EGOI 2022 Blog

Sunday, October 16th (Charlotte)

We met at the Basel airport at 3pm. Unlike most other SOI events everyone was there 10 minutes early. We went inside and had to wait 15 min until the baggage drop off would open. Once it opened we spend 10 minutes dropping off our bags and then continued to the security control. Here, we passed through quite quickly again, leaving us with 2.5 more hours until our plane would leave. We spend this time working on things that needed to be done more or less productively (e.g. french homework, reading books for school or revising lectures). After passing through the passport control it was time to board the airplane. After Elena needed to stay behind because her data ended up not being in the system, we all made it to the airplane. The flight was uneventful but there where a lot of kids around us so that noise cancelling headphones where a lifesaver.

Once we landed in Antalya the waiting continued. After waiting 45 min for our luggage (the display said 5 more minutes for about 30 of them) we managed to get all our bags and exited the baggage area. We were welcomed by a tired looking guy at the EGOI welcome desk. To our disappointment he told us we would have to wait for an other delegation before we could take the bus. We spend the next 30 min sitting at the airport (and I started writing this blog post - after Jasmin preferred her homework over blog writing). Finally, the Luxembourgian delegation arrived and it was time to go to our bus. We found out that the Serbian delegation had been waiting in this bus for over an hour already. After leaving the airport and being half asleep, we noticed that we seemed to be going in a circle. This turned out to be true as we picked up two more girls.

Finally, we were on our way to the hotel. The bus ride took one hour and when we arrived at the hotel we met our guide Nida. We filled out a lot of forms (and waited some more) and finally got to go to our rooms for some well deserved sleep at half past two.

Monday, October 17th (Vivienne & Jasmin)

On Monday we got up after 4 hours of sleep and went to breakfast. It turned out that our guide had told us to meet her about a half an hour too early because she expected us to be late. But we were on time (in contrast to her). At the breakfast table we wondered how our guide could have this much energy at this time, especially after hardly sleeping. But we still enjoyed talking to her and she’s very nice :D

We were amazed by the extensive breakfast. It took a very long time to just look at all the food and to decide what you wanted to eat since it was a giant outside buffet. After eating some waffles, pancakes and freshly squeezed orange juice, we made our way to contest hall for the practice contest. The contest hall was huge with very comfortable chairs, but it was very cold due to all the air conditioning.

After the practice contest we had some lunch and then decided to go to the beach which we can see from our hotel. On our way there, we saw a lot of cats and of course had to pet all of them. There are so many cats everywhere and they’re all so nice!

In the evening we went to the opening ceremony and listened to some very long speeches and watched some traditional Turkish dances. Then every team was called up and had to stand up and wave. We used this opportunity to throw around some Swiss chocolate which was very fun. Unfortunately, it started raining in the middle of the opening ceremony and they gave everyone rain ponchos. But this didn’t stop the pop group from performing around 20 songs and hyping us up. This worked very well, especially for our guide Nida and after the first few songs we were all dancing.

Then we ate dinner and went to bed early, exhausted from the long day.

Dienstag, 18. Oktober (Jasmin)

Am Dienstag war der erste Contesttag. Nach einer nur halbwegs erholsamen Nacht wegen vielen Geräuschen und einem Telefon im Nebenzimmer sassen wir viel zu früh beim Frühstück. Unsere Guidin hatte aber wie immer unglaublich viel Energie und weckte uns ein wenig auf. Unsere Müdigkeit verschwand dann mit dem 10er-Hüpfen vor dem Contest endgültig.

Als alle ihre Plätze in der Contesthalle eingenommen hatten, wurden sehr nützliche Regeln vorgelesen: Zum Beispiel, dass nun niemand mehr die Halle betreten darf. Dabei wurde aber nicht erwähnt, dass die Aufgaben nach Schwierigkeit geordnet sind, was dem Schweizer Team deutlich geholfen hätte. Die coolste Aufgabe stammte von Niels, einem Schwedischen Leiter, den wir schon aus unserem Trainingslager kannten. Dabei ging es darum, einer Freundesgruppe zu helfen, ein Spiel zu gewinnen. Ausserdem mussten wir eine Legowand bauen und die Meinungen von Touristen tracken.

Irgendwie waren wir nach dem Contest zu langsam und verpassten das Mittagessen. Deshalb mussten wir auf Burger und Eis ausweichen, was aber nicht so schlimm war. Am Nachmittag gingen wir in den Pool und probierten zusammen mit den Schwedinnen die Wasserrutschbahnen aus. Vivienne und ich wurden von einer Frau dazu überredet, Sprungschuhe auszuprobieren. Es stellte sich dann heraus, dass diese nicht zum Spass da waren, sondern für ein Workout benötigt wurden. Wir sind dann 30 Minuten lang mit russischer Anleitung rumgehüpft. Danach waren wir ziemlich kaputt.

