheets hidden with their calculators, and some guy had an unofficial calculator. Supposedly, on of the cheat sheets was an extensive useful manipulated formula sheet, while the other person had a sheet that included a basic circumference = 2 pi r.
We then took our bags and got onto a bus towards the train station. We got into our carriage and into our 6 person rooms, and we were handed our devices and a long survey which we had to fill out. We decided to do the surveys early on on the journey while I charged my phone, and I also played some btd6. Then I texted Laura of my adventures, and was told to go to the food place for food. It was a nice enough salad thing. We also were offered water by a guide while Jan went to get us water and we got water twice. We later decided to play cards but found the compartments cramped so adventured on the carriage and had people join us such as Yuta and the Lithuanian team to play Durak for a good while. We sat on the floor on the very back of the carriage and had a fun time.
Eventually the train arrived we got off the train in Prague in a slightly more ugly area and walked over to like a park in a parade style with the copper heads waving the IChO flags at the front of the crowd. There was some IChO party thing that was open to the public and we were required to wear the IChO provided t-shirts and there were other people there like oh who are these cool VIP nerds like. We met Brian and Mercedes and chatted a load with them. We got food which was an actually tasty curry (yum) with the usual salads (red lentil, other). We ate the food with the guides again and heard a load of the process. I then queued with David in the queue for beer to keep him company and we talked to a guy from the Swiss team a bit. He was nice and got us some red Switzerland caps. After some chatting I got some Kofola and some apple juice, and they got their beer.
We also visited the stalls and got any free merch we could. I got a blue Unipetrol rubber wrist band that was suspiciously similar in colour to the Blue IChO one but I lent it to David one day so no longer have it. I also got some writing tools and a little box with a game where you had to fit four Ts in a circle. Eventually, the party came to an end as we left for the new accommodation. We arrived there and looked at the secretariat before going up to our rooms with our new keys. We went in and it was an old fashioned large room that was actually pretty nice. We were connected to our neighbors by the bathroom and shower and two sinks. I unpacked a bit and went down to socialise a bit before talking to Laura a bit more and going to sleep.
July 26th - Hills, Mines and Water Plants
We woke up at a luxurious 6:30am, got ready and went to the canteen. We were slightly confused as to which canteen to go to in the food building but it was the same as the IOL one. We queued up for ages and had some breakfast then later got onto the bus, and arrived at a little church area in a wooded are next to a hill. We went up a nice little mountain and were shaded by trees, but I was roasting in the heat as the path was quite steep We then reached a really nice view from the top rocky part of the mountain, which had a big cross on the side and lacked much of a fence. We then made our way off for the next group and someone injured themselves on the foot so they had to have their leg patched up. We then went back down the hill and ate our lunches at the bottom of the hill a bit. We then went to a source of clean water next to the church and filled up our water and just enjoyed looking at it falling through a V in such a fashion that made it look like glass.
We were then called into the church and sat down for a talk of the history of the church, and then went into the cave. There was a church inside without the seating which was pretty cool. The air was very refreshingly cool in the cave which was very pleasant. We looked at other things in the church and talked to some people from other teams and then went back out to get on the bus to the next location.
Next was Solavy's Quarries. We arrived at a hot little bus stop in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, being next to some suburban houses, and I struggled to survive in the sun. It took a while for the bus to arrive and it was quite warm when we got on. we arrived near a footpath and rails and while walking to the main area saw people ride by on a little old train thing. We then, after waiting for a short while , got on the train too and went on a trip around the area in a circle which was fun as we waved at the other groups passing by. Next we looked some old history of the site and some of the old things they used to use there. We moved on to the workstation and used a couple of them. We threw big rocks into an old rock crushing machine and shoveled the smaller rocks into a mine cart, and used the jackhammers. We then went on a walk into another mine which was closed down in the middle so we walked like 60m into the cool shade of it. Yet again I was surprised by how sudden the temperature difference occurs. Lastly, we had a talk by a reasearcher on old lime making technology and how they did it, and learned of the lime cycle in a way that included a good amount of chemistry so it was quite fascinating. He described how they had to heat lime at like 500C specifically for many hours to dehydrate it or it wouldn't be the right porous enough or the reaction wouldn't occur very quickly. He then did a demonstration of an exothermic reaction as he added some water to the dry lime before finishing. We then had a short break before leaving again.
Went to historical waste water treatment plant which had a field next to it, had food there, and had a lecture by co-author of Clayden from Catherine's College Cambridge, where he talked about the naming of Elements of the periodic table, and showed off some explosions. He did it in a quite interesting way, and blew up a good few things. He blew up gunpowder and a similar mixture with other elements. He blew up some Iodine and Nitrogen compound (producing a purple cloud of Iodine gas smoke which directly approached us as we were sitting at the front), and also hydrolysed some soapy water in Philip's hand and blew it up. He also blew up a big balloon filled with hydrogen gas creating a blast of heat. He was then presented with a gingerbread Periodic Table, and he took Pd as they were his initials.
