International Biology Olympiads
2008 Australian Biology Olympiad Team
Results from the 2008 International Biology Olympiad are now in!!
...and Ruby Kwong and Jonathan Marwick won gold!
Jonathan Marwick was placed tenth in the world!!
Congratulations to the Team, the Team Leaders and all of the Olympiad staff on these fantastic results.
Ruby's Blog
From pre-Olympiad training in Singapore
Aha! The biology team have finally found decent internet connection to contact the outside world with!
We arrived in
Singapore on Sunday afternoon – it was as great feeling to be able to
stand and walk/run around – however you also had to take care not to be
too hyperactive otherwise the uniformed army guards carrying MACHINE
GUNS around the airport might shoot you. Everyone made it through
customs fine – I went to one of the customs officers and asked them
what you were supposed to declare and the answer I got was “drugs”.
The first
night was ‘sweat night’ – because of the extremely hot and humid
weather, added to this was the fact that we didn’t know where any
restaurants were for dinner and got lost trying to find our way to food.
Just
yesterday we all went on an outing to Chinatown! It was great and had
HEAPS of stores – all of which seemed to be selling the same sort of
things, however there were bargains to be made if you pretended you
didn’t have a lot of money on you. We also visited Little India where
there were several stores selling cloth and things, however we soon
made our way to a Malaysian section of the town “ Kampong Glam” due to
the severe lack of females wandering around the streets of Little
India. However, having spent an ENTIRE day walking non-stop in tropical
conditions, we were all pretty buggered at the end of the day and had
to get an early night’s rest.
Today has been a mostly ‘study day’ however we shall be going out for dinner and also going to the Night Safari!! Haha!
From the airport on the way home after the Olympiads in India
Whoa, what a hectic week it has been for the Aussie team! After arriving in Mumbai last Sunday, with the Kiwi Team, we were escorted by courteous Indians to our four-star hotel. Our jury members – Pat and Mary, left for the five-star hotel. Unfortunately for us, we had to wait for six hours before we got our rooms, because they were still occupied. However, this was a great opportunity to mingle and talk with all the other arriving countries!
Time went by uber-quickly, with very hectic practical tasks as well as a really long five hour theory task – and to cap it all off – the fact that we were not used to the Indian food did not help our digestion during the week, but luckily we suffered much less than other countries.
Everyone got to visit the amusement park where there were many dodgy rides – who has ever been on a ride where it’s not 100% guaranteed that you’ll make it out alive? It’s certainly a thrilling experience!
The days after the exams passed by extremely quickly, everyone partied pretty hard, and made many friends – from the USA, Britain, Ireland, Slovenia, China, Korea, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina and New Zealand just to name a few.
Then came the time everyone was either anticipating/dreading – the medal announcement ceremony. It was exciting to see all the friends we had made going up on stage and getting their medals, our hands went red from all the clapping and cheering.
Keshinie and David both received silver medals and Jonathan and Ruby both received gold medals! The whole team went ecstatic – go Aussies!
Afterwards, everyone went back to the hotel and had a MASSIVE celebration, which went until the next day. However, the time had come for the saddening experience of parting with our newfound friends. It was heartbreaking to have to say goodbye - it has really made us appreciate what a truly unique and wonderful experience the International Biology Olympiad has been.
Updated 22 July 2008