The Arrival in Washington D.C.

Yesterday morning at 5:30 am Pacific time, Albany High’s Science Bowl Team, consisting of Ian Allen, Elise Cai, George Shan, and myself, Jackie Quinn, embarked on our journey to Washington D.C. for the National Finals. Apart from Ian spilling tea all over me, and having to wait an hour before boarding due to bad timing, and the big guy right in front of me who spent the entire time fully reclined, the trip wasn’t particularly remarkable. We actually arrived day early, so as to adjust to east coast time.

The bulk of the competition is located at the 4-H Center, which starts packing the rooms right away - Hund’s rule doesn’t apply here, I guess (I am at Science Bowl so yes, you must deal with my references). George and Ian were put in different rooms at first, though they didn’t know it and were thoroughly confused when they came back from dinner in Friendship Heights, Chevy Chase, and found three other guys already in their room. They managed to get transferred so that they weren’t split up, but it seems rather silly of the front desk to do that in the first place. Elise and I shared a room with two girls from the Virgin Islands who watched MTV until midnight. We’ve already had some problems with the telephone. It made isolated bell tones randomly until we got so fed up that we pulled out the cord, which in retrospect may not have been the best idea. The railings on the top bunk rock back and forth, and the shower doesn’t drain properly. Apart from this, the accommodations aren’t bad. There’s a large dining hall and a rec room.

Apparently there’s also a gym, but during the past two times I’ve been here I haven’t been able to figure out how to get in. There are also computers that are hooked up to the internet. Currently I’m sitting next to a bunch of middle school girls from a different conference who are squealing something about getting on MySpace, which seems to be blocked here (though Facebook isn’t). There are some other Science Bowl teams here already, but most will be flooding in this afternoon. In the meantime, we will be enjoying our last hours of freedom before the competition administration shackles us in with name tags and everything.

5 Responses

1. 6:51 AM on May 2nd, 2008Micah:

   Good luck albany! really funny and amusing article jackie.

2. 9:46 AM on May 2nd, 2008Anonymous:

   good luck! im so exiting for you!

3. 9:47 AM on May 2nd, 2008Anonymous:

   yay sexy science nerds!!!

4. 8:59 PM on May 3rd, 2008Diana:

   I have a feeling #3 is Sophie.

5. 12:37 PM on May 5th, 2008Anonymous:

   haha me too

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