Preface
I was very excited for this trip, not only because I could see my TJ associates, but also because the week in general was awesome. I did a lot better on my October SAT, but my reading score still sucks. D: Who cares about SATs. The more important thing was that I MADE USACO GOLD!! Wheeee~~ Also, I submitted my MIT app on Friday, 00:30! Yes! Though 5.5hr of sleep kinda killed me. Anyway, onto the real thing...
I was very excited for this trip, not only because I could see my TJ associates, but also because the week in general was awesome. I did a lot better on my October SAT, but my reading score still sucks. D: Who cares about SATs. The more important thing was that I MADE USACO GOLD!! Wheeee~~ Also, I submitted my MIT app on Friday, 00:30! Yes! Though 5.5hr of sleep kinda killed me. Anyway, onto the real thing...
Friday
I get to school at 07:15 and head straight to Holbrook's room to read Naruto. However, Holbrook was being annoying and made me do some secretarial tasks, like laying our spare t-shirts on the tables for people to pick up if they didn't bring t-shirts. He was telling me how everyone should wear an AAST shirt on the day of the competition to show our spirit. Not long after, some of our core members walked in w/o AAST shirts. Holbrook got quite pissed off and threatened to ban them from competing because of lack of spirit. Anyway, the people who didn't bring shirts picked up shirts and I got to read my Naruto.
We boarded the bus at 09:00, but didn't leave until 10:00 because Dr. Mayers was LATE. Ugh. The us ride was really long. It was too long. Towards the end, I decided to do some programming :O Watching me fix my fail USACO qualification programs, the froshies sitting in front of me begged me for some programming problems. I was delighted to see my disciples interested in and wanting to improve at programming. ^_^
For dinner, we drove to Golden Corral, an American buffet. THERE WAS NO SUSHI. RAWRRR. Luckily, there were a lot of cheese-based foods, so I spammed mac & cheese and lasagna. [A/N: I'm so unasian...]
We got to the hotel, unpacked our stuff, and tested the free internets. My roommate showed me the epic short film at the Halloween Assembly, which took 15 minutes to buffer due to lack of bandwidth on the network. WTF. Then we slept at 23:30.
I get to school at 07:15 and head straight to Holbrook's room to read Naruto. However, Holbrook was being annoying and made me do some secretarial tasks, like laying our spare t-shirts on the tables for people to pick up if they didn't bring t-shirts. He was telling me how everyone should wear an AAST shirt on the day of the competition to show our spirit. Not long after, some of our core members walked in w/o AAST shirts. Holbrook got quite pissed off and threatened to ban them from competing because of lack of spirit. Anyway, the people who didn't bring shirts picked up shirts and I got to read my Naruto.
We boarded the bus at 09:00, but didn't leave until 10:00 because Dr. Mayers was LATE. Ugh. The us ride was really long. It was too long. Towards the end, I decided to do some programming :O Watching me fix my fail USACO qualification programs, the froshies sitting in front of me begged me for some programming problems. I was delighted to see my disciples interested in and wanting to improve at programming. ^_^
For dinner, we drove to Golden Corral, an American buffet. THERE WAS NO SUSHI. RAWRRR. Luckily, there were a lot of cheese-based foods, so I spammed mac & cheese and lasagna. [A/N: I'm so unasian...]
We got to the hotel, unpacked our stuff, and tested the free internets. My roommate showed me the epic short film at the Halloween Assembly, which took 15 minutes to buffer due to lack of bandwidth on the network. WTF. Then we slept at 23:30.
Saturday
ZOMG It's competition day! I was indeedly excited for [obvious] reasons :D We arrived on campus at 09:30. There was only one team present when we got there, but more teams slowly trickled in. I was waiting anxiously for another team, inconspicuously glancing at the crowd near the breakfast table. After a while, I noticed that they came, so I took extra precaution to ensure that I wouldn't be found. However, the football/frisbee game was fail enough to make me yell "GG," which was followed by "Sheeerrryy!!" from my TJ friend. Sadly, It took Brian a while to come to my vicinity because he was being stupidly shy, and when he did, Dr. Abramson assembled us for a captain meeting. :(
After breakfast was the opening ceremony. One of my teammates insisted that we sit in the first row because there were power plugs so I could charge my laptop while we played Peggle (coincidentally, TJ A was sitting in the 2nd row. HMMM.)
When the ceremony ended, Duke staff led us to our test building. While the guides led us to our team test rooms, I had to opportunity to chuck a small paper ball into Brian's hair >:D I quietly thanked my AP Chem and AP Physics classes for giving me opportunities to practice this valuable art. I don't think I got away with it; not long after, someone from TJ A asked "Is Sherry here?" I thought "NO" and quickly scurried away to my test room. We did fairly well on the tests, but got #1 WRONG on the team round. D: Oh well...
