National Olympics of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Posted by 3Nigma on May 07 2008 14:15:34
Writing my first news on this category from Barlad,Vaslui,a county in Romania from the ONAA[National Olympics of Astronomy and Astrophysics]
Extended News
I had this category therefore, sooner or later, I had to write something in it,hadn't I? And what better things can I start with then My first National Olympics [of Astronomy but I'd rather wanted it to be at Informatics, well, better luck next time he?] held in the city of Barlad in Vaslui county in my country[ Romania ].
From where can I start with?
We arrived on the evening of 30th of April in Barlad's local train station. When I say 'we' I refer to : me, Aura, Alex, Ionela, Oana and our 2 professors : Ivascu and Bobociov.In the station, we were greeted by a small welcoming comity composed of a man and a woman.
From the station we were picked up by a minibus and transported to "Mihai Eminescu" 's high school student hosting quarters where we left our luggage and entered the cafeteria and had dinner.
Let me tell you something about the overall concept of food here. During our stay, we had 3 meals a day [breakfast at approximately 8:00, lunch at 15:00 and dinner at 20:00], most of them normal, but if we felt the need to eat more, there was no trouble in asking the chefs in giving more. The quantity wasn't the problem, it was the quality that was, well not hygienic all the way through.
I remember that on an evening, the chef that served us stake along with the mashed potatoes had nothing else to pick the stake with rather than his bare hands, which I thought rather disgusting considering that I don't know where he had held his hand before that.
When it was time to eat, we entered quietly the cafeteria and went on a the back of a line of other kids that were there, waiting to get our self a filthy plate in which we put the food in it. The plates were filthy because no one cleaned them after each meal. They considered that the peoples that were eating there had to clean up their own plates using a rather ugly kitchen towel and, normally, most of the kids considered that they don't have to clean them.
Now, let us get back to our bees-wax: After we had dinner that night we went quietly to our dorms where we met our room-mates: mostly from Sibiu and Suceava, 12 in total[including Alex and I]. Pretty soon I found out that they were quite a bunch of good peoples.
Anyways,after that,we simply were spent[travelling for more than 14 hours ,that's how long the trip lasted starting from Timisoara[my hometown] and ending in Barlad's train station, had left its mark and it was showing of] so we simply slept.
When I say simply, I really mean roughly. Besides the emotions that we had for the next day[the next day were the actual exams],there weren't any pillows for all of us[including me, normally] so we had to improvise from clothes and towels. Aaa...but the heating and overall comfort was magnificent.
We had none! During our first night, we really had any actual heating. The only thing that was keeping us away from the freezing concept wasn't the fact that we had blankets [really thin ones],oh no, but actually the fact that we were so many in the room[12] that our breams kept us one another warm. This was in the first night. By the time we had to sleep on the second night, we already got used to it.
Anyways,on with the story. I got up, washed myself and had breakfast next morning. After breakfast there was a welcoming comity speech held in the cafeteria. It was a short one and lasted barely 25 minutes or so. The reason for why it was so short was the fact that the actual theoretical-exam started at 11 and they were short on time.
After that, we quietly entered our assigned exam-room and waited. After a while 2 ladies entered the room, they were young Romanian teachers.
Our exam had begun!
After seeing the subjects, I was horrified! Nothing that I learned or exercised prepared me for such subjects. Let me tell you that I have met many people during my stay, most of them had come to other Astronomy National Olympics and most of them, if not all of them, agreed that this was the stupidest exam they had ever attended to. I mean, we learned formulas, done exercises but nothing prepared us for it. All we had to do was WRITE, WRITE, WRITE ...We hardly used the formulas and theory that we learned. Most of them were based on pure basic knowledge of astronomy and not astrophysics! When I'll have the time, I’ll translate them. Maybe you'll see what I'm talking about. In my opinion, a kid from the 9-th grade who knows a little of vectorial physics and has some knowledge of basic astronomy could score a considerable amount on our exams. In conclusion, it was pretty low.
Anyway, I was glad that it was over, left the exam room after handing in the exam papers and went to my room. There, I complained a little with my colleague, Alex, and the rest of the bunch and hoped that on the observational-exam [we had 2 exams that day, one practical and one observational] to be much better. Some of us slept, others went to the city, then we had supper and after that, again, the bunch broke up into different directions. Normally, we had to held the observational-exam outdoors through telescopes watching the skies starting from 21, but there was a little problem: it was so cloudy that we could see no stars and no way for the weather to change its mind by 21.So a plan B was in order, it was announced that at 18:30 we would enter our exam rooms and we would give our observational-exam on paper.
Same thing, we entered our designated rooms, the supervisors followed us after 45 minutes and we received 2 maps, only dots were on those maps. The main challenge was to plot a course on those maps revealing all the constellations. We had 30 minutes. There were so many dots on our maps that you couldn't know even from where to begin with! If a person would have looked at those maps they would have been astonished to even comprehend that there were so many stars on a part of the sky.
30 minutes of staring had passed, “Put your pens down and come to hand them over in alphabetical order please." I was first :).
