Classtime<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
My first class of the day was number theory, taught by Po<\/strong>. Basically, he went over some of the more basic topics in number theory (Chinese remainder theorem, etc.). He talked about how he always used to consider results in number theory and solving number theory problems as akin to magic: he wasn\u2019t sure how these results came about, simply applied them to the problems in expectation that it would work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He mentioned one Mathcounts countdown round wherein the question was something that seemed to simply apply Wilson\u2019s Theorem, so they raced for the buzzer and the buzzer race winner hurredly spat the answer out according to that theorem. However, Wison\u2019s Theorem, as one may recall, requires the condition that the number is prime or some such\u2014a condition that was not satisfied. The other contestant was utterly bemused and confused and just spent the rest of the time staring at the problem, until finally they buzzed in\u2026with the same exact wrong answer :P.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second class was inversion, taught by MH<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hate geometry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n End of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I walked to lunch with some other blue and blackers + Turtle<\/strong>, taking a shortcut they didn\u2019t expect me to know. They were complaining about why the Red and Green MOPpers know the \u201csecret\u201d path to lunch through the path through the glass bridge. Apparently, blue and blackers made a deal not to show anyone else so that they would have an advantage over Red and Green in getting to Lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve actually been along that path so many times, though? Like, I think Po<\/strong> brought us along there at one point and JW<\/strong> also showed me it once? Anyway. Yeah. It\u2019s not a well-kept secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, once we came out of the path, we saw RW<\/strong> and EW <\/strong>and the group up front so we ran ran ran to catch up and then they started run run running and then it was very tiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we got there I tried looking for hand sanitizer. None of the three dispensers I tried actually contained anything, so eventually, I went to the bathroom to just wash my hands. The bathroom is downstairs and it\u2019s kind of creepy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And most importantly, there was another camp there. I think Turtle<\/strong> or someone was wondering who they were, so I went over and asked someone random. Apparently, it\u2019s a camp called Id Tech that sort of had, like, subcamps? I guess? Like there were a lot of different little subsets focused on different subjects (AI, prob animation or smth, etc.) and different age ranges, so there were tiny little middle schoolers (maybe even elementary schoolers) alongside people the same age as us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That camp got there before we did, so we had to wait an eternity for them to finish getting their food. Then, once we got to the front, I think the plates ran out. By the time we finally got our food, we realized that\u2014horror of horrors!\u2014the other camp had taken our garage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, most of the MOPpers who already got their food were in the lobby between Resnik and the garage. The TJ kids were in the Egg Shoppe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went into the garage to talk to them because I was rather curious and the boy I talked to while waiting in line for food was very much not actually helpful in telling me what was going on. I somehow ended up talking to a long-haired dude who was something of a camp counselor\/leader\/adult something. After introducing myself as a MOPper, I made some joke about duking it out, gladiator style, perhaps with Po<\/strong> as our champion fighting against some champion of theirs in order to gain control of the Garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except I think he sort of took me seriously because he was like, \u201cNo! Let\u2019s not fight over this,\u201d and then he asked me if I could bring an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think they thought I was some sort of MOP representative :P.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, so then I went to go tell Po<\/strong> that the Id Tech people wanted to talk to him. He was still in line, getting food, so I went back to my seat and sat down to eat (I was sitting with the TJ kids inside the Egg Shoppe). It wasn\u2019t very effective eating, though, as every few minutes I would pop my head out to see if Po<\/strong> had finished getting his food, yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, he had, so DX<\/strong> and I trailed after Po<\/strong> like little ducklings as he went to go talk to the other people. It was so great! He finished negotiating in, like, 5 minutes top!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, he spoke to the long-haired guy, who then introduced him to a lady who was in some sort of administrative role. Po<\/strong> sort of briefly explained what MOP is: a boarding summer camp for math where every other day, students take a 4.5 hour test. When the lady heard about the \u201c4.5 hour test,\u201d her eyes kind of went wide and she went, \u201cOh wow!\u201d Soon after that, Po also mentioned that he asked the staff to open this garage specifically for MOPpers and that we\u2019re really worried about ventilation and COVID safety. The combination of her surprise at the length of the test and the understanding that this garage was meant for MOPpers only resulted in her agreeing that Id Tech would not use the Garage. They even agreed to come fifteen minutes earlier so our two camps\u2019 lunch times wouldn’t even really overlap!