Update: Post IBO, Trials, Misc

Life's been pretty busy recently, with upcoming exams and such.

I'm going to admit that I can't wait till HSC is over, because then the stress will be gone and we can finally move onto University, which I am super-duper excited about for many reasons.

I'm still not sure where I want to study, though. There's been a lot of tossing up and down of options in the last 2 weeks, and it's basically left me in a spaghetti mess of thoughts, but I'll figure it out in a few months time.

This post is kind of pointless; I just realised that I had two photos on my camera that I had forgotten to upload; they're photos of some souvenirs I received from the IBO that I thought were worth posting.

From the UK;
Souvenir: an advertisement for The Biologist

The UK team had the most uninteresting souvenirs, I'm not going to lie. They were so absolutely bizarre that they're worth mentioning, and is thus why it was chosen as 1 of the 2 photos that I actually took of souvenirs. (There are plenty more souvenirs, but I honestly just could not be bothered finding nice lighting and setting to take a photo of them LOL)

It's not the team's fault though, let's get that straight. They were given these to hand out, so I found it just amusing, so I took a photo of it.

One of the souvenirs that I was really impressed with was the one from Romania

From Romanian team.
Souvenir: a little jar of sand and shells

This one is actually so pretty, and I'm so afraid that I'll lose it or break it one day, which will make me sad :(
But it was such a nice little souvenir that it surely deserves a photo.

Yeah, this post is really just a pointless update with nothing in mind in particular.

Other souvenirs off the top of my head:

• Microfibre cleaning cloth from Team USA (HAHA so many jokes were made about this)
• A really cool cap from Switzerland 
• Various pins
• A tie from an Argentinian friend! (which surely will feature in one photo in the near future, sooner or later)
• Bracelets, necklaces, etc.
• Speculoos from Belgium
• Food from various countries

I'm not going to lie though, the koala souvenirs we brought from Australia were pretty popular ;)

We managed to find about a dozen ways to wear one on you, and we ended up giving away all 240 of them that we purchased! Worth it.

Though, what I really wanted to say with this post was that post IBO has been difficult.

I'm not going to lie. Every single day since I've come back I've been thinking of and missing IBO. Not a hyperbole.

It's hard to move on from an experience like that, especially when I feel like it was too short. Even just writing about it here makes me feel a pang of sadness, but that's life.

I'd give anything to go back, even though the exams were crazy difficult, because I really, unbelievably, miss the people there.

IBO changed me in more ways than one, and there really are no words for me to express how I feel right now, so I'll leave it on this note.

"You and I will meet again,

When we're least expecting it, 

One day in some far off place, 

I will recognize your face,

I won't say goodbye my friend,

For you and I will meet again."

 -- Tom Petty

International Biology Olympiad pt 2

So then we went to Uluwatu Temple the following day after the theoretical exam.

There were all these wild monkeys there, and they really liked to steal food and other things off tourists, whenever given the opportunity to.

We were warned to bring minimal stuff, so I can assure you that I never let go of my camera that day.

Stole our guide's kangaroo souvenir that we gave her

However, as annoying as they were, they were really adorable :')

I actually had to hold onto my glasses, because they're known to jump onto people and steal them. E.g., a delegate from Canada had his glasses stolen (thankfully, he retrieved them and they weren't broken; just a little bent)

Much fabulous

Took a lot of nice photos of them though, especially since they weren't afraid of humans (quite the opposite, in fact), so I was able to get in quite close.

So, we moved on through the temple and reached the cliff area. We were trying to reach the top in time for a cultural performance that they hold daily.

I can assure you, the view was really, really breathtaking.

Passed a daily prayer ritual on the way there, as well.

 The entire scenery and landscape was so pretty :')

These flowers were everywhere, in various colours and shades too.

Just a monkey casually sitting on the edge of a cliff.

We were allowed to get right up close to the edge of the cliff, which was pretty extreme, but also an experience.

Was a pretty scary and breathtaking experience.
The bottom was just filled with rocks and sand which would definitely result in death if you fell.

Friends JH and KY sitting near the edge

You'd think there'd be fences or something, but I can assure you, if you fell, you were gone.

I looked right over the edge, but I made sure I was safely on my stomach and in a steady position, and I'm not going to lie, it was absolutely terrifying (and simultaneously exciting, too)

But still. Was a great experience to even be there and just look around at the lovely landscape.

So close

So we finally make it to the stadium (?) and sit down, waiting for the sun to set before the performance started. The sunset was spectacular.

So then the ritual began.

It was quite good! The culture was really interesting :')
At first it started off really serious, but by the end, it was such an entertaining performance and everything.

Also hats off to the 70-man acapella choir. They sang basically constantly the entire 45 (?) minutes of the performances, and it makes me wonder how their throat doesn't get dry from that.

