Fear and Science in D.C.

Editor’s Note: Among Albany High School’s most successful endeavors is the Cougar Science Bowl team, coached again this year by science teacher Peggy Carlock. After laying waste to scores of regional competitors, the team is again competing for the National Science Bowl Championship this week in Washington, D.C. This year’s team includes seniors Elise Cai, Benji Kessler and George Shan, junior Jamie Lincoff and sophomore Corwin Shiu. For reasons not wholly apparent, we asked senior science bowler Benji Kessler to blog during the competition. Here’s his first missive.

Fear and Science in D.C.
April 29, 2009

We had two bags of chocolate covered espresso beans, seventy-five chapters of Biology, five units of high powered calculators, a book full of multi-colored galaxies, nebulae, emission spectra, quasars. Also, a quart of Mountain Dew, a quart of muscle milk, a case of pencils, a pint of raw knowledge, and two dozen pocket protectors. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious science competition, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

We woke up bright and early at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday morning to catch a ride at 5:30. Good thing too, that way we made sure we would be able to catch our 11:30 flight. I never knew there were so many subtle nuances at the San Francisco airport. I quickly emptied my wallet on bread bowls and guava smoothies, and my comrades did so likewise. This killed an hour: only four to go.

When we finally knew every last corner of the airport like the backs of our hands, we decided to go hit up the bookstore. The four not-George members of the science bowl team (because George is the front-runner for the Science Bowl Most Likely to Get Lost Award) gathered together camp-fire style together on the floor of the bookstore. We burnt through another hour with an odd British book of random facts and got our learn on, science style. But, like all things, the book eventually had to come to an end.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention something funny. While we were trying to self check-in, I locked us all out of the computer terminal by trying to go through the process in Tagalog. Everyone was pissed, but I thought it was funny. Plus, it’s not like we were in a hurry.

In the hour before the plane departed, Corwin attempted to teach me how to solve a Rubik’s cube. My short attention span proved to be too formidable of an opponent, and I still don’t know how to solve it.

When we finally got on the plane, we got economy plus, and we got it for free, so we got economy plus for free. Score. My legs felt like an Alaskan’s or an alien’s because they were surrounded by so much empty space. We, as a team (except for Jamie, who was passed out. He’s lucky we didn’t have a permanent marker, because if we had, he would’ve spent the rest of the trip with an inappropriate tattoo on his forehead) watched the Big Bang Theory, a show about nerds with whom we identified because we’re nerds.

After that I fell asleep, and then I woke up about an hour before we landed. I spent that hour reading a biology textbook, what else? During this time, I turned to Elise and said, “This is an interesting chapter. I’ve never read this before.” To which she replied, “Aren’t you supposed to know the whole book?”

Haha. Whoops!

We then checked into the hotel, waded through wave upon wave of young women, and then ordered some delivery food. I got Chinese, and everybody else got Italian. My fortune cookie told me to bend the rod while it’s hot. I’m still not sure what it means. I’ll never make eye contact with that delivery man again. Each of us ate a cannolli except for Corwin, the cannoli hater.

We all then went and brushed our teeth and went to bed. Well, all of us except for George, who, invoking Fat Bastard from Austin Powers II, spent the first hour in bed finishing a pound and a half of beef salami. That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

So, anyways, I think we’re off to a good start. We have no idea what the hell we’re going to do tomorrow, but I have a feeling it’s going to be epic.

2 Responses

1. 3:12 PM on April 30th, 2009w01fg4ngIZt3hr0x0r:

   There is nothing so helpless, irresponsible and depraved as a man in the depths of Biology binge….

2. 12:03 AM on May 1st, 2009GOGOLEARNING:

   Are you kidding? George is the only one who has it right. Beef salami is the answer to everything.

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