Lunch was quite interesting. Jenny greeted me at the bottom of the court after I got my sandwich and begged me to eat lunch with the TJ people. As meta-captain, I had to stay with my team, so I politely declined. When I went to get a drink, Brian approached me (finally ~_~) to discuss the bridge tournament. We went down to where AAST was eating lunch and set up the deals. Unfortunately, we were only able to fit in two boards. One of them was a cold 6NT, which my EW associates missed (but Brian and Lenny found it with their crazy precision system) =/ so we lost 13 IMPs on that. The other one was 4S, and I was able to get 1IMP for my side ^_^ Then the Duke staff herded us into our morning auditoriums for the afternoon tests.
The individual round was harder than expected, but Mu B did ok. We each got six! (Yay for consistency!) Oh, and I managed to crack my jaw during problems 1 & 2 :D I thought that was good sign of things to come. hehehe, who knew lol. The relays were average. I think we had only one zero, which is acceptable. We all thought Mu B had no chance of placing, so I quickly made a "Holy FAIL" poster XD
We were finally relieved of math that matters when the Devil Round came around. I was more or less shocked when I saw the numerous math brainiacs in my group, namelyBrian, Sam, and some short kid from NC or somewhere. We easily pwned the Devil Round, missing only one questions (time ran out when we got #13). The Duke people said that we would get a box of chocolates, but I never got mine =[
After the Devil Round, we headed out of our morning auditorium and into a much larger auditorium for the awards ceremony. I walked with most of my Devil Round team. Mike Tan was still asking Brian Hamrick about VMT and saying it's so much better than AAST, blah blah blah. Then Brian took out a Milkis out of his bag and gave it to me :O I was totally not expecting this. He also took one out for himself. Some people noticed that we had the same drink, so todismiss encourage suspicion, I told them that I had brought it from home. Not long after some people began to doubt me, Brian told them that I was lying. anyway…
Then I found the rest of AAST and sat with Mu B. Again, the Duke people were still preparing, so I took out my laptop to play some more Peggle. (it's more like the surrounding people begged me to play Peggle). We got through a match, which I won ^_^ Then the tiebreaker round started, to which neither I nor most of AAST paid any attention. After that came the awards ceremony!!
ZOMG It's competition day! I was indeedly excited for [obvious] reasons :D We arrived on campus at 09:30. There was only one team present when we got there, but more teams slowly trickled in. I was waiting anxiously for another team, inconspicuously glancing at the crowd near the breakfast table. After a while, I noticed that they came, so I took extra precaution to ensure that I wouldn't be found. However, the football/frisbee game was fail enough to make me yell "GG," which was followed by "Sheeerrryy!!" from my TJ friend. Sadly, It took Brian a while to come to my vicinity because he was being stupidly shy, and when he did, Dr. Abramson assembled us for a captain meeting. :(
After breakfast was the opening ceremony. One of my teammates insisted that we sit in the first row because there were power plugs so I could charge my laptop while we played Peggle (coincidentally, TJ A was sitting in the 2nd row. HMMM.)
When the ceremony ended, Duke staff led us to our test building. While the guides led us to our team test rooms, I had to opportunity to chuck a small paper ball into Brian's hair >:D I quietly thanked my AP Chem and AP Physics classes for giving me opportunities to practice this valuable art. I don't think I got away with it; not long after, someone from TJ A asked "Is Sherry here?" I thought "NO" and quickly scurried away to my test room. We did fairly well on the tests, but got #1 WRONG on the team round. D: Oh well...
Lunch was quite interesting. Jenny greeted me at the bottom of the court after I got my sandwich and begged me to eat lunch with the TJ people. As meta-captain, I had to stay with my team, so I politely declined. When I went to get a drink, Brian approached me (finally ~_~) to discuss the bridge tournament. We went down to where AAST was eating lunch and set up the deals. Unfortunately, we were only able to fit in two boards. One of them was a cold 6NT, which my EW associates missed (but Brian and Lenny found it with their crazy precision system) =/ so we lost 13 IMPs on that. The other one was 4S, and I was able to get 1IMP for my side ^_^ Then the Duke staff herded us into our morning auditoriums for the afternoon tests.
The individual round was harder than expected, but Mu B did ok. We each got six! (Yay for consistency!) Oh, and I managed to crack my jaw during problems 1 & 2 :D I thought that was good sign of things to come. hehehe, who knew lol. The relays were average. I think we had only one zero, which is acceptable. We all thought Mu B had no chance of placing, so I quickly made a "Holy FAIL" poster XD
We were finally relieved of math that matters when the Devil Round came around. I was more or less shocked when I saw the numerous math brainiacs in my group, namelyBrian, Sam, and some short kid from NC or somewhere. We easily pwned the Devil Round, missing only one questions (time ran out when we got #13). The Duke people said that we would get a box of chocolates, but I never got mine =[
After the Devil Round, we headed out of our morning auditorium and into a much larger auditorium for the awards ceremony. I walked with most of my Devil Round team. Mike Tan was still asking Brian Hamrick about VMT and saying it's so much better than AAST, blah blah blah. Then Brian took out a Milkis out of his bag and gave it to me :O I was totally not expecting this. He also took one out for himself. Some people noticed that we had the same drink, so to
Then I found the rest of AAST and sat with Mu B. Again, the Duke people were still preparing, so I took out my laptop to play some more Peggle. (it's more like the surrounding people begged me to play Peggle). We got through a match, which I won ^_^ Then the tiebreaker round started, to which neither I nor most of AAST paid any attention. After that came the awards ceremony!!