They continued right into the night.

The only thing which was difficult to sit through was the mosquitoes.

Next day finally comes and wow, it's the closing ceremony.

Already? Could not believe it. How was it that we were already at the end of the trip? I'm still not over the post-IBO depression stage, so I won't even begin to talk about my emotions here.

Stage

Anyway, it was finally some closure.

At the back of my mind (and everyone else's), we knew it wasn't 'the end' just yet, because we still had that night. Staying up early into the morning together, spending the last of our time in one final gathering, knowing that it would be the last.

Let's not get into the gloomy and doomy though.

Next day and it was final goodbyes! Sad, bittersweet, as per usual.

My friend, TA, coined a name: "sadpiness" to describe the mix of sadness and happiness experienced on this final day.

I don't really have any photo to really /end/ this post, but here's one of my friend (GC)'s amazingly fabulous shoes.

Taken at the airport; one of the final photos before we all left.

And, that's about it.

The IBO's been a wonderful experience, and I actually do not think there is a way for me to fully express my emotions for this trip. I don't know if I'd be able to find the words to, and even if I did, it would not make sense to most people and this blog post would probably never finish.

It's been a fantastic time, I met brilliant people, and it still hurts to think that it's over.

One final photo from Ayodya, just because I forgot to put it anywhere earlier.

"Life has a habit of taking those you want closest and throwing them across oceans"

International Biology Olympiad pt 1

So, we arrive at Ayodya Resort and spend the first night there.

Next morning is the official registration, so our team head off and sign up, etc.

Then we go around searching for some other IBO teams. First team we spot is Team USA, so we manage to introduce ourselves by holding up the Campbell textbook.

Also met various other countries, including Mexico and Russia (off the top of my head)

Since we had plenty of time to kill, we headed down to the beach and chilled around for a bit.

It was a really nice private beach, owned by Ayodya, and I can tell you that the night before, we actually found some really cool glowing shells (?) on the beach, which are only visible at night.

I will admit, however, that I think Australian beaches are nicer ;)

Rest of the first day was really just introducing ourselves to a lot of other teams.

Specifically went out to meet the New Zealand team, since we were rooming with them and they're kind of like our brother-nation :')

Also met the various English-speaking countries, i.e., United Kingdom, Canada, and various other European countries too. There was a lot of joking around about the Belgium VS Argentina soccer match.

We also headed down to the hotel pool and chilled around a bit :') It was so great to get to know everyone.

Stayed up late into the night till like 11pm just talking to other country delegates as they arrived.

Next day! Opening ceremony! I still remember it. For some reason my camera deleted a lot of the photos, so I don't have one :(

Even managed to delete the one of all the English-only speaking countries together :'( Pretty mad that I somehow managed to delete them...

It was nice and official though (the ceremony), and pretty good :') The food was nice too! 

Also got a lot of souvenirs, and nice little snacks that people brought from all over the world

I forgot which country this was from... But I got a really nice peanut butter snack from some country (I wish I had better memory...) which tasted so good

Then we had ice-breaking which was heaps fun too.

Group 1, i.e., Bis Satu (bus 1) consisted of Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium and Belarus :') It was great getting to know them, and I swear some of the people in these countries are absolutely amazing people to spend time with. Some of my closest friends that I made on this trip were from here :')

Activity: Make the longest line of things. We managed to get 370 something steps? Still didn't win though :(
Even laid out things like strips of paper, shoelaces, money (!!!), souvenirs, socks, etc.

Also something neat was that we got these daily newsletters!

They were really cute and it was fun trying to spot ourselves mentioned in them.

There was this section called TFTF where you could write anonymous messages in :P

Practical exams came up, which were pretty hard and delayed, but talking about exams isn't entertaining so let's skip it.

Bali Safari was next! Enjoyed the day a lot, and although most of the animals I had seen before in Australian zoos, it was fun none-the-less.

I bought a nice little cute Bird of Paradise back-pack, only because it was on the logo for IBO 2014 Bali, and also because it was pretty cheap (for my standards).

Managed to take some cool photos with some animals, too!

Not sure what it is, but the animal is called Binturong. Got to have it placed on our shoulder as we posed for a photo :)

Then we watched some really nice elephant show, describing the conflict and relationship between elephants and humans.

Just had some time to walk around and explore the place in general. Bali Safari and Marine Park <3

The theme music will forever be stuck in my head. It's so catchy HAHA (and somewhat annoying, after a while). I find myself humming it every so often.

The signs were really entertaining in the petting zoo area :P Made me laugh.

 After that day, we had the grueling theory exam, and I can tell you that the next few days were full on partying. Living the high life by having food parties every night with a couple of teams :')

Just chilling, chatting, laughing and eating. Those were the good times.