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then after that, he basically just small-talked with the lady, though it was more just him asking questions of her and her talking a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SO. COOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, DX<\/strong> and I returned to our seats in the Egg Shoppe. At the table next to ours (our table was, like, three or four little tables pushed together), I saw a guy I first saw on June 16, when I was waiting in the food area for the staff to find tea. He wanted to get more helpings, but they wouldn\u2019t allow him to have multiple helpings at the same time before finishing the previous helping. However, I think he had to catch a class, or something, so he couldn\u2019t actually sit at Resnik and eat. I feel like, considering that, it\u2019s not the greatest system they\u2019ve got going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Food at Resnik during noon was a brunch today due to Resnik closing for breakfast. When I say \u201cbrunch,\u201d though, I just mean \u201cbreakfast that happens to be during lunchtime.\u201d So, scrambled eggs, bacon, tater tots, and sausages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After lunch, we had an assembly. We found this form in the assembly room! The QR code sends you to an online form. It seemed totally serious, which makes it so hilarious. And the fact that someone actually took<\/em> some of the strips from the bottom\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the assembly, we talked about how the TSTST will be administered, talent show sign-ups, room checks (which, btw, I don\u2019t think ever actually happened? Or if it did, we weren\u2019t informed when. Like, they mentioned \u201cwe\u2019ll room check everyone soon\u201d and then\u2026nothing?), and the schedule for the rest of the week (a \u201c7-day forecast,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t much of a forecast as it didn\u2019t even predict the rain that evening :P). I already signed up for the talent show with my \u7f57\u6577\u884c solo dance. We\u2019re going to Kennywood, a local amusement park, on Sunday, and I also already signed up for that. It\u2019ll be so exciting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this was all going on, Turtle<\/strong> also sent out a form to the people in singing troupe to vote on what songs we\u2019ll be singing at the talent show. Singing Troupe these past few days has mainly consisted of singing songs that people brought up as options for singing at the talent show, so now we\u2019re voting on it. The songs we ended up deciding on were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sat next to Turtle<\/strong> because Turtle<\/strong> is a great guy and he\u2019s rather funny to talk to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, we had the RAMP talk! This time, there was a RAMP person in-person talking to us and one on the zoom screen. The one on Zoom was named Calvin, while the one in-person was named Camden Ko. It was such a great talk!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the slides consisted of meme photos. One of the slides was the question: Pick two out of the following. They will defend you and the rest will kill you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were some excellent responses. (\u201cHey hey hey! This is a very important question, no talking!\u201d – Camden Ko)<\/p>\n\n\n\n That slide was sort of meant to explain that you have to make compromises and stuff as a software engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RAMP itself is a company that sort of makes credit cards for businesses? A lot of past olympiaders (computer and math and even physics) work there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I talked a bit with both Calvin and Camden. It was very interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was such a good talk! I feel like the talks have just been getting better as camp goes on, and I was honestly a bit worried about the next one. After all, knowing me, I would hype it up in my mind as even better<\/em> than this one, yet I didn’t think that was really all that possible. Thus, I was afraid that I would be sorely disappointed. Then, I realized this was<\/em> the last talk. Oh, okay. Good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then we did a COVID test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the RAMP talk, Turtle<\/strong> and I walked out. We decided to be \u201cadventurous\u201d and \u201cexplore,\u201d so rather than taking the tried and true path out of Doherty, we started going up and down the stairs and wandering all over the building. Eventually, we managed to find our way out of Doherty, except once we were out, we were sort of unsure where to go. We set out in some random direction, wandered past some glass buildings that Turtle<\/strong> told me used to hold the blue and black classes (apparently, this is the first time that he knows of that the red, green, blue, and black classes have all been in the same building! I\u2019m so glad about this because, during breaks between the first and second classes, I always like to wander to the other classrooms (particularly blue and black), and that would be sort of impossible if they weren\u2019t<\/em> all in the same building.), until eventually, we realized we were going in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. Somehow, we found Wean Hall, except we managed to drop a few altitude gates and ended up at the bottom of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this, I mean that Wean Hall is sort of partly on a cliff. We usually get into Wean Hall on the fifth floor and go down to the fourth floor for classes, yet somehow, this time, we managed to be on the same level as the first floor. ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around the same time, I also saw some sort of hot air balloon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We continued wandering until we reached a green area, with trees and bushes and grass. I hadn\u2019t even realized that such a nice place existed on the CMU campus, which probably tells me I should explore the actual campus more \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, as we were wandering through this green area, we found EW<\/strong>, EB<\/strong>, and RW<\/strong> playing badminton on a tennis court!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was utterly hilarious because we<\/em> stumbled upon them while we were lost, while they set out purposefully looking for this tennis court and still took forever to find it! Anyway, at this point, I sat down on a lounge chair and started working on my journal (I was still on June 14 and wrote a good chunk) while Turtle<\/strong>, EB<\/strong>, RW<\/strong>, and EW<\/strong> played badminton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, it started raining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, those four continued playing badminton through the rain. I was too lazy to get up and move the lounge chair to the left (and also I\u2019d gotten into a good rhythm with my writing), where it would be protected from the rain by a bridge of some sort above, so instead, I just grabbed someone\u2019s umbrella, turned into a hunchback ball, and typed under that umbrella\u2019s protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m honestly a bit surprised I didn\u2019t catch a cold \ud83d\ude1b RW <\/strong>kept complaining that Turtle<\/strong> was cheating, while Turtle<\/strong> kept insisting that RW<\/strong> just didn\u2019t want to accept her loss. Eventually, they stopped playing badminton while EB<\/strong> and EW<\/strong> just started bouncing the shuttlecock on their racket. I finished a few more sentences in my journal and got up to play badminton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m kind of terrible, so I teamed up with Turtle<\/strong> to play against RW<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RW<\/strong> absolutely trounced us. Turtle <\/strong>kept insisting, \u201cThat\u2019s not out of bounds :(((” when our hits were clearly out of bounds (or vice versa). It was very funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I looked at my watch and realized that I was going to be late for the writing panel (which was at 5 pm)! I signed up to talk about writing, yet now I was going to be late \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I tore out of there and ran <\/em>back to Stever, as the writing panel would take place in the piano room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a lot of fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel was with the TJ gang. Specifically (according to DX<\/strong>‘s blog), it was DX<\/strong>, EX<\/strong>, LZ<\/strong>, VT<\/strong>, VinL<\/strong>, DiaL<\/strong>, and later MK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We basically just spent the time chatting, though half the time the topic wasn\u2019t about writing \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was very fun. The TJ Gang is quite nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, LZ<\/strong> and I started talking about taking selfies with everyone at MOP, since AZ<\/strong> and JC<\/strong> were doing phone numbers and addresses. JC<\/strong> and AZ<\/strong> were sitting nearby playing Catan, so I took a chaos selfie :P.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LZ<\/strong> and I also talked about doing a vlog and being very excited about the idea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, during the writing panel, Turtle<\/strong> went into the kitchen because I think I might\u2019ve mentioned there were a bunch of snacks inside. So then when he went in, I suspected that he was going to steal some of the snacks, so I followed (it was totally altruistic: I clearly didn\u2019t want to steal anything at all.). And then he<\/em> thought I was trying to steal food, so he took the whole box of cheezits and started running, and then I ran after him, and we just ran around and around and around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, we did settle down, though it takes a while. As for the box of fruit snacks that JB<\/strong> brought out in the morning? Why, it was completely gone by the time I got back for the writing panel! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fruit snacks are rather popular and delicious, so each person took a couple rather than just one. And then JC<\/strong> <\/em>came along, saw this box of fruit snacks, and took the entire box! There were still about twenty, apparently, but it\u2019s all in his room now :(.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, a huge crowd of us went to get dinner at Lu Lu\u2019s Noodles. LZ<\/strong> recorded a vlog as we walked! (According to those in the vlog and also photos in the selfies channel) I think the people who went to Lu Lu\u2019s Noodles were RQ<\/strong>, EX<\/strong>, DD<\/strong>, Me, LZ<\/strong>, MK<\/strong>, VT<\/strong>, DX<\/strong>, LR<\/strong>, ESh<\/strong>, CH<\/strong>, AZ<\/strong>, and JC<\/strong>. Part of the way to Lu Lu\u2019s Noodles, AZ<\/strong> decided to give JC<\/strong> a piggyback ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we were walking to Lu Lu\u2019s Noodles, I saw (through the glass) Turtle<\/strong>, EB<\/strong>, RW<\/strong>, and EW<\/strong> walking inside Tepper. They apparently just finished eating at some other asian food place already (I feel so betrayed they didn\u2019t tell me they were going :(( ). I tried to find an entry into Tepper near where they were so I could actually talk to them rather than just wave eagerly, but it was futile: I ran around and couldn\u2019t find any entrance, and then had to run to catch up to the rest of the Lu Lu crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we were at Lulu\u2019s Noodles, I ordered zha jiang mian (\u70b8\u9171\u9762). When they were serving the food, they brought me some sort of dried noodle concoction. I was so confused, like, I was all, \u201cIs this mine?