It's finally here!
After months of frantic work trying to be ready for missing a week
and a half of University, and the paniced last minute packing of a a
seasoned teenager desparate to irritate and stress out her parents,
today was the day. We woke up, bleary eyed, at 4am and arrived as
bright-eyed and bushy tailed as we could be for the hour. The
delegation is awesome, eight delegates and one supervisor. Yindi,
Talia and Matt are all still in high school, cramming for their HSC
in a couple of weeks. Liam and Megan (who was meeting us at Tel Aviv
due to her living in London) are taking gap years, experiencing the
world outsitde Australia's education system. Lachlan, Nicole and I are
all in University, studying a variety of science-related courses.
COOL FACT: Nicole
and I competed against each other in 2008 at the UNYA Junior Public
Speaking State Final.
A few not-so-teary
goodbyes later and we traversed security, with Yindi, Ruth and Matt
all being selected for random bomb screening, lucky them! As a group
we took a team photo (see below) and grabbed a quick breakfast-like
snack (I indulged in an iced chocolate – getting into the swing of
the warm weather we were about to encounter.) before we jumped onto
the plane for the first leg of our journey to Hong Kong.
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| The team at Sydney International Airport |
It needs to be
noted here that none of us would be on this trip if it had not been
for our ability and passion for science. With the exception of
Nicole, all of us competed in the Rio Tinto Big Science Competition
last year and achieved a High Distinction. Nicole completed an exam
and was selected to attend a training camp for the preliminary
selection rounds of the Australian Science Olympiad Biology team.
What has been most
amazing so far is the wide variety of futures that are a part of this
team. Liam is currently spending a year surveying, but aims to study
Civil Engineering at Newcastle University. I am currently studying
Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle with an aim of focusing my career
on biomechanics (eg. Prosthesies and equipment for people with a
disability.) Nicole is working her way through a biomedical degree at
UNSW to become a surgeon in the future. Megan wants to become an
architect. Talia wants to focus on biology, researching neuroscience.
Lachlan is studying biomedical technology. Yindi is tossing up
between biomedical and mining engineering and Matt seeks to
almagamate his love of humanities and love of science when he attends
the University of Queensland next year.
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| The team at a cafe in Hong Kong Airport. The food cost 300HK! (Only about AU$43) |
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| We found a Starbucks! |
Hong Kong airport
provided us with a long waiting time, five hours. It was exciting and
nerve wracking. Yindi was chosen for a random security pat down and
our interview with Israeli security before we could check in had us
all worrying about nothing. As we were all sitting around in the
departure lounge, Yindi was pulled up by one of the security men and
asked about an item inside his bag. It was only his power-board thank
goodness, but that made for the fourth time he had interacted with
security that day. There must be something shifty about the baby of
our bunch.
Finally we boarded
the plane to Tel Aviv, beginning the last leg of our 23 hour journey
to Israel and catching up on some much needed sleep.
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