Am Abend gab es Lösungspräsentationen und danach gingen wir mit dem indischen Team an den Strand. Priska machte ausserdem mit den Türkinnen und den Holländerinnen Karaoke.

Wednesday, October 19th (Vivienne)

On Wednesday we were able to sleep in a bit and only had to get on the bus at 09:30. After a 45 minute bus ride we soon got onto the boat on which we would be spending the next few hours on. It was very big and beautiful and it even had pirates and a DJ. We loved his music because it was so loud you could hardly talk to anyone. Despite having to scream at everyone you wanted to speak with, we managed to get to know Team USA and one of their team leaders Brian Dean! We played a few intense games of Connect 4 with them, but they destroyed us.

For lunch we got some uncooked Broccoli seasoned with lemon and some surprisingly good dessert. In the afternoon we enjoyed the stunning view and played some more games on the boat. There was also a big disco in the bottom floor of the boat where you could dance.

After the boat tour we sprinted to Benjamin’s Bakery because we didn’t want to have to stand in line to get waffles. It turned out that we weren’t the only ones with that idea, but we were still the fastest and quickly ordered waffles for everyone. But then the big scandal happened: the Swedish, who ordered after us, got their waffles first! Stefanie was aghast. She fought for our waffles until we all got them. Finally, we could enjoy the warm waffles with fresh fruit and chocolate sauce. Delicious!

A bit later we decided to check out the gym. There we bumped into Elena and after running a bit on the treadmill, we decided to join her workout. We were only able to do about a third of it, but still were very sore the next day.

At dinner time we met some participants from the Estonian team. Then we wanted to watch the Mary Gu concert, but we had to say no to that, because we wanted to go to bed early to be well rested for the contest. Unfortunately the loud music didn’t really help us fall asleep, but we tried our best.

Donnerstag, 20. Oktober (Hannah)

Der Tag startete für Priska und mich wie gewohnt: zu spät aufstehen, beim Blick aus dem Fenster Babykatzen sehen und extra einen Umweg nehmen, um diese streicheln zu können.

Trotzdem schafften wir es pünktlich zur contest hall, bei der wir Dank dem Morgensport verwirrte Blicke der anderen Teilnehmerinnen ernteten. Wenig später begann der Contest: wir hatten erneut vier Tasks, die (wie wir diesesmal wussten) nach Schwierigkeit geordnet waren. Während fünf Stunden verteilten wir Computer zu datacenters, spielten eine etwas abgewandelte Version von Schach, halfen Chika beim cheaten und fanden verloren gegangene Designs für Spielzeuge heraus.

Schliesslich verliessen wir die Halle wieder und hatten nun den letzten Contest dieser EGOI (für Priska sogar den letzten Contest ihrer SOI Karriere) hinter uns. Das hiess, dass wir jetzt die Angebote des Hotels vollkommen ausnutzen konnten. Als erstes gingen wir zum Meer, wo wir einen Pavillion besetzten. Später stellen wir fest, dass dieser Pavilion gemietet werden musste. Wir waren sehr traurig, denn die Sofas boten sich gut zum Schlafen an. Nach diesem erschütternden Erlebnis gingen wir weiter zum Pool, der Vivienne und mir aber schnell zu kalt wurde.

Wir entschieden, in die Sauna zu gehen um uns aufzuwären, doch auf dem Weg wurden wir von PingPong Tischen aufgehalten. Wir entschlossen, trotz unserer nicht vorhandenen PingPong Fähigkeiten, ein bisschen zu spielen und bald kamen auch Jasmin und Priska dazu. Irgendwann schafften wir es doch, uns vom PingPong loszulösen und unseren Weg in die Sauna fortzusetzen. Während Jasmin und Priska vor der Sauna warteten, hielten es Vivienne und ich ganze drei Minuten aus, bevor die russischen Männer und die Hitze uns zu viel wurde. Doch wir entdeckten ein “Turkish Bath” und beschlossen, Nida zu fragen, ob sie mit uns in den nächsten Tagen einmal dort hinein gehen würde. Als wir sie fragten, reagierte sie wir es von ihr kannten. Sie freute sich sehr und konnte es gar nicht erwarten uns die ganze Erfahrung des Turkish Bath zu geben.

Anschliessend gingen wir zum Abendessen. Zu unserem Erstaunen hingen hingen türkische Flaggen und es gab Live Musik die uns ebenfalls sehr türkisch erschien. Nida erklärte und, dass heute Istanbul Night sei. Nach dem Abendessen waren wir sehr aufgeregt, denn heute würden wir das erste mal das legendäre Abendprogramm, dass uns schon viele Schwierigkeiten mit dem Einschlafen beschafft hatte, selbst miterleben! Leider verpassten wir den Anfang des Cuban Habana und mussten uns mit Plätzen sehr weit hinten zufrieden geben. Die Musik war trotzdem laut. Zwar hatten wir nicht erwartet, wirklich qualitatives Programm zu sehen, doch wir wurden überrascht, denn tatsächlich war es sehr gut.

