Half Way Home!

Jó nápot again from Budapest! Today our team had another exciting and busy day. All of us got to both do some chemistry and explore the city around us. This morning was the team’s first chance to put their chemistry skills to the test as they completed the tasks of the practical exam. They had five and a half hours with one break, during which some of the materials were switched out. The Hungarian authors did a great job including many different laboratory skills, and we are all sure that our students did just as well completing them. This evening we hear from the organizers that no students were injured, time was not an issue, and only one buret had to be replaced (we don’t know for which team).

While the students were enjoying the beautiful view of the Danube from their lab rooms, Ms. Pezzi, Dr. Lynch, their families and I (J.L.) got to go through the city on a tour. While most of the journey was by bus, we got to venture out into some of the more famous sites. The first of these was Millennium Square, an open area in the middle of Pest containing statues of famous Hungarian rulers. You can see the center column in the picture, with the archangel, Gabriel, at the top holding the crown of the Hungarian kings. At the bottom is Árpád, the first king of Hungary, and the six other chiefs of the original seven Hungarian tribes. Around this are two colonnades with four symbolic statues, in the background of the photo you can see work and war. On the other side of the area were peace and the glory of knowledge. After that we visited the Matthias Church in Buda and the Fisherman’s Bastion, where we had a gorgeous view of Pest and the Hungarian Parliament building. Finally, we visited Gellért Hill, where we could see Buda, Pest and the Danube in between. Although it rained off and on, the trip was a great experience.
As we returned to receive the theoretical portion of the competition, the students got to leave on their own tour of Budapest. The mentor team spent the afternoon reading through the theoretical tasks and then discussing each of them with the authors. We were very pleased with the topics covered by the problems, and we think they will provide quite a challenge. Another challenge was the 2nd Jury Meeting this evening. The meeting was divided into two rooms based on the material. While we were separated at the beginning, we were able to reconvene for the latter part of one of the meetings, because it lasted about an hour longer than the first. Tomorrow, we will translate the exam into “American English.”

I have to close the message so I can attend the informal meeting to keep an eye on Dr. Lynch and his international skills…

Thanks for reading my guest-blogger entry! -JL