Oleg's Big Party

Once we got there, we went straight to check-in with Singapore Airlines. The person there was nice, and became even nicer when he found out we were the IPhO team! This didn’t help much though, because Ali’s Iranian (a.k.a terrorist) passport was apparently flagged for some serious background checking. After ten minutes of hushed words and one superior referring to another, they finally gave Ali his boarding pass. Here comes the cool part - the nice ticket counter guy informs us about the particular perks of flying Singapore. Now, if you have ever flown with this airline, on their sweet new Boeing 777’s, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Besides seating us in a very spacious arrangement of alternating occupied and empty seats, he politely informs us of their interactive entertainment system. Needless to say, once we found out we would be able to watch video-on-demand, challenge anyone on the plane to chess, and play everything from Zelda to baseball, we forgot about all those practice problems we planned to do and physics textbooks we planned to read! =)

Before we got on the plane, though, we realized we needed to bring something “Canadian” to Korea to give to our hosts. After perusing through the atrociously priced gift shops, we settled on a beaver and a box of chocolates. Coincidentally enough, we named it Amirali the Beaver.

Anyway, it was time to board. All the stewardesses were dressed in traditional Asian garb, and the seats in economy class were as spacious as Air Canada first class ones. We were flying in style, unlike those American losers (just kidding!), who had only cards for entertainment on their flight. Taking off, not surprisingly, felt just like one of those Vancouver buses. As soon as the seat belt warning lights went off, we went berserk with the touch screens in front of us. I watched Taking Lives first. It was pretty good, but not very memorable, so I don’t really remember what happened. Just some story with a cop and a murderer… then I watched The Big Bounce. It might as well have been called “Big Mistake” because that’s exactly what it was. You would think that a movie with Morgan Freeman and Owen Wilson in it would be much better, but as one online reviewer put it: “This movie is a huge, messy abortion.” Oh, and Gary Sinise was in it too…

Seoul - IPhO Team En Route

Between those movies, a game of chess with Amir (which I lost), and two meals, most of the flight was up. Our plane lands at Seoul Incheon Airport (and all the stewardesses say an-yong to me thinking I’m Korean), which is the biggest airport I have EVER seen! We disembark, pick up our luggage, and head to border security, or whatever it’s called. Now, I don’t know whether this is an isolated incident or a trend, but Korean border officials are hilarious. I don’t pay attention as the people in front of me passed through, but when it’s my turn, I went and presented my passport for inspection. The guy looks it over, and instead of handing it back to me and telling me “Welcome to Korea,” he makes this abrupt, loud grunting noise and jerks the passport towards me. I flinched noticeably, and then got scared thinking maybe it was some sort of terrorist checking system - arrest the guys who flinch. Luckily, I was wrong, and later I find out from Peter that the guy was humming some sort of Korean tune. I hope he doesn’t try out for Korean Idol.

Our connecting flight to Busan isn’t for another 2 hours, so the five of us are set loose in a foreign airport. Here are a couple of odd things we notice about these Koreans…

1) Everything is digitized. They even have the digital photograph and license of the janitor that cleans their washrooms at Incheon posted outside the entrance. How degrading…

2) Koreans love PlayStation 2. You can play it for free… yes, I said FOR FREE at the airport. There are probably more PS2 consoles scattered around than payphones (ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit).

We pass the time with what else but PlayStation 2. Believe me, we tried to find a cyber-cafe that offered Counterstrike, but outrageously, the computers at the airport are coin operated. When it’s time to fly again, we board a much smaller and less luxurious Asiana Airlines plane (Yes, I’m an airplane nut and snapped a picture of every single plane we took). In a short 45 minutes, we’re at Busan Gimhae airport. We would find out later that the poor team from Iceland took a six-hour bus ride to travel the same route. Losers =).

Busan - IPhO Team En Route

Gimhae is a real backwater place - can you believe we had to get off the airplane using STAIRS??? I have only take planes between major transportation hubs in the past, so there was always a gate that the plane pulled up to. Apparently, according to our two Iranian teammates, that’s how all the airports in Iran are. In fact, they say the Tehran airport has been “under construction” for the past few decades. Glad to know they are slower than when we built the Sheppard subway! Regardless, it felt quite cool to get off a plane like George Bush. The five of us are obviously smarter than he is, so why was there no crowd for us to wave to? One of the many injustices in this world… =)

Disembarking was an adventure in itself. You see, this was the first time we actually breathed “real” air since Vancouver. We were completely sealed inside at Incheon, so that doesn’t count. As we start down the stairs towards the tarmac, we are nearly knocked over by this blast of air… and this isn’t one of those cool, Sprite commercial blasts… it felt like the Shuttle taking off! You can imagine what it must have been like, since our bodies were still in 15 degree Vancouver mode, while it was easily 30 degrees in Busan.

So, we’re quickly whisked inside by those neat low-riding airport buses (no picture available, unfortunately). Inside, we find waiting for us, of all things, an IPhO booth! The Canadians have arrived at the 35th International Physics Olympiad.

This “tale of three cities” is nearly over, but there is one more story to tell. We met the nice people waiting for us at the booth, and they led us away to a trio of idling taxis. What we didn’t know was that we would have to pay for those taxis, and that the trip would take an hour and a half. So, we’re driving along in what is most likely a Hyundai, and of course, being foreigners, the taxi driver is nice enough to put on some foreign music for us. We restrain ourselves from laughing as Elvis blast out of the speakers behind us. I wish I remembered what song it was… I can only recall that it was really fast, and there were a lot of words like “baby” and “love you” in it… which doesn’t help much in narrowing down the title. Meanwhile, the taxi driver appears to be very happy and is singing along with a terrible Korean accent.

This wasn’t the only incident during the trip. Another time, we were on an empty city street, and this other taxi was sitting in the middle of the street, either broken down or something. Our driver pulls to a stop, rolls down the windows and barks out some rapid-fire Korean. This goes on for five minutes, leaving the rest of us quite puzzled, but also quite helpless, since we didn’t know how to say “shut up and let’s go” in Korean.

At last, our entourage arrives at our destination - the Gyeongju Hilton. The taxi ride cost us a few hundred American dollars, which the team leader unhappily pays. The whole hotel has been taken over by the IPhO, but we’re too exhausted to care. I get to share a room with Peter, and the two of us fall asleep without another word.

This ends The Tale of Three Cities, but the IPhO team’s adventures in Korea have just begun…