International Physics Olympiad Part IV

Going into the experimental exam moderation, we knew what we needed: only one student was left without the medal he deserved, so we had to pick up his marks. Luckily, he had made it easy for us: we weren't searching for dodgy marks, but actually pointing out things he'd done in an alternative way, quickly and hence not completely correctly, or simply in the wrong place. We picked up quite a few marks, and ended satisfied with one silver, two bronze and one honourable mention.

We finished moderation quite early in the day, so we wandered towards the city to the Anthropological Museum. It was interesting to have a look at the various artifacts from Mayan times. We continued on into the city to take advantage of our free ice cream at El Colon ice cream shop (yes, it's a very bad name for an ice cream shop).

That evening we had a formal dinner, at which we sat with our students and told them the good news. It was a good time for us to relax together: we'd all finished our hard work.

The next day was our trip to Chichen Itza and Izamal. There are some quite spectacular temples at Chichen Itza: I've included a photo. We had a well-informed guide, who told us all about the temples and what they told us about Mayan science, religion and society. It was a very hot day, so we would walk to a temple, have a look and take a photo, then stand under a tree while he talked about it for a while. I did manage to avoid sunburn: I guess a combination of hat, sunscreen and a better ozone layer.

After lunch at the Pavarotti restaurant (the hotel built a new building especially for him when he came and sang there), we went to Izamal. This city is known as the city of three cultures - Mayan, Spanish colonial, and modern. We went up one of the biggest pyramids in the region. I don't have a photo that gives a proper idea of the scale, but in the photo I have included, the people are on the second of three levels, not on the ground. We went to the Franciscan monastery (visible in the background of the photo) for another sound and light show: the best I'd been to that week! We probably spent a bit long in Izamal, but after a busy week we weren't complaining about some slower time.

The next day was the last of the Olympiad, the closing ceremony. The students who won prizes filled the main seating area, so we were up on the third tier, almost above the stage. We had a rather bird's eye view on our students as they collected their prizes. We then had a very nice lunch: the most Mexican of my time there. I actually filled myself up on entrees [appetizers, if you're American] and had little room for the main course [entree]. It reminded me quite a bit of the Mexican restaurant I went to at the University of Chicago open house in March, which is probably a mark of endorsement for that Chicagan restaurant.

That evening was devoted to resting, packing and an early night, as we were to leave early the next morning.

Our three flights were made more bearable by the fact that we were in first class for the first two of them. I didn't find the extra space all that necessary on such short flights, but the food was a definite cut above that available in economy. I think that an event at lunch (on the second flight, from Houston to LA) made me lose the 'being mistaken for a student' competition though.

Some background here. Lucy was the youngest leader at IPhO, looks relatively young (probably looks her age, to be honest, but that still makes her look 40 years younger than a lot of the other leaders) and is quite short. We suspected she would frequently be mistaken for a student. I was quite possibly the second youngest in the leaders' group (I was actually an observer, but I spent all my time with the leaders), and in fact during the olympiad we were each addressed twice as if we were students, once together and once apart (her first actually wasn't at the olympiad but at Sydney Airport, where they weren't going to let her and the students into the gate without a responsible adult).

Anyway, on the flight, the flight attendant took both our wine glasses without asking. In Lucy's case that's ok: she's only 20, so she's not allowed to drink in the US. But I'm 22, so I should have been asked, and I think this counts as being mistaken for someone younger than I am. So I lost that, 3-2.

We had nine hours between flight in LA, so we decided we'd be better off heading into the city than hanging around at the airport. Public transport in LA isn't as bad as I feared, and we caught the train into the city. We found an information centre, and eventually one of the students came up with the suggestion of going to the Grammy Museum. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone interested in any kind of American music (and nowadays that means most popular music), for its own sake or with respect to its influence on American culture and history. I remember thinking 'wow, this would be really interesting for someone just moving to the US and wanting an introduction to life in the US in the twentieth century'.

After quite some hours there, we headed back to the airport, ready to board our flight back to Australia (economy class, this time).

Well, that's about it for my trip to Mexico. Next time, I'll move on to what I've been up to in the week since I've been back.