Next we did a tour of the waste water treatment plant and saw where the water ran through, then waited to go down into the sewers. We played around with some Japanese flying wooden toy from Yuta, then dawn to ride along a dark echoey tunnel in a boat. We went out, chatted with UK team and played badminton while I was a net, then went to the rooms to sleep.
July 27th - Prague City Tour
So we woke up early (again) and had breakfast in the same place before leaving on the bus for Prague city. We arrived first in the main old square and were given a tour of all the touristy stuff. The city was packed with touristy shops, and the sun was scorching hot. We walked for hours through the city from the big church/cathedral to old streets to a window someone was pushed out of. We then got to the main city and stopped for a quick break when I went to the post office to get stamps to send the post cards I was going to write. The main detail which I remember was a tower that was one of the last tower standing that held dynamite. We then went over to a really fancy building which was like a theatre or something and went downstairs to a fancy restaurant. I was given a disappointingly plain plate of oily rice with a small amount of veg mixed in, while the others had some meat thing in sauce and mashed potato. We were a bit tired of walking and it was nice to have a little break before going walking again. We then continued on and I don't remember much about where we went other than going to the main street and having time to go through a market. All of the markets stalls sold the same tourist souvenirs which made it not very interesting. There was also a fake weed-themed shop which was odd as it wasn't even legal there, showing how overly touristy the city was. We then walked along and went along the river to see what was one of the widest waterfalls falling a massive distance of 1m. We were then relieved to sit down when we got to where the bus was picking us up near a bridge, and the cool air of the bus was refreshing as we got in 10 minutes later.
We came back to the student accommodation and had free time, which Jan decided to use as time to rest. We were all pretty exhausted so it was a reasonable decision. On the other hand at dinner, the rest of us were invited by Richard and Mirka from the Czech team to go to a nearby hill with them and some others to watch the lunar eclipse from. We decided it would be fun and so decided to go as it was supposedly on of the best ones in a hundred years, and we wanted to spend some time with the other teams. In the end around a dozen of us embarked on the trip. We walked to a bus stop not far from the student accommodation and took a bus into town. We then got transfer onto a tram and got off on the last station near a hill. We walked down a valley before going up the little hill and found a nice place to sit down in the grass.
We had fun chatting about our experiences such as the time Mirka got a medal or something and her guide got the whole team shots. Richard explained the drinking culture of Czech in how they are supposed to get drunk if they get on the team or something, which sounded bad to me but he likes it I think. We then played a game where we had to say a word in another language like 'bosca bruscar' and the others had to guess what it means using yes or no questions. It took a surprisingly long time for the first one to be guessed. Meanwhile, the lunar eclipse viewing was basically scrapped due to the presence of a massive cloud directly obstructing our view that didn't move one bit. The part that made this especially annoying was that there were also clear patches of sky above us. While we never saw it, we had fun together anyway and that was all that mattered. then we got the transport back to the accommodation using our free bus passes, and had a pancake sesh.
We went up to the top of the stairs into a little kitchen. past a dividing thin yet rigid wall and brought chairs in to sit down. Before Richard made any pancakes, I mixed some water and flour to make the ultimate pancake mixture. I made a pancake that Michelin-star chefs couldn't even imagine due to how perfectly round and under-cooked it was, as the pan had not yet heated up to full blast. Richard then made everyone else plain standard pancakes that he flipped in an inferior way that barely involved the use of the spatula, but instead relied on vertical kinetic energy and angular momentum. We had fun anyway continuing our chats with a various few people who joined in. We then went to sleep a while later well into the next day
July 28th - Closing Ceremony
Despite going to sleep so late, I woke up quite early again this day. The Irish team made plans to go into the city to get some souveniers from Prague and to get David some clothes. We had breakfast and left the campus. We arrived on the bus in the city not long after on the fancy building end of a wide main street. We walked down and got the where we were the other day, and went right to go into a clothes shop. We then went into the couple tourist shops that were there (of which there were a lot). I bought some Prague cards there and a magnet, and Erin got some little dolls. We then met up with the Montenegro team again, and the guy was delighted with the tourist merch he had purchased.
