In the beginning of February, during my winter holiday, I headed off to Hong Kong, about to spend three weeks in the East Asia region not knowing what to expect. I had gotten into a camp called "Asian Spring Program in Rationality", which is a camp that is mostly popular among math people from math and cs competitions and usually takes place in the campus of Oxford. This year however was the first time they organised a camp in Asia. I knew that many interesting people attended this camp and that there would be classes on math stuff like info theory etc. but at the same time the description on the web page was very vague so I was very eager to find out.
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Before finally heading to Taiwan for the camp though, I spent six days in Hong Kong, since I had vacation and the organisers were kind enough to support me with this arrangement. So I jogged along the Kowloon Bay after landing, terribly jetlagged and super impressed by the cleanliness of everything. To this day I am staggered by the combination of the gigantic skyline, the mountains that gently roll into the sea, and the sunny but not hot weather. The fact that I could go hiking on an uninhabited island and then visit the top of the 480m high ICC only one hour later, all by public transport was very intruiging and in fact I can very much image living in a place like Hong Kong at some point. Some awesome meals and touristy activities like the Lantau Buddha, the Peak Tram or a Hop to Macao later, it was time to head to Taiwan.✈️
So here I was in Taiwan, and after leaving the airport together with four other participants I was driven to the place, which was a small resort in the mountains far from the big city Taipei at a small national park road. And what should I say, I didn't get a sim and the wifi was trash so the only thing I could connect with were the other people. The place was so isolated that it had a very big impact on the vibe of the camp. People were all very relaxed and it was easy to have deep and unhinged conversations from the very first day. The Classes, on all kinds of topics from Game Theory to Large Language Models were all voluntary and felt very laid-back as we were outdoors or sitting in bean bags on carpets.
Definitely, what I liked most of the entire camp were the 1-1 conversations, which always felt deliberate and were even assigned at the beginning. Talking face to face for several hours with the some of most interesting people that I've ever met, was inspiring, moving or simply fun. I probably never felt that much at ease to speak about everything that comes to my mind, no matter how silly or concerning. Also I grabbed many instructors for 1-1s and that was an opportunity to conduct introspection and do troubleshooting, which I never had before. It felt very cleaning and eye-opening indeed.
Then there were the activities and oh my, some of them where insanely fun. My highlight definitely was the "Hero's adventure" to a waterfall, during a foggy full moon night, surrounded by the infernal sound of Taiwanese dogs. On our quest to the waterfall, we had to carry people on bamboo sticks, walk blindfolded down a mountain road, solve riddles to pass a bridge and even sacrifice a team mate. I loved it.
Eventually, all things have an end and so it was with the camp too. Since there were only about 25 participants and 50 people at the venue, it was possible to get to know people deeply. Parting was hard and so the last night was spent writing letters for the others to take home. Bittersweet feelings do last and I will certainly attend future reunions. But what also lasts is the desire to be surrounded by incredible people like the ones I met in Taiwan, no matter what I'll do in the future.
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