DUN DUN DUN!1!!one
They began. "By the slimmest of margins, AAST Mu B!" Holy crap we was most definitely not expecting this. We all ran up to get our awards, got pictures taken, and sat back down. Some NC team got 4th and TJ B got 3rd. Second place was quite a surprise. We applauded loudly as TJ A went to claim their ribbons, while Mu A was thinking, "Holy balls we definitely lost to Mu B by a sliver D: D: D: Now Holbrook is gonna kill us T__T" Then the Duke people started to announce the champions.
"From the small, polluted state…"
We
It was about time that AAST won a competition. We started sucking after ~2005, so this was definitely a change. I can say that the Mu A-ers were definitely not expecting this. They got their ribbons, posed for lots of pictures (alex zhu looked like he was falling asleep XDD), and got off the stage. Then we all ran out of the auditorium, bursting with joy. We went to the court to take some more pictures and boarded the bus to some retardedly crappy Asian buffet. With no sushi. D: (what kind of victory dinner is that?!)
When we got back to the hotel, we got ready for the School Bridge League Halloween bridge tournament. Of course, Sam and I destroyed the competition, since Pavel and Ian aren't an established partnership and the other four just...don't know bridge very well. At my table, every contract was a game contract. At the other table, only one contract was a game contract. On the last deal, I doubled Pavel and Sam since I had 5 trumps and some other side points, and it worked ^_^ 4Hx-2 (vul) = 500!!
Ahh, what a good Saturday...
Since my roommate and I were too overjoyed by our victory, we stayed up until 01:00. I was working out HMMT teams, doing physics webassign, and IMming while she was doing her AP chem stuff and IMming. Then I stayed up a bit more to wrap up stuff, since I thought that 01:30 EDT to 07:30 EST was 8 hours. FAIL! x_x
"From the small, polluted state…"
We
FREAKINGLY
ROARED.
It was about time that AAST won a competition. We started sucking after ~2005, so this was definitely a change. I can say that the Mu A-ers were definitely not expecting this. They got their ribbons, posed for lots of pictures (alex zhu looked like he was falling asleep XDD), and got off the stage. Then we all ran out of the auditorium, bursting with joy. We went to the court to take some more pictures and boarded the bus to some retardedly crappy Asian buffet. With no sushi. D: (what kind of victory dinner is that?!)
When we got back to the hotel, we got ready for the School Bridge League Halloween bridge tournament. Of course, Sam and I destroyed the competition, since Pavel and Ian aren't an established partnership and the other four just...don't know bridge very well. At my table, every contract was a game contract. At the other table, only one contract was a game contract. On the last deal, I doubled Pavel and Sam since I had 5 trumps and some other side points, and it worked ^_^ 4Hx-2 (vul) = 500!!
Ahh, what a good Saturday...
Since my roommate and I were too overjoyed by our victory, we stayed up until 01:00. I was working out HMMT teams, doing physics webassign, and IMming while she was doing her AP chem stuff and IMming. Then I stayed up a bit more to wrap up stuff, since I thought that 01:30 EDT to 07:30 EST was 8 hours. FAIL! x_x
Sunday
I woke up at 08:00 to eat breakfast. It was the standard hotel continental breakfast, with the sausages, eggs, waffles, and all that crap. Then I packed my bags and boarded the bus and I started drafting this long post. It came out to be about two pages long (front and back of a blank sheet of paper, 12 pt font). O_O After about ten hours (sto0pid virginia for all the traffic), we arrived in front of the school. I went in to say hi to Mr. Holbrook! (No, he did not go to Duke with us :O) Then I went home to finish my AP Micro Presentation.
I woke up at 08:00 to eat breakfast. It was the standard hotel continental breakfast, with the sausages, eggs, waffles, and all that crap. Then I packed my bags and boarded the bus and I started drafting this long post. It came out to be about two pages long (front and back of a blank sheet of paper, 12 pt font). O_O After about ten hours (sto0pid virginia for all the traffic), we arrived in front of the school. I went in to say hi to Mr. Holbrook! (No, he did not go to Duke with us :O) Then I went home to finish my AP Micro Presentation.
/END
Edit 1: Here are the bridge hands & results:
Hey, you were being stupidly shy too :P
ReplyDeleteHamster said...
ReplyDeleteHey, you were being stupidly shy too :P
awwwwwww
brian is being shy here ;)
HAHAHAHAHA
XDDDDD
看起来你在DUKE玩得很开心。
ReplyDelete"From the small, polluted state…"--哈哈哈哈哈哈哈！！
我们的新泽西XD。