EGMO 2025 Travel Story
Mirë se vini në Kosovë!
This was the warm welcome message our team received as we landed at the airport in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. Attending the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) for the 8th time since 2018, we were thrilled to continue our tradition of wearing the iconic Canadian headbands (which, by the way, are sadly no longer for sale!) while showcasing the incredible talents of our math girls.
Team Canada for 2025 consisted of:
- Sophie Zhang
- Honajr Xing
- Shanna Xiao
- Emma Tang
- Deputy Leader: Courtney Allen
- Leader: Kate Tretiakova
In this story, the girls aim to share their journey with anyone interested, including future EGMO attendees. While not everyone may have the chance to join the team, we hope our experiences allow you to feel a bit of the EGMO magic and, with respect to this year, a sprinkle of Kosovo.
More importantly, we hope future STEM girls see one of the core objectives of EGMO – that math can be fun and deeply rewarding!
Remark: The story itself will also include some insights into the life of a leader written in italics, as this year’s participants were curious about what we do, and future attendees might find it fun too!
[Courtney]
After the team was selected, our first time all together was at the March training camp. The camp was held at McMaster University in Hamilton, and we got to enjoy nice weather and eat at several different local restaurants. It was great to be able to meet the girls in person (last year’s training camp was online), and to spend time breaking the ice before flying to Europe together. I’d met Honjar, Emma, and Shanna before, but didn’t really know any of the girls very well, so it was nice to have the time to get to know each other.
The camp lasted four days, Friday to Monday, and the girls had lectures and problem solving time in the morning and afternoon. The lectures were given by McMaster students with the help of math competition alums who volunteered their time to pick the lecture topics, make practice sheets, and help the McMaster students understand the subtleties of competition math. Afterall, the goal of the camp isn’t just to get to know one another, it’s also to help the girls improve their math skills in anticipation of writing the exam at EGMO.
To unwind after the rigors of the classroom, the evenings consisted of fun, less structured activities, like visiting a board game cafe and unboxing our team uniforms. It was fun to try on the uniforms and see the girls’ reactions to them. Their board game abilities far exceed my own, so I was beaten handily in both Clue and a picture matching game I forget the name of.
Finally, on Monday morning, the girls were given a mock exam to test everything they’d been working on throughout the weekend. It was three hours, so it was a bit shorter than one day of the competition, but I hope they still found it challenging! I had to leave midway through the exam to catch a plane, so I missed the final fun activity: bowling. That’s probably for the best, because my bowling skills peaked at age 8, and I’m not sure my ego could take it…
While overseeing the camp, major organizational work was done by the EGMO 2024 Deputy, Kat Dou! We hope to see Kat again in the future as a trainer or even as an EGMO Leader.
[Shanna]
After procrastinating forever and finally speed packing the night before, Thursday afternoon I arrived at the Toronto airport with my other teammates as well as our leader. Air Canada only checked me in partially online, so I had to stand in line for 45 minutes to get my boarding pass and check in my luggage. Kate handed out bags of Canadian flag pins to all of us to give to other countries at EGMO!
Our first flight was to Montreal, which is only a bit over an hour flight, but our layover at the Montreal airport was only 1hr 20 mins as well, which was slightly concerning as our flight kept getting delayed. While waiting, Kate gave us all a pep talk about the competition.
We finally got onto the plane where we found out the plane was half empty. After a half an hour delay which included the plane needing to get sprayed down because it was freezing, we took off from Toronto! It was pretty close to dinner time, and we were all hungry, so I ate the chocolate and breadstick snacks that Air Canada handed out.
Upon arrival at Montreal, we immediately started speed walking to the gate for our next flight. After walking all the way from one end of the domestic flights to where the international flights are, we make it to the gate with 25 minutes left (supposedly) before take off for our flight to Vienna. We met up with our deputy who had landed in Montreal 6 hours before from New Brunswick. Courtney also bought us all snacks in advance (thank you so much Courtney!!)
For the flight from Montreal to Vienna, I was seated 14 rows away from everyone else, and our flight was delayed by almost half an hour again. During the 8-hour flight, I watched one of the Despicable Me movies, slept for 3 hours, and failed to sleep for the remaining time. In Vienna, we walked to the next gate for the flight to Pristina, and we still had quite a bit of time left, so we went to get food and drinks. At the gate we also met the teams from Czech Republic, Hungary, Denmark, Ukraine, and the deputy leader of Germany who were on the same flight as us.
Kate immediately went to socialize while the rest of us were being antisocial. Instead, we spent a long time looking at the EGMO website before we figured out which teams were around us at the gate.
We arrived in Pristina airport at 11AM. The chief guide and deputy chief guides greeted us, before we all boarded a bus to send us to our hotels. The bus made stops at all the hotels, dropping off leaders, coordinators, and teams into a bunch of different hotels. We were greeted by our guide at the hotel and received our merch and lanyards.
Not wanting to nap due to the need to fix my jet lag, I went downstairs into the lobby along with Emma. We joined the American team in playing a game called “Connect With The Guides”. It’s a word game, and we played it for a bit. Sophie came downstairs to join us, and our guide, along with the USA guide, took the 3 of us out into the city. We toured some shops and stopped at a cafe where I tried kiwi ice cream for the first time (it’s good!).
There was some time before dinner which I spent trying (and failing) not to fall asleep. At dinner we finally got to meet a lot of the other countries and we ate with the Americans. Finally, I fell asleep in preparation of the first day of official EGMO activities the next day.
