Oleg's Big Party

Vancouver - IPhO Team Training Camp at UBC

Story No. 1 - The Electric Bus

The story starts off when the five of us decide to go on a mini-adventure into downtown Vancouver. Now, the buses in Vancouver sure are something… first of all, they are electric powered! (not all of them though, I think) What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, I guess electricity accelerates better than diesel, because the feel of the bus roaring out of a stop was not unlike that of an airplane taking off! The fun did not end there… eventually, the bus must come to a stop again, and amazingly enough, the brakes on this thing are just as good as the engine! Whether I was holding onto a handrail or sitting in my seat, the deceleration would jerk me about to the brink of falling over.

Once, we were on the bus and I insisted on standing even though there were plenty of empty seats… wait, I think this was in Korea, but I’ll tell the story anyway. It was really, REALLY hot, and so I gave the excuse that it was cooler to remain standing. Of course, my teammates thought this was outrageous (it was probably after the 2 exams sessions, when they had already lost faith in my reasoning skills), and demanded a physics explanation. I gave them one - heat transfer occurs faster when you are standing up because you expose greater surface area - and they had no more objections after that!

Story No. 2 - The Tub of Ice Cream

Our team arrived at UBC in the middle of a science outreach camp run by the physics department. So, you had in the same room about 30 little kids making balloons and messing around with markers… and then you had us in the corner.

Anyway, it so happened that one of their activities, rather chemistry related unfortunately, was “make our own ice cream.” So all these kids, presumably with a little bit of adult assistance, put their hands together and synthesized a gigantic tub of ice cream (picture later). It was time for the kids to go, and all the parents were there to pick them up. The question arose about what the heck they were going to do with the ice cream.

Haha, you guessed it, they gave ice cream that could feed 30 to a quintet of physics geeks… it was heaven on earth! =) They got us some bowls, some spoons, and most importantly, some chocolate and caramel squeeze bottles. The result cannot be described by mere words… I’ll just call it “IPh-cream” and leave it at that.

Anyway, it just goes to show that five physics Olympians can be quite creative with chocolate, caramel and a gigantic tub of ice cream!

Story No. 3 - What’s the Ph in IPhO?

The International Olympiad is an exciting place to be, and perhaps I was a bit too excited upon disembarking my plane in Vancouver. I began taking snapshots of anything and everything, much to the annoyance of our veteran Olympian Amir.

We were walking towards the physics building, and I was taking random scenery snapshots when Amir decided he had finally had enough. “Calm down, Tout,” he suggested, “this isn’t the International Photography Olympiad.” After that outburst, I was careful where I pointed my camera! =)

Story No. 4 - The Last Supper, and some CounterStrike

Our four days at UBC were nearly over. We had finished our (practice) experiment and theory exams… I did a lot better on them than I did on the real thing, unfortunately. Anyway, the story starts off at a Greek restaurant called Candida or something. Our team leader had instructed our deputy leader to take us out for a nice meal before we flew off to Korea, and so this Greek place was the one we went to.

We each ordered seemingly identical platters of souvlaki, and they were really, really big portions. We were halfway through our meal when Amir started looking like he would leave about half the plate unfinished. I chided him about being so wasteful, making stupid comments about hungry kids all over the world and other such cliches. I bothered him to the point that he decided he would not leave the restaurant until he finished his entire meal. At that point, the four of us became a bit concerned at the fact that our potential gold medallist might end up in hospital due to a burst stomach or something.

Our desperate pleading was of no use. Slowly but surely, Amir managed to cram down the rest of his souvlaki, looking pretty good when he finished too!

Well, after all that food, we had to walk it off, so we decided to walk all the way back to campus from midtown, retracing the path we took by bus earlier that day. We managed to get back without incident. However, the night was still young, our deputy leader was at some bar with friends, and we had nothing to do…

So, it was off to the arcade! First on the menu was Dance Dance Revolution. Peter turned out to be an amazing dancer, having practiced regularly in Calgary with his many girlfriends. Noemie was really good too because she did gymnastics in high school. As for the rest of us… my musical training enabled me to hit SOME beats, whereas Ali and Amir were simply hopeless.

Enough of the embarrassing DDR… it was time for some good old CounterStrike. Unfortunately, Noemie wasn’t much into violent first person shooters, being a girl and all, so she watched. That made it a perfect 2 on 2, with teams divided along some very ethnic lines - the Chinese vs. the Iranians… can you guess which team was the terrorists? Funny enough, both Peter and I were decent players, whereas Amir and Ali never even played before, so it wasn’t much of a match the first few rounds. Physics Olympians learn fast, though, and it wasn’t long before it became a heated battle.

We played maps like dust and assault for a while before someone came up with the brilliant idea of trying 747. It was great since we happened to be heading off for the airport the next morning! So, Amir and Ali would camp out on the plane while Peter and I would try to rescue the poor hostages. Our success rate wasn’t very 1337… Amir and Ali made such good terrorists that we joked they would either have trouble boarding the plane at Vancouver International Airport or be detained once they arrived in Korea. That would become a running joke for the rest of the trip, though we were careful never to mention the word “terrorist” on airplanes or at checkpoints.

Incidentally, Ali did have some passport problems at the airport. Unfortunately, I’m out of time even though there are so many more tales to tell.

Until next time…