today's schedule has been somewhat less eventful than our other days here in vietnam. we had breakfast at our usual time of 7 am, and then went right back to our rooms for a relaxed session of physics fun. obviously we did not study the entire time, as our alone times were periodically interrupted by the phone calls informing us of reporters waiting in the lobby, the actual interviews, and other general miscellaneous goof-off (this blog shaved off a little time as well). sometimes the phone rang to only yield a busy tone after it was answered, twice. so when the phone rang a third time, we picked up the phone with a greeting that consisted of what sounded like a tribal grunt. it turns out, as it usually does in situations like these, there was actually a live person on the other end of the line --- our student guide --- calling to inform us of yet another interview. that basically constituted our entertainment of the day.
~~actual members of the US Team
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Off to the Perfume Pagoda
We took a 2 hour bus trip to a small village, and then climbed into small boats and journeyed about one hour upstream into the hills.
The boats were paddled by healthy, strong women. Women about the same age as our grandmothers.
We had an Enlgish speaking guide- Thuc- who warned us not to shift in the boats, for fear that we would capsize them.
We climbed for about an hour, maybe one thousand or more vertical feet, although Paul's GPS said that we were only at and altitude of 92 feet. The view from the top was spectacular, and inside a cave at the peak was the temple.
We prayed for gold medals.
Then set sail back down stream. Sweaty, tired, and well fed; a lunch of Vietnamese delights in our stomachs. And, yes, the boats were lower in the water on the return trip.
Tomorrow is the official arrival day; the day after is the opening ceremony. In three days is the theoretiucal exam. Maybe we will get some studying in tonight.
The boats were paddled by healthy, strong women. Women about the same age as our grandmothers.
We had an Enlgish speaking guide- Thuc- who warned us not to shift in the boats, for fear that we would capsize them.
We climbed for about an hour, maybe one thousand or more vertical feet, although Paul's GPS said that we were only at and altitude of 92 feet. The view from the top was spectacular, and inside a cave at the peak was the temple.
We prayed for gold medals.
Then set sail back down stream. Sweaty, tired, and well fed; a lunch of Vietnamese delights in our stomachs. And, yes, the boats were lower in the water on the return trip.
Tomorrow is the official arrival day; the day after is the opening ceremony. In three days is the theoretiucal exam. Maybe we will get some studying in tonight.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wainting at the aiport in Los Angeles for the outbound flight. It is shortly after midnight, and we now realize that although we started the day on the morning of the 15th of July, we won't see another bed until the evening of the 17th!
We are greeted in hanoi by our student guide.
At the B-52 mueseum we are able to look at pictures of John McCain.
The traveling team at Lake Hoan Kiem in the old quarter of Hanoi. This is shortly before the fruit lady fiasco.
A busy first day
Today was a busy day. We arrived in Hanoi yesterday morning, and we were greeted bby friendly Vietnamese hosts who escorted us to our hotels. And we do mean hotels; we thought that we would be staying in one hotel for the first three days, but instead we were divided up into three: one for the leaders, one for the observers, and one for the students.
The hotels are about 5 km apart, which is but a short 50,000 dong taxi ride. The taxi service is nice, but nothing compares to the pure adrenalin rush of trying to cross the streets through the sea of motorcycles. Some of us are pretty good at it: walk slowly, looking into the traffic, and steadily drift across three to six lanes of honking, swerving, belching honda motorcycles.
We survived that part. We weren't as lucky with the fruit ladies, who attacked us with such enthusiasm that before we knew it we had them taking pictures and giving us gifts of pineapple. Then they wanted out money. Not all of it, but certainly more than the pineapple was worth. Eventually we extricated ourselves from the predicament, with little more than a bruised pride. And several bags of rather juicy pineapple. And, we must confess, we were a few dong lighter.
We wandered through the dedicated streets of the old quarter, seeing shops and signs and smelling the odors of spicy cooking and glue and, you guessed it, motorcycle exhaust. They really are everywhere. Lunch was at a curry place. Tasty!
Then we went to see the prison where John McCain spent part of the war. The Hanoi Hilton. A prison built by the French, with walls topped with broken glass. We saw a real guillotine; and the cells where Vietnamese "radicals" were held in the early 1900's. And pictures of John McCain in the lake where his plane went down.
After that we had some more resting time at a coffee shop beside the lake. The flavored shakes are quite tasty, as is the Vietnamese coffee. Then a trip back to the hotels.
Tomorrow we venture on a day trip, complete with 4 mile hike and 2 hours of boat rides, to the perfume pagoda. Details soon....
