Thursday, December 28th, 2006
A Wonderful Trip in December
Perjalanan Tim APAO
Indonesia
On
December 3rd 2006 I went to
Vladivostok City , a big military city of
Russia . I went to there with my two lectures, Mr. Taufiq Hidayat & Mr. Suryadi Siregar and 3 other students from
Central Java . They are Rhorom from
Semarang , Satriya from Salatiga, Lorenz da Silva from
Semarang . We went to
Russia for join the competition that are named “ APAO(Asia Pacific Astronomy Olympiad) “ We are the team from
Indonesia to join the Olympiad.
The location of
Vladivostok is near
Japan . The longitude is about 1310 East and the latitude is about 430 North. From
Jakarta first, we went to
Seoul (
South Korea ) for seven hours in plane, just for transit two hours and then we went to
Vladivostok for 4 hours in plane.
After I arrived to the city, I felt the air was very cold outside the airport. The condition is very different from
Indonesia . In there, we felt very cold temperature and very dry air. So our face especially our lips were easily to dry up. The temperature in December is about -100 Celsius at
noon and -150 at night. So at night we must wear the jacket thicker than at noon.The city was very unique city and historical city at the second world war.
The other different is the sun in there, is rises at 9.00 in the morning and already sets at 5.00 in the evening. So the duration of daytime is less than the night. In there we could see that all of plants were falling out except the plant named “ Cemara “. So that plant is become the symbol of Christmas day in the winter.
The Competition was joined by 10 teams ; 5 teams from
Russia , 1 teams from
China ,
Korea ,
Indonesia ,
Kazakstan , Thailand . the teams were included seniors, juniors and 2 team leaders. The maximum people for one team is 10 people. According to us
China and
Korea is a strong team because the students is very diligent, clever and sophisticated. We all lived at a place like small dormitory near the beach. After we saw the beach, we suddenly admired the beach because the people can play soccer on the
Iceland because the water in the sea was frozen.
In the first day we joined the opening ceremony . In the ceremony , a lot of singer and dancer celebrated our arrival. The performance of the dancer and singer was marvelous and very attractive. I really enjoy the show.
In the second day there was a theoretical test for 3 hours. I did the test carefully. I think I have did the test well. But I wasn’t certain at all. I just wish god bless me. In the afternoon we went to the museum and university an took a lot of photographs.
In the third day , we went to the observatory in the mountain. The temperature could be -200 Celsius. It is very cold and when we arrived that place the snow rain was falling down. Our best experience is we can see snow rain at the winter and we can play with the snow. We made the snowball from the snow and we threw it to our friends , something like playing a snow war…The snow is really soft and very white. I have fell down too because the ice was very slippery. So we must walk carefully on the ice. We all also saw the big radio telescope and other telescopes in there. A very great place for us. At the night there was a observational test at 21.00 until 23.00. Waw, it is so cold outside the room. The test was held in the field outside our dormitory. I’m little disappointed because I did failure that I mustn’t do. I know what the answer.. but maybe I was careless at that night. Huh, never mind ..At the
midnight we all played soccer. Really interesting.
In the fourth dAy …it is free from test.. That day , we just went to excursion. I was very happy that day ..haha. We went to museum again , after that we went to bank to exchange the dollars to Rubels..(money in there). One Rubel is about 400 Rupiahs. Huai.. then we went to shopping in department store and bought a lot of souvenirs for my family.. The Russian in that department store could not speak English , so we communicate with tarzan language It’s very funny ..haha.
The next day , there was a practical round test.. It was easy but the problem because the test was not quiet difficult so our mark is nearly same. Then in the afternoon we went to military place in
Vladivostok . It was very interesting , the place is located in underground. It was dark, windy, and very cold. There were At the night I could not sleep because the next day is the the closing ceremony. Maybe I was nervous.
Yeah..the last day of the Olympiad .We visited the
Amur Bay Beach and took many photographs too At the night the closing ceremony was held at the room next to canteen. I was very nervous and the committee gave me the 3rd prize diploma (or bronze medal). I’m little disappointed in that night because my target was to get gold medal. I could not reach my target successfully. It’s me.I’m easily too down myself and moody person. After the ceremony we all had party and supper together. And then there was a fireworks.
The Indonesia Team got 1 silver medal and 3 bronze meals. We all got the diploma. We were happy with the result, it’s not too bad. Yeah, I think I have tried to do my best. We were happy too because now we got a lot of new friends from other country. Maybe we can meet them one day again.
The next day we lived at the dormitory one night again because no flight for that day. And then on
December 13th 2006 , team of
Indonesia arrived to
Seoul and we overnight at
Seoul too.
Seoul is a very big city and there was a lot of Christmas tree at the park. There was also a lot of Santa Claus at the street because
Korea is a Christian country. We visited a lot of store at
Seoul , but it was very expensive. Waw , I got a lot of experience from this trip. I could know about
Russia and
South Korea .
Finally
December 14th 2006 , we arrived at
Jakarta . We each other went back to our home. Maybe I can have another trip that more interesting than this.
Ivan Hadinata
