Practical exam

Today morning we woke up earlier than the past days, because of the practical exam. That is why we went to sleep kinda early yesterday. As preparation, we went through the inorganic analysis reactions.

After breakfast, we went to the bus and departed with small delay, compared to the past days.

The exam was at the Agricultural University of Georgia, where they have nice labs with new labware.

We already had our lab and seat numbers on our badges and we had to gather around people with the lab number. It turned out that the head of my lab is a Hungarian guy. It makes no difference, but I was happy with it.

Now the lab exam consisted of two parts, we had a break between the first and the next two tasks. The time was split like 100/200 minutes for the two parts.

The first task was inorganic analysis, where we had 5 solution samples of 2 compounds each. We were told which 10 compounds can be in the samples and we had these 10 given out separately to be used for examination of the samples. This was not too hard and when I started reading it, I was pretty sure, that this is Attila Villányi’s task. I know he likes to make tasks like this on other competitions too.

The second one was a simple titration with Cl^-/Ag⁺/SCN^-. Nothing special.

The third was an organic analysis task, where we were given 8 samples of flavouring compounds and we had to do 4 reactions with each. They had intense smell and the lab was full of it at the end.

All of it could be done on time, unlike last year.

I was very hungry when we finished the lab exam, and I was happy to hear, that we just have to go to the next building and have lunch.

I was surprised to hear, that two students will do the exam later, due to illness. They are in the hospital with diarrhea. Good that none of us had this problem.

Missed excursion

Today morning we were not woken up by guides, we had our own alarm waking us up on time. We even put a sticker on the door not to be disturbed before a certain time. We did everything normally, went to have breakfast. Knowing that there was an hour delay yesterday, and the dining hall was full of people including guides around the time of departure written in the schedule, we did not worry about the time.

Our guide came and told that we will leave in 15 minutes, and others were told other times. So we went up to the room and started getting ready. Later he came and told another time of departure. All right, we will depart some time, possibly soon.

Then he came and told that in 5 minutes we have to go, this was just after the last one. We said ok, but we finish all stuff, especially brushing our teeth. I was telling the guide to calm down, we will not be left here and we are still very early after yesterday’s delay.

Finally he said a bit later, which was not 5 minutes I think, that he was called by the head guide, that the bus just left. This time we were mostly ready, 3 of us out of the room, one getting shoes on. So we needed like 1 minute to get to the bus’ parking place.

I was surprised about the mentality of them, especially the head guide, that he does leave students in the hotel. Especially like this, when it wouldn’t have been a big thing to wait 1 minute. And our guide was telling him that we are getting out already, at least I hope, as he was speaking Georgian.

We were told that the excursion was to some churches and it was not too interesting.

The good thing about staying is, that we can sleep and prepare for tomorrow’s practical exam now.

Disco party and looking for catalyser

After getting back from the excursion, we had dinner and I asked about the disco party that is in the schedule. A guide told me that it will be held in the dining hall, by removing some tables and a DJ will run it.

After dinner the (kinda) DJ arrived with speakers and all the equipment. A lot of the hotel’s people helped setting everything up and some hours later the party started. Their music was not the best for the purpose. If you are running a party where people dance, you have to play music good for dancing, not gangster rap. Sadly they played too much of this kind. (by music for dancing, I do not mean waltz or tango music or similar but kinda disco music)

Everyone enjoyed it after all, as I saw, not all of it but surely something and this is the goal of such events on Olympiads I think.

I noticed a girl in the dancing crowd, who had a different badge colour than us. It turned out, that she is from the media. She is working on the Olympiad’s official daily newspaper for participants, the Catalyser.

I realized, that we did not get the today’s issue so far, just the one yesterday. I asked her about it an she told me that there was one made and she has no idea why I did not get it. After that, I asked the group of guides sitting in the corner of the dining hall. The head guide of our bus told me that it was distributed after the opening ceremony. It was on tables in some corner of the room, wherefrom we should have taken it. It seems like we had no chance to get it as the guide was making us hurry and that is too bad. I like these newspapers, as they tell stuff about the host country, the program we will have and the people having birthday on the given day. I like to collect all of them, as I did on my previous Olympiads.

The head guide told me that he will look into it. I liked that. The bad thing was, that when I told why we did not get it, explained that we were hurrying because of our guide, the guides talked all against me. They told me that it is my solely fault and I shall not blame any guide for that. And not saying this too nicely. Well, a pretty awful mentality of guides. I have never seen this kind of thing on my previous Olympiads.

Excursion of waiting everywhere in Tbilisi City

This whole excursion started off with an hour of delay. It is not surprising, as for 300 people have to eat and  get ready before it, having limited time.

We arrived to the buses a bit late according to the program and the guide was nervous about it. We had to wait a lot in the bus after that, like 20-30 minutes. Meaning we were pretty early after all.

Firstly, we visited a church, where there was a wedding at the moment. It is told to be a popular place to have weddings.

Then we went on with the buses to a little place, wherefrom we were walking. We went through small streets with restaurants and shops. This was the old town, kinda authentic and beautiful.

