Olympiad Camp, An Unforgettable Experience

Hello, today I'm going to tell you about an experience I will never forget. Even, if I was offered to go back to these time, I would accept the offer happily.

A drawing made by one of my friends
in the olympiad camp.

When I was a junior high school student, my school sent me and some other friend to olympiad trainings. I write it with s, as we were sent there not only once. I joined the training 5 times, each of them was about 2-3 weeks long. The events, usually called as "Olympiad Camp", took place in SD-SMP-SMA Kharisma Bangsa Bilingual Boarding School Tangerang Selatan.

Yes, they were not in Bandung so that means I should stay in the school's dormitory.

What did I do there? I think by hearing its name, you can tell what I did. I was trained to be a good olympiad contestant; to be a winner so that I could make my school proud. The learning process was quite interesting yet frustrating; the schedule was very tight I should be studying the same subject since 07.30-21.30! It was divided into 5 sessions; the last session, 19.00-21.30, is for self-studying. In the fourth session, I usually got tests. On the last day of camp, the scores of all camp participant were ranked.

The process was interesting, but it isn't the main reason of why I love and miss the camps.

I was a Biology olympiad student. My teacher in the 1st-3rd camp was Mr. Didin Sopandi, he is very funny. Sometimes, when the camp participants were very tired, he told us jokes so that we laughed and got spirited again. On my 4th-5th camp, my teacher was Kak Roswitha Muntiyarso. She is very smart and sometimes she told jokes too. She was the bronze medalist of International Biology Olympiad 2007.

My friends there were very cheerful too, and they were the ones who made me struggle to get through my first camp. I was stressed out that time, as the materials taught were really hard. It was a heavy pressure for me.

What makes my friends there be special is that they come from all parts of Indonesia; some of them are from Yogyakarta, Depok, Sragen, Tangerang Selatan, Semarang, while the rest even come from Aceh, Padang and Kalimantan. But it also means that I'm not able to meet them often. I don't even know when I can meet them again.

The camps taught me many things, not only subjects, but also life lessons; first, I need to struggle for success. Second, when I don't believe in myself anymore, I still have Allah. With Him, I can survive anything. And the last thing is, friendship doesn't count miles. Even though all my friends are now far away from me, I know they are going to be on my side if I need them.

Every day, I thank Allah for giving me chance to join these events. They had changed my life so drastically.

These are the participants of my last camp. There were only two 9th graders; one of them was me.
The rests were all  in 10th and 11th grade. But still they were very friendly to me :)

p.y.

I have a friend, her name is Annisa Pertama Yudiani. Guess what her nickname is; it's PY (pronunciation: Peye). It's unique, isn't it? Well, "what a unique name" was my first impression about her.

We met for the first time in a school program that took place in Pesantren Babussalam. That time, our school's students were divided to sleep in some rooms and we got the same room. We, then, got together again in Rindam, also a school program. It was not long after it when I knew my father and hers know each other! My father had been asking me about her since my first day of school (by telling me her background), but I didn't know that who he meant is her. What a small world.

Now let me tell you about her. She's the first child of Yudi and Ani, that's why her last name is Yudiani. Was born in Jakarta, 12th of April, 1999, she's got two siblings; in order, a boy and a girl. I've never met her brother, if I'm not mistaken, Peye once said he's currently studying in a pesantren. Her sister is really cute; she often texts Peye by using their father's phone as she has just learned to read and write. The family lives in Arcamanik.

Peye studied in TKIT Luqmanul Hakim Bandung, and then continued her study in the school's SDIT. She spent her pre-teenage years in SMPIT Al-Kahfi Islamic Boarding School Bogor; that means she was quite far from her family. From that I know she's really independent.

Peye loves reading, watching movies, playing, travelling, listening to music, writing stories and... eating. I was really confused when I knew this, as Peye is really skinny (her weight is 37 kg!). It turns out that what she loves to eat is fried rice and Indomie...

Her favourite colours are black, white, red and bright colours. Her only idol in music industry is Avril Lavigne. By 'idol', I mean Peye knows anything about her.

She has really different passion in subjects compared to me. She loves Math and Physics (I love these too), but she hates Biology and Social Studies. "There's too many things I should memorize," she said.

Though we have different interest, inshaallah we will continue studying in the same college. She'd like to be a part of FMIPA ITB, Astronomy faculty, while I really want to study in Chemical/Eletrical Engineering. Wish us luck!