rembocoder's blog

Why I will not go to Barcelona Bootcamp
By rembocoder, history, 7 years ago, translation, In English

First I'll answer the question. In this season Sberbank payed for places in the hostel for participants. In the summer we notified the organisers that we want to go, but we decided on the team's line-up just recently. It turned out that the payed places are over, though we had a verbal agreement about us coming for the reduced price. I think it's not good to do so. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, but I became offended, so I will tell you about my impression of the first ride which was this winter.

That time our rector payed the fee, it was 1270 euro per person for 10 days. We were settled in a narrow hostel with wind blowing through the window, and it was quite cold then. As a result, everyone in our team got ill, and I had acute bronchitis for half a year. Settling for 10 days in that room costs 213 euro per person. We took breakfast in the hostel, for lunch they gave us the same burger every day, without any sauce and with raw meat, and a can of cola. There was no dinner. Suppose, that burger costed 3 euro, cola – 1 euro, for 10 days we get 40 euro. The remaining 1017 euro should have went for renting a room for contests, for lecturers' payment and for entertainment. Suppose, every lecturer got 1000 euro, there were no more than 10 of them, there were also about 100 participants, then everyone payed no more than 100 euro. We took part in the contests in a narrow place, which is not intented for this purposes. We brought our own laptops. According to their site, renting this place for 10 days costs about 30 euro per person. The enternainment was an excurcion to Sagrada Familia, which costs no more than 24 euro.

There is 863 euro (> 2/3 of the fee) left, and I know where they went. Not to mention the fact that this event had several large sponsors. I did not pay money, so I'm not complaining, but I want to bring this information to those who still invest in this. Think about whom you give your money to.

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7 years ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been translated by rembocoder (original revision, translated revision, compare)

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
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    Did the hostel have free mineral water and how many people shared a room???

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
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      There were four people in my room. I don't remember any free water there.

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        7 years ago, # ^ |
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        Too bad :'( , I drink a lot of water and it's not free. So what about the quality of the program??? If the program was excellent, then I think it is still a good trade-off.

        Besides, I think that each lecturer may earn much more than 1000 EUR since they are all big names anyway. 1000 EUR for 10 days may be far worse than their normal salary, let alone the cost of flight, accommodation...

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          7 years ago, # ^ |
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          I said in another comment that the lecturers that were in Barcelona had only a couple of lectures and that's all. The program was just ordinary, if you compare it to MIPT workshops, it's about the same, but shorter.

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            7 years ago, # ^ |
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            it seems like bad news -_- -_-

            And about the food, even if you have described above but can I confirm it one more time: Did they seriously give the same kind of 'raw meat' burger "every day", even without sauce and vegetables? (I would not complain if it is a big tasty bacon cheese double burger but from your description, I feel bad about it) And during the contest every day, was there any pizza or snacks??? I've never participated in a 5-hour contest without them before :V , even if I don't have much time for eating, it is one of the things that makes a contest fun. And finally how was the breakfast at the hostel? Is it the same???

            Sorry for asking too much. I have always got an interest in food :p.

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              7 years ago, # ^ |
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              Burger was with some vegetables =) But yes, I don't know why they made it raw every time. It was not marble beef to make it raw, it was just regular forcemeat.

              There were some cookies/sweets and tea/coffee during the contest.

              Breakfast was OK, but without diversity. There were bread with butter and ham, cereals with milk, some drinks and maybe something else I don't remember. But I don't know whether they will settle in the same hostel this year.

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                7 years ago, # ^ |
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                I finally get your message from what you mean by the "raw meat" burger.

                They did improve the lunch quality this year by letting us eat in a nearby eatery with very okay food, but on the tour day, that shop is closed and they served their own food. I accidentally grabbed a bacon bread, which is pretty much like your description, "raw meat" and "no sauce". The bacon is deadly cold and very "touch and durable" to bite. Even if someone told me it is a corpse meat, I would also agree. The salat is not better, "absolutely no" flavor. Even the raw vegetables should have some flavor on their own, but I have no idea how they became like that after they are cooked. In the whole lunch, the only worthy dish is the apple. The other days I just eat cheese bread which is much nicer since cheese has no problem with being deadly cold (I am really curious when did they prepare the food? one month ago???).

                It is nice that I only have to eat that kind of bread in that one day. If the burger you mentioned was similar, I admire that you can suffer for 10 days. That's yellow coder for you.

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          7 years ago, # ^ |
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          Something to compare with: the average monthly wage in Slovakia is slightly below 1000 EUR.

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            7 years ago, # ^ |
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            Don't compare average salary to salary of programmers, no point in that.

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              7 years ago, # ^ |
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              The average monthly wage of a programmer in Slovakia is (depending on what kind of programming) 800-2000 EUR, with an average of that around 1300 EUR.

              Average wage is not the same as minimum wage, well-paid but management level best-paid jobs are pretty close to it.

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7 years ago, # |
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Did other participants also had similar experiences?

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7 years ago, # |
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I really don't get why you have to get accommodation&food from the bootcamp organisers. They should offer a base price for participation (lectures, snacks) and let everyone decide if they want to handle the rest themselves.

Then again, we Slovaks are the best at stealing EU gibs.

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
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    Guess that's how it is in Russian camps. Is Barcelona in Russia though? Not exactly.

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
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      You just did "Hmm, X=>Y, but X is false, hence Y is also false!"

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        7 years ago, # ^ |
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        In Soviet Russia that's correct

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
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      If Russia says Barcelona is in Russia, then it is in Russia!

      (In America you have right to bear arms. In Russia you have right to whole bear!)

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7 years ago, # |
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Welp, I hope it will be better this year. I don't want to disappoint my teammates who are new to programming competitions. Maybe I'll write a blog after the camp.

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7 years ago, # |
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Why are you so pistoff for not going then ?

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    7 years ago, # ^ |
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    Going to Barcelona for free this time of the year can not be bad. I am not the one who pays.

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7 years ago, # |
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The 863 is the price of non-logistics one such as memorable experience, meeting new friends, competitive atmosphere, enjoyable discussions and sharing, finding your true love (?), etc.

... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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