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were like, \u201cYes,\u201d so I shrugged my shoulders and figured maybe they just didn\u2019t know what \u70b8\u9171\u9762 was supposed to look like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I started eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then AZ<\/strong> gets some zha jiang mian and he\u2019s like, \u201cWait, did I order this?\u201d And we ended up realizing, wait, I <\/em>got his thing and he got mine! And it was terrible because I swear, the noodles that he ordered were still raw<\/em> or something, they were all crispy and dry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n So then AZ<\/strong> came over and tried some of what he ordered, decided it was disgusting, and ate my \u70b8\u9171\u9762 instead. Like! Like!!!!!!!! I actually feel cheated here \ud83d\ude41 (my complaints<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong>, meanwhile, got a dish with a lemon slice on the side to be squeezed into the dish. He decided to eat the lemon slice after squeezing the lemon juice. To be fair, lemons are also citruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, as we were leaving, AZ<\/strong> decided to help eat leftovers \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n\n\n\n On our way back, I saw RW<\/strong>, EW<\/strong>, and EB<\/strong> sitting at a table near Tepper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went over to join them. RW<\/strong> was attempting to get EW<\/strong> to sing Chinese songs because she complains that EW<\/strong>‘s Chinese is too bad (she likes to go around asking people showing people two pages in a notebook and asking them which side has better handwriting. One side is RW<\/strong>‘s, which is neat print, and the other side is EW<\/strong>‘s, which is cursive. On EW<\/strong>‘s side, RW<\/strong> wrote (in Chinese) her disapproval of EW<\/strong>‘s handwriting. I claimed that RW<\/strong>‘s side was better because it has no Chinese, which is good because understanding Chinese requires too much auxiliary brainpower).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once I joined her, she asked me what Chinese song I <\/em>would like to sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I decided to sing \u7ae5\u8bdd. She pulled up the lyrics, and EW<\/strong> and I started singing along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Less than thirty seconds in, she stops the music and is like, \u201cStop stop stop!\u201d Apparently, EW<\/strong>‘s<\/em> Chinese is too bad to understand the lyrics and I\u2019m<\/em> too off-tune to sing it well. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n\n\n\n So she started having us practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then somehow, we found out that apparently, I sing better when I\u2019m not<\/em> accompanied by music when compared to when I am <\/em>accompanied by music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, we had to run back to Stever because we were going to be late to singing troupe :P.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We needed sort of leaders for singing troupe who would sing loudly and everyone else would follow them. LR<\/strong> was a leader (he\u2019s very enthusiastic about singing troupe and sings quite loudly: He once said, \u201cSome of you should sing louder: This is singing troupe, not singing LR<\/strong>!\u201d), but we also needed a leader for high notes. VT<\/strong> was picked for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stood next to VT<\/strong> for a while, but my singing was sort of throwing him off because I was so off-tune. I felt sort of worse than useless, so I went to stand next to Turtle<\/strong> and turn pages for him (Something I did before, as well, but I initially thought I probably shouldn\u2019t as we\u2019re actually practicing for the talent show, now. Then I decided, who cares, I\u2019ll just flip his pages during the talent show, as well.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n After singing troupe, we did Po<\/strong>\u2019s story time. The topic was \u201cHow to apply for college (and really for anything),\u201d held in Tepper. We talked a bit about the usefulness of connections, the concept of volunteer hours, and then we mentioned how important it is to be close to your counselor. When we got back to Stever, DiaL<\/strong> told me about how she\u2019s learning Braille! She showed me some notebook papers that she poked holes into, and it\u2019s so so so so cool!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n JC<\/strong> and I discovered that we can sneak onto the fifth floor by taking the side stairs, and as no one ever goes up there, it’s a wonderful place to duck curfew at! We also talked about colleges and TSTSTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, I went up to bed in low spirits, rolling it all through my mind.<\/em> Breakfast at Stever Due to it being Juneteenth, the dining hall was closed for breakfast. Because I\u2019ve started sleeping later and later, I\u2019ve stopped showering Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,78],"tags":[114,105,53,75,103,110],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}New Camp at Resnik<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Assembly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
RAMP Talk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wandering<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Badminton<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWriting Panel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Lu Lu’s Noodles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Singing Before Troupe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Singing At Troupe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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