After math of food party (pood farty) number 1

We called them 'pood farties' because a friend, JH, accidentally said that instead of 'food party'. All we did was leg it over to Circle K (which is basically like 7-11) and then stashed up on food, which we promptly brought back to the hotel and then consumed in a room until late at night.

Obviously, we didn't sleep much.

The next day we met up with the jury back at Ayodya and just chilled around. There wasn't much that we did that day. After the exams were over it was more just relaxing and having fun, and enjoying the last few days of the IBO.

Such official :O

 Annnnnd that's all I have time for right now. Part 2 of the post will come soon :)

Darwin, Australia (pre IBO)

Hey guys, I've returned from by far the best week of my life.

Will be posting pictures slowly; not all in one go because that would just be an overload.

So, took a trip with a few friends up to Darwin: JH, LW and TH.

I can tell you, Darwin was just as I expected it to be. Very hot, dry, and not very dense.

A beach we passed on Day 1 as we walked around, exploring.

Didn't really do much; just walked around in the local area. Walked past a beach, but was told that we can't swim in it because there are

1. Box jelly fish

2. Saltwater crocs

A nearby park.
(It looks a lot colder than it actually was)

Yeah, the weather was a lot to take. I understand why we had to acclimatise.

Within the first day we were all burning out and had to succumb to some nice gelato!

Peanut butter and hazelnut, I think.

Had a bit of time to kill before dinner, so just walked around the wharf area and explored a bit.
Can't exactly say that Darwin is the most /exciting/ place to go.

It was refreshing to just chill around though, and enjoy the area. You don't get places with so little people in other cities.

Nice view on the wharf during sunset :)

Walked around and explored a cliff area.
We didn't realise it said 'Do not enter, danger' until after we left, but the view was nice.

Friend JH being deep and looking over the cliff. We honestly had nothing better to do.

Dinner was nice, and explored a bit more here and there; nothing quite particularly worth mentioning.
The sunset was nice though! Managed to take this nice little shot.

Actually took this shot while crossing the road (living life on the edge)

 Day 2 and we drive out for an hour into the outback. Ahhh, this is the /real/ Australia that everyone has a stereotypical view of.

Went out croc-jumping!

Yeah, I was confused when I first heard the term. I thought we were jumping over crocodiles or something, but turns out we go out on a boat and watch crocodiles do the jumping.

The dock before entry

We were pretty safe in the boat, but I can tell you that it was still pretty extreme. Nothing I'd ever experienced beforehand.

The tour guide would dangle some meat on the end of a metal rod and bait crocodiles to jump up and snap it, while we watched in awe, safely sitting behind some aluminium metal bars.

In the boat

I can tell you that it was a photo-fest.
I went very trigger happy :)

They were salt water crocodiles, i.e., the dangerous kind. Some of them were legit massive sized (about 3 metres long) and they got up right next to the boat.

 Next, drove another hour or so to look at some termite mounds, also in the outback.

Termite mounds. They kind of look like a graveyard, actually.

I'll say that it wasn't as exciting as croc-jumping, but it was better than sitting around with nothing to do.

The toilet there was absolutely disgusting though, let me tell you that...

And the long car ride was pretty boring and unentertaining. Slept most of it.

Another view of a termite mound. Some of them were legit 5-6 metres tall :o

 With time still left on our hands and running out of things to do, we went to a nearby waterfall.

Yep. That's right. Crocodiles and humans. Together.
But, apparently these are freshwater crocs, so they're friendly and okay to swim with?? I still didn't risk it though (I also didn't have swimmers, so)

 The view was nice though, even though I was later told by my local friend, SK, that the one we visited was one of the smaller ones that weren't actually that /impressive/ compared to the other hidden gems.

I can't say that I wasn't still in awe, though. It's better than anything we get back down at home.

Also went for a little forest walk with the Team.

It was pretty tiring. A lot of climbing, a lot of wooden stairs, and very, very hot. I can tell you that we still were pretty unacclimatised, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes wasn't exactly pleasant either.

But, I enjoyed the view! And managed to get some pretty nice video footage files, which I haven't gotten around to editing just yet.

LW wandering through the track.

That's about all we did in Darwin.

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't really /that/ exciting. It was just cool to be somewhere different, and to really experience what Darwin is actually like first-hand.

Definitely the highlight would be the croc-jumping.

Then, skip a little bit and we find outselves in Bali, Indonesia. Ahh, this is where the fun really starts.

But, that'll be a post saved for later. For now, a couple of photos as teasers. Will post the rest in a couple of days... Maybe.

Arrived at night

The hotel.
Ayoda Bali Resort.