The hotels are about 5 km apart, which is but a short 50,000 dong taxi ride. The taxi service is nice, but nothing compares to the pure adrenalin rush of trying to cross the streets through the sea of motorcycles. Some of us are pretty good at it: walk slowly, looking into the traffic, and steadily drift across three to six lanes of honking, swerving, belching honda motorcycles.
We survived that part. We weren't as lucky with the fruit ladies, who attacked us with such enthusiasm that before we knew it we had them taking pictures and giving us gifts of pineapple. Then they wanted out money. Not all of it, but certainly more than the pineapple was worth. Eventually we extricated ourselves from the predicament, with little more than a bruised pride. And several bags of rather juicy pineapple. And, we must confess, we were a few dong lighter.
We wandered through the dedicated streets of the old quarter, seeing shops and signs and smelling the odors of spicy cooking and glue and, you guessed it, motorcycle exhaust. They really are everywhere. Lunch was at a curry place. Tasty!
Then we went to see the prison where John McCain spent part of the war. The Hanoi Hilton. A prison built by the French, with walls topped with broken glass. We saw a real guillotine; and the cells where Vietnamese "radicals" were held in the early 1900's. And pictures of John McCain in the lake where his plane went down.
After that we had some more resting time at a coffee shop beside the lake. The flavored shakes are quite tasty, as is the Vietnamese coffee. Then a trip back to the hotels.
Tomorrow we venture on a day trip, complete with 4 mile hike and 2 hours of boat rides, to the perfume pagoda. Details soon....
hokay, so, here's the Earth, and we are halfway across it. most of us are pretty exhausted right now, and the only thing that we can possibly concentrate on is commenting on the contents of this post. the vietnam experience has been great so far: our hotel rooms are comfortable, the food is more than edible, and our exposure to the vietnamese culture can be put simply as "adventurous." On our first day here, we discovered that the streets did not have designated pedestritan cross times. in other words, people who've made the unfortunate decision to tour on foot have to weave through the continuous traffic of motorcycles, cars, and buses, much like a virtual reality version of frogger --- minus the virtual part. (Rui has made some efforts to record the near-fatal process so you readers out there will have a better understanding of the situation). we can cross some of the "easy-level" streets now, and are on our way to becoming professional street bravers.
We spent our first two days in Vietnam walking through the downtown narrow streets near our hotel. We were all cautious about buying from street vendors until we were attacked by a pair of old ladies selling, pineapples. It was so bad, they would smash a cone hat on top of heads, stuff a bag of pineapple into our hands, and then urge us to take a picture. Amid shouts for FOTO-MONNEE Bob hands them a ten dollar bill. That basically meant we would spend the next 10 minutes trying to get the money back. By repeatedly telling the lady, in english and with a stern face, to give the money back Rui eventually managed to get one of the ladies to hand back a five. Rui also recognized that the pineapples we ended up with were actually, oh man, LEVEL-18 pineapples, and was kind enough to try and sell it back to the next street vendor we met. Anyway, we eventually ate them because the food was really hot at the indian restaurant, and the pineapples were pretty good.
when we've finally returned to the hotel, we learned that teams from some of the other nations have begun to arrive. we were able to have dinner with the Argentines, who are a new team at the competition this year. we also introduced ourselves to the dutch, the chileans, and the brazilians, and the list will hopefully increase tomorrow.
it's 9:20 in vietnamese time right now. we are reeeeeaaaally tired, causing some of our sentences to be grammatically incorrect and logically unsound. LOL WHAT THE RANDOM AI AM SO TIRED GG. this post will probably be edited tomorrow. vivre la revolution. this is the last word. crap.
We spent our first two days in Vietnam walking through the downtown narrow streets near our hotel. We were all cautious about buying from street vendors until we were attacked by a pair of old ladies selling, pineapples. It was so bad, they would smash a cone hat on top of heads, stuff a bag of pineapple into our hands, and then urge us to take a picture. Amid shouts for FOTO-MONNEE Bob hands them a ten dollar bill. That basically meant we would spend the next 10 minutes trying to get the money back. By repeatedly telling the lady, in english and with a stern face, to give the money back Rui eventually managed to get one of the ladies to hand back a five. Rui also recognized that the pineapples we ended up with were actually, oh man, LEVEL-18 pineapples, and was kind enough to try and sell it back to the next street vendor we met. Anyway, we eventually ate them because the food was really hot at the indian restaurant, and the pineapples were pretty good.
when we've finally returned to the hotel, we learned that teams from some of the other nations have begun to arrive. we were able to have dinner with the Argentines, who are a new team at the competition this year. we also introduced ourselves to the dutch, the chileans, and the brazilians, and the list will hopefully increase tomorrow.
it's 9:20 in vietnamese time right now. we are reeeeeaaaally tired, causing some of our sentences to be grammatically incorrect and logically unsound. LOL WHAT THE RANDOM AI AM SO TIRED GG. this post will probably be edited tomorrow. vivre la revolution. this is the last word. crap.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The end of Mini-Camp
The traveling team, just after lunch, before our departure to LAX. From left, is Ed, Tucker, Rui, Danny, and Joshua.