Schliesslich war es vorbei und wir gingen auf unsere Zimmer, wo Priska und ich zwar vorhatten, früh zu Schlafen, aber irgendwie war es dann doch auf einemal Mitternacht.

Friday, October 21st (Priska)

Friday was excursion day, so after breakfast, we entered the busses and a two hour bus ride started. Our first destination was the theater of Aspendos. It was build in roman times and is still used for concerts today, because the acoustics are so good. Then we went to Dokuma Park to eat the lunch there. Just before we arrived, Benjamin spotted a Turkish migros, and so after finishing, against the will of our tour guide but with the permission of the IC (aka Stefanie), we went to check it out (the design and everything looks similar to the Swiss ones, but they sell alcohol).

The rest of the time we spend in a part of the part, where miniatures of famous Turkish buildings have been placed. Our third destination was the old town of Antalya, where we had free time to do some shopping. We visited the mosque, then Nida showed us around and helped us to fight off scammers, who wanted to sell us overpriced items. Back in the hotel we rushed to the waffle place. Later we went to the ocean and after that, we ate dinner. After dinner, our leaders had to go to the GA meeting, so we went to watch the “dolls by rapid” show and wrote postcards to other SOI-leaders.

Saturday, October 2nd (Hannah & Priska)

On the last official day of EGOI we had to get up early because the busses were supposed to leave too early in the morning. Before we went to the venue of the closing ceremony, we made a stop at a science museum, where we had some time to walk around and try the interactive exhibits. At the venue there was first a apero, then we got into the ceremony hall. Some important people of the turkish ministery of industry and technology were present. Speeches were held, in which the words future, girls, success, winner and proud repetitively occurred. Between the speeches, the mood was lit up by some dancers. Finally we got our medals, silver for Jasmin (she was right under the gold cut) and bronze for the rest of us (Hannah was also right under the silver cut). After many photos and some more food, we got back to the hotel and ate lunch there.

In the afternoon we went to the pool, used the water slides (even Priska) together with the Irish and Indian girls. Later we went to the Hamam with our guide Nida, who showed us this part of turkish culture. We ate lunch with a lot of people and played codenames with even more people which was really chaotic. Then, some girls invited us to learn a polish dance with them, which Priska was really excited for. Jasmin, Vivienne and Hannah weren’t that excited, because we heard that the evening program had already started. The tradition we started two nights ago could not be broken: we had to be present for the evening program. So Priska went to the dance and Nida, Jamsin, Vivienne and Hannah went to the evening program and would later join Priska. But it was a great tragedy: even though we sprinted to the location of the evening program, we missed it just by a few seconds and our evening was ruined. Luckily, we found mini trampolines where you could play “Jumping friends”. We played two rounds and managed to break the high score.

After this great success, we thought we would join Priska, but on the way to the hall, we were stopped by some cats. Somehow, only now we thought of naming them and it worked stunningly: Jörg-Günther-Gerhart and Chantal were big fans of us (they sat on our lap and wouldn’t let us go). After quite some time we managed to convince them to let us go and we finally could join Priska. She had been dancing the entire time and we joined in for a dance, but it was really confusing as we didn’t know what we had to do. Together with a Croatian girl and two Saudi-Arabian girls, we then had the amazing idea of stealing an EGOI flag. Sadly, none of them were still hanging and we almost lost hope. But after a motivational talk with our leaders (Disclaimer: the leaders refuse any responsibility for the actions of our participants) and asking a receptionist where the flags were, we managed to find one. We then split up with the Saudi-Arabian and the Croatian girls, who wanted to continue searching for more flags, to go grab some desert as a midnight snack. There we met Samatha and Petra-Birgit (two cats) who kindly sat with us. After we said good bye to them, we went to our rooms to pack our stuff together and get some sleep for the journey home on the next day.

Sunday, October 23rd (Elena)

On Sunday morning we all gathered very tired in the lobby to say bye to our guide Nida and Stefanie and Benjamin. Our bus left the hotel at 8:40 and we arrived at the airport around 10, only 5 hours before our flight left! In the waiting hall, we found a nice spot on the floor and hung out there for two hours, until we could finally check our luggage in. While waiting we even got gifted 5 Turkish Lira from a random person and Jasmin and Vivienne tried their spicy lollipop, that they got from the Mexican team. We managed to get through security without problems, and Jasmin was even able to get her 0.33l water bottle through.

The flight was long and uneventful. The passport control in Basel was very slow, and we were a bit salty that the line for Swiss and EU passports was longer than the other one. After waiting for 15 minutes for Elena and Priska’s luggage, we realized they were just standing in a corner next to the belt. Fabian and Ursus surprised us at the airport with muffins and a very pretty EGOI sign and we all went home and finally got our well-deserved sleep.