We saw their glass bridge, where we caused a traffic jam on foot, with 300 people wanting to got through at the same time.

Beside all of this, we were waiting a lot everywhere. We simply had to stop in the middle of squares, streets, anything to wait a bit for something. When we moved together, the walking speed was close to a snail’s speed. The big crowd was moved very chaotically. The basic idea was that each buses’ people stay together around the bus-guide, who has the sign with the number of the bus. And so, there is an order of the buses and they have to go everywhere in this order.

The problem with this was, that we talked to people from other buses. Shame on us, that we know people from other buses, right? And pretty much no one would say like: “Sorry, I will not let ou end your sentence/thought and I will not tell mine, because I have to wait for something about 50m away from here.” So the groups were mixed and the guides did not realize that we are not marching soldiers, but students from around the world who get to know each other.

Finally we went to see a river’s valley with a waterfall, which was the most beautiful thing on the way. And it was in the middle of the city.

After this, we went to the buses and surprisingly, waited there for whatever.

So this excursion was 70% standing and waiting, 20% walking super-slowly and 10% walking with normal speed and being stopped to wait for the others.

Opening Ceremony

Today morning we wanted to wake up at 7:30 as there is breakfast until 9. So we can have enough sleep, have breakfast and take a shower before going. We told this in the evening to the guides sitting in the lobby, including our's. They said it will be all ok, they will make sure not to wake us up earlier.

Then some guide was knocking on the door very hard before 7 am, telling us to wake up, get ready and breakfast is from 7 am. We were very upset with her and told her to go and not do this thing again.

We had a rich breakfast, fortunately not in that little dining hall, but downstairs in in the hall of the hotel.

We suited up and got on the buses. We had to wait a bit on the bus, then went to a theatre where the opening ceremony was going to be held. Before that, we had like an hour to chat around with other students and the mentors. This was great, it is always good to see the mentors during the olympiad.

As always, on the opening ceremony, we saw national dance and music performances, all the teams were called one by one to stand up for an applaus and heard speeches. The best was Gabor Magyarfalvi's speech, who is the Chairman of the steering comitee this year. It was well structured and he told us meaningful stuff.

After that, we took a team-photo in front of the Olympiad’s banner. Then the guide told us that we need to hurry up instead of socializing with others and leave fast. We did so and got on the bus, where we were waiting for other teams a lot. Good way to make yourself taken less seriously.

Opera play and national food tasting like shampoo

We went to the opera and bought tickets. The surprising thing about it was, that we were able to buy tickets to the 4th row, just half an hour before starting. And it was dirt cheap compared to the opera prices at home.

The title was Abesalon and Eteri it was in Georgian, as it is their national opera play, but with no subtitles. The guide told us the story of it, so it was understandable. It is kinda like Romeo and Juliet.

The weird part was that the main characters were supposed to be around 18-20 y/o but 60+ singers played them.

I was surprised that the whole audience stood upto applaud at the end. 

We missed the dinner in the hotel, so we went to eat something afterwards with the guide. He took us to a restaurant which is famous for it's khinkali. This is a national dish of Georgia. It is basically a pasta bag filled with something. The something was meat, mushrooms, etc., but all full of coriander. For some people, like me, coriander tastes like shampoo. I'm ok with coriander in small quantities, but there is a point when it is just too much of the shampoo taste. Just like salt, you need a bit, but not a dish full of it.

We ordered like 10 khinkali each, because it was the normal portion according to the guide. It turned out that 4-5 is already enough per person, especially from the coriander in it.

The other thing we tried was hatsapuri, which is like a pizza filled with cottage cheese and no topping but cheese. I liked this.

After all, this was very cheap so we were happy with it.

Registration

After a little sleep, we went to have breakfast. It was good, they had delicious croissants. The dining hall is very small, I doubt that the 300 people will fit in here for a meal.

After breakfast, we went back to sleep.

We discussed with the guide to sleep 1 hour before going to the registration. So we went to sleep and set an alarm clock.

After half an hour we were woken up by the guide's knocking on the door. He told us to get up and go now. The registration is open the whole day though and it is told that most planes are coming afte2 or 3 pm, so we told him to chill out, no need to hurry. So we could sleep a bit more.

We took a cab to the mentor's hotel, where we were waiting in the lobby. They told that a mentor must come down and tell them to let us in for the registration.

We met a lot of hungarians there, from the organizing comite. After discussing a lot of stuff with them, we got to know that there is an oprah play in the National Oprah House of Georgia and we can visit it. It will be cheap too.

Our phones were taken away, we got the olympiad backpack with a lot of stuff instead. There was a T-shirt, a baseballcap, a pendrive, etc. All with the olympiad logo. Too bad that they did not give us pins like last year and the year before. I would gladly put it on my suit beside the other one.

We got the badges, that we will have to wear the whole time. There is name, country and all useful info on it. We had red color of T-shirt, cap and badge as students, guides had yellow. This always a good way to distinguish the people.