So, after four intense days of lab exercises, problems sessions, and a five hour theoretical exam, we are almost ready to depart to Vietnam. This morning we were up before 8 am with the painful realization that although today is the 15th of July, we won't see a bed again until the evening of the 17th of July.
The worst part about minicamp was the kludged lab equipment: the Iran experiment was held together with rubber bands, the battery for Spain was inconsistent, and the thin film for Singapore kept swamping the detector. And, during one of the five hour lab sessions, one of us had the hiccups, and kept distracting the rest of us.
The coaches, as usual, provide careful, kind, constructive guidance for our work. We worship them. Bob, Paul and Warren are really wonderful!
-the report from the traveling team......
Saturday, May 24, 2008
A Mental, Not a Physical, Face-Off
College Park, MD (May 14, 2008) The United States is preparing its smartest students to face the challenge of meeting physics students from all over the world in a brain-to-brain competition.
Twenty-four students from across the U.S. have been chosen to train for the mentally grueling exams and lab tests they'll face at the International Physics Olympiad, held this year July 20-29 in Hanoi in Vietnam.
"These young people, who mix great talent with extraordinary élan for physics, show the world an aspect of America we can all be proud of,” said Dr. Charles Holbrow, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers in College Park, MD, which selects the students and organizes their training.
To prepare, the students will spend ten days at a physics training camp at the University of Maryland, College Park, conducting lab experiments, taking exams, and hearing presentations from prominent scientists. At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected to travel to the international competition.
They'll be coached by several physicists: head coach Robert H. Shurtz, a physics teacher at Hawken School, Gates Mills, OH and Paul Stanley, a physics and astronomy associate professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
On May 22, the students will travel to Washington, DC, for a tour of the area and to meet their Senators and Representatives. The students will present a physics-related toy to their member of Congress. Pictures of the students and their members of Congress will be available after the event.
Last year, the team brought home two gold and three silver medals.
The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The Olympiad is a nine-day international competition among pre-university students from more than 60 nations. This year's event is co-organized by the Vietnamese Physical Society and the Ministry of Education and Training.
LIST OF EVENTS:
May 17-27 -- Students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 22 -- Visit Capitol Hill to meet their members of Congress.
May 27 -- Five students chosen to represent the US at the international competition.
July 20 -- Students arrive in Hanoi for the international competition.
July 30 -- The International Competition's final awards given.
MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/
Bios of each student are available online at: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/team.cfm
History of the physics team, including past winners, is available at: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the International Physics Olympiad, hosted by the Vietnamese team: http://www.ipho2008.org/
Twenty-four students from across the U.S. have been chosen to train for the mentally grueling exams and lab tests they'll face at the International Physics Olympiad, held this year July 20-29 in Hanoi in Vietnam.
"These young people, who mix great talent with extraordinary élan for physics, show the world an aspect of America we can all be proud of,” said Dr. Charles Holbrow, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers in College Park, MD, which selects the students and organizes their training.
To prepare, the students will spend ten days at a physics training camp at the University of Maryland, College Park, conducting lab experiments, taking exams, and hearing presentations from prominent scientists. At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected to travel to the international competition.
They'll be coached by several physicists: head coach Robert H. Shurtz, a physics teacher at Hawken School, Gates Mills, OH and Paul Stanley, a physics and astronomy associate professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
On May 22, the students will travel to Washington, DC, for a tour of the area and to meet their Senators and Representatives. The students will present a physics-related toy to their member of Congress. Pictures of the students and their members of Congress will be available after the event.
Last year, the team brought home two gold and three silver medals.
The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The Olympiad is a nine-day international competition among pre-university students from more than 60 nations. This year's event is co-organized by the Vietnamese Physical Society and the Ministry of Education and Training.
LIST OF EVENTS:
May 17-27 -- Students visit University of Maryland for their intensive training camp.
May 22 -- Visit Capitol Hill to meet their members of Congress.
May 27 -- Five students chosen to represent the US at the international competition.
July 20 -- Students arrive in Hanoi for the international competition.
July 30 -- The International Competition's final awards given.
MORE ON THE WEB
Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/
Bios of each student are available online at: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/team.cfm
History of the physics team, including past winners, is available at: http://www.aapt.org/Contests/olympiad.cfm
The official website of the International Physics Olympiad, hosted by the Vietnamese team: http://www.ipho2008.org/
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