We then made our way back to the campus and got dressed to go to the Closing ceremony. We arrived in what I think was the same fancy building and went into the well decorated fancy theatre hall, and sat down in our seats. It began with the same periodic table song as the last one ended with, and some performers. It was a while before the results began and we were patiently waiting to dissapoint everyone. Eventually we got to the Honourable mentions, and upon seeing the Belgian guy we shared the first room with, I remembered how he managed to do all 3 Experiments during the practical and lost any hope of winning anything. It was nice however to see people who we knew doing well and getting medals. For example, the guy from Iceland got a bronze. By the time they got to a silver, people were quite tense. The general trend was that the lower the silver was, the happier the people were. We also saw loads of people we knew being delighted with the silvers they were awarded, but also a few people dissapointed from the good countries. In the Golds however, things got far more cheerful. Dhyey got the gold he wanted and so did Richard. Mirka was also delighted to have gotten one. The Brazil team, who had never won a gold before, got 2 this year, and Aleksei was surprised to get the 2nd best result. The presenters then reminded us that while there was only one winner, none of us lost as we got to have such a great experience. The ceremony concluded and I went around to people congratulating their results. I talked to Aleksei and he was just sad that while he did well, the others wished they did better.
We then went over to the farewell party in a restaurant place next to the river, were we were given food and IChO copper head things. There was also a boat on which people could get on for more room. I mostly ate some fruit and a bit of salad due to lacking options, but was happy to talk to people again. I felt kind of sad that the whole experience was coming to an end as it really was one of the best experiences of my life. People also gave us loads of merch that they were itching to get rid of, showing how unprepared the Irish team was with our couple dozen lollipops we got on the 1st day. The Netherlands team had some 500 rainbow lanyards they got from their sponsor and would offer a whole bag of them to people. Somehow I managed to over-pack the amount of copperheads I took but that wasn't much of a problem in the end. I talked with many people and then rejoined the Irish team and some others near the river. I passively saw a boat moving in the darkness on the river with what I thought could be fireworks before dismissing it as unimportant. Then just before 10, who I think was the French Organiser announced that they had the first catalyser for 2019 and that they had a nice surprise for us before there are noise restrictions in the city: Fireworks. We moved on to sit on the grass near the river and the music and firework show began. It was a spectacular 3-4 minute firework show that was the best one I'd ever seen in my life. there were 2 points in which we thought it was over, yet it was about to get better. By the end I was in awe of how great it was. We then talked about how good it was and how it probably made a noticeable dent on the budget. Turns out even the guides didn't know it was going to happen either, and it really was quite a surprise. Then a disco thing was announced to be on, and that really wasn't for me so I stayed away from that and hang out with other people I was going to have to say goodbye to. I also went in to see the English team and one of them was completely hammered, and a couple others were reasonably drunk too, as this was their tied best result.
When it finally ended, David decided to go clubbing with a group of people, while Philip, Erin and I decided to go back. Richard had made plans for pancakes again that evening, but the turnout wasn't so great as people were exhausted and so was cancelled. I spent most of the night with Aleksei, who offered his bed to his roommate's gf, as I knew David wasn't going to return for a while. We mainly stayed in my room and talked a bit, but both of us were quite tired. After many hours, he decided he would sleep on a few combined chairs as a bed in the other Russians' room. I began to pack my bags slowly and David eventually arrived at like 4 am, at which time we both fell right asleep.
July 29th - Leaving
We had to wake up early enough and we were both exhausted. We went to sleep and when I woke up we skipped breakfast as he needed to pack and I was tired. We then took our bags with us to the bus and went to the fancy hotel where the leaders were staying. The reality set in that the IChO was finally over. We arrived there and put our bags into a storage room. We were supposed to get a packed lunch, but yet again the vegan food wasn't vegan. It wasn't really a problem though as I wasn't hungry, just tired. I then got a messanger from Aleksei telling me that he had lost his little black kitten toy of sentimental value. I tired to help him by going up to the secretariat in the hotel, but to no avail. I don't think he ever got it which is sad as he was quite upset.
Mercedes and Brian met us later than we were told they would meet us and we talked to them a bit. They reflected a bit more on results and how they could improve for next year. We soon after got on the bus to the airport and said goodbye to the last few people. When we got through security and such, we went to our gate and sat a bit then got some food. I got a vegan burrito which was expensive and not that great. David explained that burrito boxes were superior. We were then hit with 2 hours of delays for the flight, and given a small amount of compensation for it. I joked it would be like 5 € worth as that wouldn't be enough for anything, then it actually was. David went off and I couldn't find him for ages. I contemplated spending his voucher but decided to wait to find him. When I did we decided to get an 8€ smoothie, which we didn't even get to drink as we ran out of time and had to board. When we did go through the gate, we still had to wait like 15 minutes in the bus which made the experience particularly annoying.
We got on and I sat at the very front of the plane on 01C. I spent the majority of the flight playing BTD6 and it wasn't too bad, even if it was annoying that it left so late. When we arrived we went through passport control and got our bags, before I thanked Mercedes and Brian and said goodbye to everyone.
Begin genericEnding(): While I can sum up all of the events that happened, I can't fully express how grateful I am to have such an experience, and how great the people I met during the event were. They were all incredibly kind interesting, and I will forever cherish the memories I have made there :)