EGOI 2024

Sunday, 21.7.2024 (Priska)

The travel day was as relaxed as it can be if your plane is late and half of your team is travelling on its own. We met around lunchtime in Basel, that is I met Anna, Luca (who technically is not even part of our delegation), Hannah and Vivienne.

The flight to Amsterdam was delayed which would eventually cause us having to take a later train which then would cause us to miss the bus at Eindhoven and instead arrive in those 2h where no one from the organizers was there which eventually caused us to miss the dinner. But at least KLM still gives out free sandwiches and drinks. In Amsterdam, Myriam joined the group but instead we lost Anna as she was staying in Amsterdam to wait for Hongjia to arrive from IMO. Therefore for the time being, Luca got upgraded from Italian deputy to Swiss deputy. While waiting in Eindhoven for the bus, we already met people from other delegations which made the waiting shorter.

When we finally arrived in the hotel we got salad boxes because even late people didn’t have to starve there and eventually, after getting lost in the hotel (not for the last time in that week) we could finally get some rest.

Monday, 22.7.2024 (Vivienne)

On Monday we first got lost trying to find the breakfast due to the huge and confusing hotel. But it’s really nice and after walking in circles a few times we finally got to experience the wonderful breakfast. There was a big variety of baked goods, fresh fruit and of course hagelslag. We also met our great superguide Femke who we unfortunately didn’t see much for the rest of the week (she was responsible for five teams).

After breakfast we made our way to the busses which would drive us to the university. We made sure to bring lots of Swiss flags and we were even greated by a Swiss woman who was curious to learn more about EGOI in Swiss German. On the way to the opening ceremony we saw some more of Eindhoven and found it really beautiful. The opening ceremony started with an energetic dance routine from a local dance group. Then there were some amazing and unpredictable speeches on how our bright minds will shape the future while simultaneously trying to never to finish a sentence without saying AI at least once. We were even welcomed to the Olympiad in Information. But finally the best part came: The introduction of all the delegations. We of course threw chocolate into the crowd and by the end of the ceremony our 1kg bag was almost empty.

Soon it was time for lunch and we talked to participants from other countries while eating our sandwiches. We also gave out the rest of our chocolate and we even gave some to Femke but that sadly didn’t help her remember us as she’d still be asking us which country we were from later on in the week. After lunch we went back to the hotel and got ready for the practice session. There we sat in the huge contest hall for the first time and enjoyed testing the subtask merging. However, we got a worrying announcement: During the contest we wouldn’t be able to ask for more snacks and the ‘more snacks’ signs were being removed from every desk! Other than that everything went smoothly and we went to dinner. For dinner we got Poké Bowls which were quite good as well as plenty of dessert.

Then we got an amazing motivational speech from Priska and Anna as we wouldn’t be seeing them anymore before the contest. After that it was time for a game with all the participants. We were split up into groups and had to build our own city. It consisted of discussing which facilities and buildings we wanted as well as trading resources in order to buy them. The game was fun but also very stressful. While figuring out what you wanted to buy next, you’d be asked whether you wanted to trade money for labor or if you had bought the amusement park, all while the exchange rate was changing in the background. In between we also had to solve a financial crisis or build with colorful Kapla. It was overall a fun and unique experience and a great chance to socialize with others. At around 9PM the game ended and we went to bed relatively quickly as the contest was the next day.

Tuesday, 23.7.2024 (Myriam)

We went to the breakfast early, because we had to be int the contest hall at 7:45 and the competition started at 8. We learned some information about the Dutch tulips’ laws and the operation of a business. It was only at this time that I understood that we couldn’t ask for more food, and that we saw that we only hat a Snicker and a strange round almond pancake (I’m not sure about my translation) to eat for 5 hours, until 13.

When we went out of the contest hall, Anna and Priska appeared from nowhere in the corridor. Then, we went to lunch and after (in the time of appeals, we went to the pool). When Anna and Priska had a GA, we played ping-pong and saw Huawei publicity about their knowledge fair, because they were giving cool stuff like connected watches, so we went there. Unfortunately, we didn’t win any watch because we had to answer to some questions about AI, and we were in the back of the room, were we weren’t able to hear correctly the questions or read what was written on the power point (and maybe because one of us isn’t completely bilingual) (and that’s sad because my watch was broken and I needed a new one). Then we went to the mocktail bar, to speak about informatics (the mocktails were really delicious, with funny informatic names).

Then Hannah, Vivienne and Hongjia didn’t want to do another knowledge fair but I played Dungeon & Dragons, what wasn’t the best idea of my life, because I didn’t know anything about this game before, and I wasn’t able to understand the rules or what were saying the others players, so I just fought with someone else to know who had the priority to go on the top of a tower. Then, we just went to dinner.

Wednesday, 24.7.2024 (Hannah)

On Wednesday was excursion day. Sadly, Hongija felt sick, which is why she stayed at the hotel and missed not only the excursion but also how Vivienne suddenly found a really cute koala hanging at her bag. It turns out, the Australian delegation had koala’d her. Myriam also wanted a koala and decided that the most efficient method of getting one was stealing Viviennes and only giving it back when she has her own.

We then got on the bus to the mystery location, where we got split into three groups, as we had three different program points that day. We got into the group with our favorite superguide: Femke! However, we were too shy to talk to her. The first event was the “discovery factory”, where we could build anything we wanted. We built a really epic roller coaster (out of paper). After impressing everyone with our roller coaster, we had sandwiches for lunch and then headed to the second event. It was a movie called “Hidden Figures” about three female mathematicians.

