IPhO

So the last blog post I made was just after the Oxford camp for team selection. I didn't get onto the team, but I did make reserve. This meant I did all the training that everyone in the team did, with problem sets being sent to us occasionally and two main training camps in May and July at Oxford and Trinity College Cambridge, respectively.

Now, I don't really have the time to write much about either of those camps now (suffice to say they were great fun, it was really nice to be able to hang out with the team for a week at Trinity as well as some ex-team members from years past who were really fun). We did lots of problems, did several practicals and in general were worked like Trojans. But it's alright, because its physics and we all live for it.

That's not the subject of this post. The subject of this post is that I'm reserve, and that due to one team member's circumstances, I've had to take his place. So I'll be on the UK IPhO team next week in Switzerland! Now, you can't have your phone/laptop on you until after the last exam, so I won't be able make any posts while I'm there but once I get my phone back (I won't be brining a laptop I don't think) I'll try and take lots of pictures to go on this blog.

Whilst I am naturally a bit nervous - after all, I didn't think I would be going so I maybe skimped a little on some preparation, I'm also really excited to be taking part in an international competition. I really couldn't ask for a more cathartic end to my school career in physics before going to university.