Day 1 Arrival Day

Aug 15

There were a few delays on the flight from Washington DC to Paris, but it turned out OK since the plane from Paris to Cairo was delayed too. We all made it to Mubarak City of Education at 11 pm our time ( 4 pm East Coast Time). The trip from the airport took about an hour through heavy traffic after 10 pm at night. Things get started here after 8 pm and go on long into the night.

First impressions of the venue.

Mubarak City is 50 kilometers from Cairo and completely isolated. If you take a look at it from the sky with Google Earth you will see we are surrounded by desert.

There a loads of guides and helpers at this IOI. They have been here for two weeks getting things ready. There are two guides for each country which translates into 160 guides. The contestants are separated from the leaders and guests. Rob and I share a room which has four single beds. Our first big surprise – each bed has only one sheet. Apparently they sleep directly in contact with the blanket. Our solution, take the sheets off the two beds we were not using and use them for the top sheet.

I went to bed at 1 am and slept soundly through the night. If Rob snored, which is known to happen, it didn’t bother me. Rob and I both took Melatonin to reset our internal clocks. It appears to have worked – stay tuned.

Aug 16

Up this morning and ready for breakfast. Surprise number 2. As you will see in the pictures, breakfast is very heavy on the bakery goods. Add olives and a hard boiled egg and that’s breakfast. You can get cornflakes too. The coffee is instant Nescafe. Juice is in a box. Meals are served at 7am, 2 pm and 8 pm. There is a place where you can get sodas, water, and snacks any time of day – all free.

At the airport, Brian and Delphine were met by the father of a graduate student at Clemson who comes from Cairo. He presented them with a box of home made baklava, two cell phones, and an invitation to spend today with him guided around Cairo. So you can guess where they are today.

The rest of us can surf the Internet, play games at the sports center, or see a movie at the I-Max, or just hang out and do nothing. (Or work on photos and the blog.) I didn't see the team until lunch – they skipped breakfast. The weather outside is 95 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and feels good. Of course inside it is all air conditioned. In our rooms, you need a blanket to keep warm at night.

I walked around Mubarak City today to get a look of the campus. Here are some pictures – best viewed as a slide show.

PICTURES