After that, I went to my room and started to talk with the boys about the observational exam. Pretty low indeed, but it had passed and all was ok that we weren't suppose to torment ours elf any longer with such exams.
We had dinner, watched a movie on my laptop [The Dukes of Hazard] in the girls room, met the Cluj[another county] team, talked to my mother and girl friend on the phone[had no internet in this part of the country] about my progress and decided that it was time to take that all deserved rest, so I went to sleep.
The next day we woke up, washed our self and went to breakfast. It was suppose to be our day off , meaning that we were suppose to go on a field trip through Barlad. And so we did. After breakfast, we were expected outside by 2 local buses.
The happiness could be read from all our faces...finally a day of relaxation. Our first objective to visit was Barlad's local museum. The journey to the museum didn't lasted much and once at the museum, we were split into 2 groups and entered separately because the museum wasn't big enough to host us all.
Once inside, the museum hadn't much to offer: just some paintings and graphics hand made by different persons that were, some, good, but it was at least cool inside [outside was pretty hot].
After this short stop, we entered the busses once again and started on a longer journey: to Barlad's monastery which was at a distance of about 20km from the city. I thought it was a good thing...visiting a monastery in this part of my country had to be a nice activity.
The only fact that no one had warned us about was that the monastery was celebrating its creation date. That meant that they were giving out free food and it was a very special day.
You might wonder what is wrong in that? Well...Barlad's situated in some of the worst part of this country, it’s the poor part and free food means great number of people trying to get it. Although they were poor, they were also with faith. We couldn't park our buses no less then 2km from the actual monastery on a 2 way forest road. It was that much full. The rest of our way we had to go by foot along with several other Christians and let me tell you...the forest road couldn't handle the Christians that were on the way to the monastery, let alone anyone/anything trying to get back to the city...it was total mayhem.
Once arrived at the monastery, the food was gone, but at least we got a glimpse of that holly place...it was kind of mystical.
Anyway, we stood a little, admired the place and when we decided that it was time to head back...how to turn the buss around on a 2 way blocked forest road? Big question indeed with not so obvious answer...
Inside the bus was hot, it was noon and the sun was heating it up, so we decided, along with some of the others, to make our way out of the forest by foot, at least till they manage to free the buss...and so we did...
The forest road consisted of 5km and I've done them all by foot, having, at the end of the forest, to wait for the others.
They eventually came...
We supposed to be at home by 14 and eventually arrived by 16. From this point of view, I can say that our 'short trip' was a disaster.
Once home...the results from the previous day's exams were shown: I had 25pts, Oana had 23pts,Aura 13pts and Alex, I think he had 67pts.
My results were pretty good knowing the fact that I didn't study that much although I had the possibility but I preferred to stay at home and learn at Informatics and program instead >:) . Guilty as I'll ever be...
Knowing the results, I’ve phoned my girlfriend and then my mother to tell them also. Their response was encouraging but not that much needed.
Later we ate and played some basketball in the school basketball court. Doing this, I had the chance of meeting some other contestants and truly enjoy myself. I think we played for 3-4 hours, but at the end, I was beat up, spent as you might say, and finally decided to sleep.
The next day it was the exam for places in the extended national team but I've decided not to go since I knew that it was enough, so I stayed in my room along with a roommate which didn't feel good enough to go to this exam, he was pretty sick.
One by one...my roommates entered the room and stated that this exam was pretty hard. It was expected since entering the extended national team was a pretty big thing. Alex was happy and so was I for him ...
That day, it started raining, nothing much could be done...we managed to go on such a bad weather, to a local supermarket and by some stuff for the road ahead back to my city the other day and that was about it...nothing special that day happened.
In the evening, by the time we got home from the supermarket, there was the award ceremony and...to my expectancy, Alex managed to enter the 'extended national team'...I was ever so happy, and so was Oana[his girl friend :)]...
After the ceremony, we ate and stood and talked about the trip long into the night. At the end of it all...my roommates watched the same movie [The Dukes of Hazard] in our room[I hadn't had anything else on me :">] and went to sleep.
The next day, early in the morning, our time for departure came. I've made my luggage in a hurry, checked to not lose anything and went to the same train station as when we arrived.
At the train station...it was full of people returning back from the Easter Holiday. In the train...we stood like sardines, It was rather unpleasant for them since they had no seats, but we had seats so we didn't suffer like them...all the way to the capital.
In Bucharest, we ate at 'Springtime’, a fast-food in the train station. It was Oana's birthday so she payed for our food...so nice of her] When the Intercity to Timisoara [my home town] came, we entered and settled down.
Our way back to Timisoara was a happy one. We played bomber man with Alex, told jokes and had loads of fun playing the 3 word story. We arrived in Timisoara at 23:23 and Mom, my girl friend, my sister and my girl friend's parents were expecting me. So nice of them to come...
All in all, it was a nice experience! This was my first national Olympics that I attended to. I've managed to see a city, make some friends and, best of all, learn something and had loads of fun.
Can't wait for the next Olympics, next year. My targeted domain? Any...since I go for relaxation, not for the competition. :) in the process...