We then went to the third event, which was at the MU. It’s like a museum but different. We had a long talk about what exactly it is, but I decided not to pay attention (to be fair, I also started to feel sick). We then could look at the MU, which I actually found quite nice (partially because a third of it was spent sitting in a dark room in comfortable chairs and listening to some sounds, during which I slept).

After that, it was already time for dinner, so we went back to the discovery factory and enjoyed our food. There was also a waiter that sounded German and had a lot of voice cracks.

I thought after that I could go to bed and relax, as I still was feeling a bit sick, but when we got back to the hotel, we found the HUAWEI DINOS!!! They are really cute. And there was also the Jane Street Hub. The Dino probably has healing powers, because after getting one, I decided not to go to sleep but to go to the Jane Street Hub, get even more merch and play some games. After winning all the games (trust me), we went to sleep, as we still had a contest on the next day.

Thursday, 25.7.2024 (Hongjia)

Today was the second contest day. Just like the first contest day, we had to wake up quite early. After almost one week of staying in the hotel, we finally knew how to get to the contest hall. When I arrived there, I realized the box I used to put my mascot in was taken away! It was funny because they took my mascot out and put it on the table, but they thought the empty box was too suspicious.

After the contest, we got told that all of us will get a medal! In a cheerful mood, we went to the Jane Street hub. There weren’t many things planned this afternoon, and none of us wanted to appeal, so we could enjoy our time trying to solve the Jane Street puzzles and socializing with other teams. We talked with the Germans and played some Yatzy with them, and we befriended a (and the only) girl from team Portugal and a girl from the Romanian delegation. Also, we met our good old friend Aanya and how surprising, she’s now participating for the Indian delegation.

After dinner, I went back to my room to pack my suitcase, when Hannah informed me that there will be a Karaoke in the room next to the contest hall! When I arrived there, I was too late to join the card game the Swiss and the Polish delegation were playing, and we all went to sing. There were the Slovak, the Polish, the German and the Swiss delegation, and later on Aanya and other friends also joined. After fixing some technical issues with the microphone, we could finally start with some songs we all knew, but then at some point they started picking pop songs, and me and Myriam, who preferred classical music, stared at each other and tried to join but it was a bit hard. After they ran out of songs which people could agree on, they started to organise some dancing. Me and Hannah decided not to, since…. It might have been a little bit…. embarrassing. But in general, it was a really fun event!

I tried to walk back to my room at around 11 pm when I thought it would be better to continue packing. However, I met a cleaning lady which said that we are… blocked in the room because we weren’t allowed to walk around after 10pm or whatsoever. It was a bit hard because there were multiple cleaning ladies, but luckily I knew how to find my way through with at most being found out twice. After I packed most of the suitcase, I went to sleep, in hope that tomorrow we’ll have a fun closing ceremony.

Friday, 26.7.2024 (Vivienne)

After breakfast we headed to the university for a campus tour and the closing ceremony. There we first got an introduction to one of their student project groups and we got to experiment with their drones but they sadly kept on crashing and it wasn’t very interesting. Then we got a nice campus tour and learned all about the campus cats (unfortunately we didn’t meet any) and Egbert the fish who lives in the extremely clean pond. After the tour we had lunch and talked to Wietske (a guide) and tried to show her Swiss memes but we sadly didn’t have any internet.

Soon it was time for the closing ceremony. We had to first find our seats and then wait for an oddly long time. We got the announcement that there was a power outage and nothing was working except for the light, so not even the microphones. While cables were flying and phone flashlights shone into various places, the presenters tried to speak as loudly as possible and without any slides. It was also unclear if one of the presenters was aware that this was the closing ceremony as he wished us the best of luck for the competition but he had the spirit. Sadly the power outage still couldn’t be fixed and it was time to announce the medalists. All four Swiss participants earned one!

After taking some photos outside we noticed a big group of people was dancing the DJ’s very interesting music and we decided to join in. It turned out to be quite exhausting but also very fun.

At the dinner table we all speculated what the ‘closing surprise’ which was written in the schedule may be. We tried to convince some guides to tell us but they wouldn’t. Finally it was time for the long awaited surprise. We were led into a big room with a band on the stage and were given different colored light up bracelets, just like the ones you get at concerts, so we of course expected someone like Taylor Swift to soon enter. Instead of Taylor Swift a woman called Myriel came and she divided us into groups according to the color of our bracelets. Then we did some vocal warmups to prepare us for this amazing evening. She was going to teach us to sing ‘Unstoppable’ by Sia which had been playing like twice a day during the whole EGOI just to make sure it would be running in our brains at all time and we’d all know the tune. After practicing many times the leaders were let into the room and we presented it to them; apparently they couldn’t hear anything because they were standing on the stage right in front of the band but I think it was still nice and they were even invited to sing with us the second time around.

Then the room got transformed into a massive disco with another much better DJ and we all started singing and dancing to ABBA, Macarena and many more songs. It was a lot of fun! After getting tired we decided to play Polish Uno. We had to list movie and book titles, touch our noses, say je mange une pomme or si j’avais une ferme and more. Then Wietske remembered that we had wanted to show her Swiss memes and we of course were glad to catch up on that. Häv you hörd of zem, ze seven sinking steps? Hä, Mr. Köppel? What you do when ze beamer breaks down? Nei, nei, you dreamer du. You try to fix it.

Anyway, by this point there were too many rules and we were all very tired so we decided to stop playing. Wietske then taught us how to play this Dutch game which involved sliding wooden cylinders across a long board. It was pretty challenging and she of course beat us all by a large margin but it was still very fun. We would’ve played another round if it hadn’t have been so late so we instead went to bed.