[Courtney]
This was probably the most stressful part of the trip for me. Since the girls’ flight to Montreal was delayed, it was unclear if they would make the flight to Vienna. I just had to wait and hope for the best (and buy plenty of snacks). Luckily, everything worked out!
I personally enjoyed meeting the girls before the competition! It is always nice to hear their life updates and complaints about missing school, while also noticing their slight nervousness as we got to the competition. We were also up for quite a long journey, including at least 2 flights, so it is important to set the right mood. (What ways do you know to get teenagers off their phones? Email me! And if you have advice about a good pep talk – always welcome!)
[Honjar]
The first official day of events kicked off with the Opening Ceremony. Though it was quite early in the morning and we were all still slightly jetlagged from our previous day’s travels, our sleepiness was quickly overcome by excitement for meeting all the other teams. We showed off our Canadian flag headbands, exchanged gifts with other countries, and took many team photos. During the ceremony, we enjoyed musical performances and speeches, and cheered loudly for Canada when it was time to present the teams.
Later in the afternoon, we got to explore the city of Prishtina! We toured famous statues and sites while learning about the city’s history, got ice cream at a local shop, and even went atop a tower to enjoy a stunning bird’s eye view of the city.
[Courtney]
Our guide, Urta, was very well-versed in the history of Prishtina. She told us a lot about the impact of the most recent war, in 1999, as well as Kosovo’s history of Ottoman rule. It was also Urta’s birthday, so the girls got her some small presents, and we (along with everyone nearby) sang her happy birthday after the opening ceremony.
This year was different as the opening ceremony was in the morning. It was my chance to see the girls since the leaders lived about 40 minutes away. But this also resulted in quite an interesting schedule for the leaders, as after the ceremony we had to jump right into work (after lunch, phew!): approving the problems, getting the English version ready, and then finally translating. In this situation, being a leader who knows multiple languages is tricky, but luckily for me, all of the other teams preparing the translations seemed to be doing awesome without me! Unfortunately, there was a slight mistake in one of the problems, which was only discovered after midnight, and as a result, leaders had to be woken up to update their translations before the day of the contest.
[Emma]
On the first day of the contest, we were up and ready to go at the early hour of 7AM. We took a shuttle bus to get to the exam venue, travelling through the busy streets of Prishtina city. Soon, 219 participants from 56 countries worldwide were gathered outside the exam building, filling the space with nervous chatter about the competition.
The competition paper consisted of 3 problems, to be solved in 4.5 hours. The first problem was a number theory construction problem, which required us to find all integers that satisfied a particular condition. This problem was interesting because we all had different approaches and found different ways to prove the central claim. Personally, this problem took a very long time: I was only able to solve it after a washroom break. The second question made us prove something about special sequences which were defined as “central.” I liked the problem because it had a clean and elegant solution. The third problem was a geometry problem involving interesting side ratios. I did not get much time to tackle this problem, but some of our team proved key observations that led to partial marks.
The second day of the contest was administered more smoothly than the first, as the organizers took the feedback that leaders relayed from the contestants and made changes accordingly. The first problem was a geometry problem that involved angle chasing and similar triangles. We all solved this problem and received full marks for our solutions. The second problem was perhaps the most talked-about problem that emerged from this test. It was a combinatorics problem that involved Turbo the Snail, a character who also appeared on P4 of EGMO 2023 and P5 of IMO 2024, and who has garnered considerable fame within the math olympiad community throughout these past couple of years. We were all able to make partial progress on this problem, but none of us had a complete solution that acquired full marks. The last problem was very difficult to approach, and consequently none of us were awarded any points.
After the competition, we discussed our solution ideas while enjoying some mocktails and snacks. We also went to a Jane Street event, where we played games and attempted to solve some brainteaser puzzles. One particular game that we played was similar to charades, but the guesser had to guess the word based on word clues hinted by the other players. There was also a unique twist: if two or more players wrote the same word as their hint, they were not allowed to show the guesser their word hint. It was a lovely experience to meet and connect with girls from other countries during this event.
Both contest days are quite similar for the leaders. In the morning, we have a Q&A for the contest, then we get to talk about the problems’ solutions and grading criteria, then there is a break, and then grading. Now, there is rarely a break on the second day, but that depends on how many papers you were able to grade the night before. That heavily depends on when we get the papers back from scanning, and obviously, this gets pushed later and later as EGMO gets more and more popular. But this year we got papers before 10:30 p.m. which is considered a slight success!
While there was quite a delay on the first day (which leaders were also not happy about, but everyone was a bit too sleepy to complain in formats other than memes), the second day seemed to go much better with both contest and Q&A organisation altogether. This was a very good reminder about the necessity of various communication channels between the leader, deputy leader, and the girls. At the end of the day, we will not know things if no one tells us!
[Sophie]
Now that the contest was over, it was time to relax and explore Kosovo! My teammates stayed at the hotel, so I joined our guide, Urta, and the Japanese team for the excursion to Prizren.
After an hour-long bus ride, we arrived in Prizren, a nearby city. It was lovely to see so much pretty scenery along the streets and river. We wandered through souvenir stores and I bought some gifts, while also exchanging gifts and chatting with other teams. Everyone then gathered together to hike to the top of a fortress. The climb was tiring but the beautiful view of the city at the top of the hill definitely made up for it. I took some photos of our amazing mascot, Canmoo, and explored the castle with Urta and the Japanese team. For lunch, Urta took us to a local restaurant for a yummy traditional meal called burek. Afterwards, we headed to a park and rejoined the other teams, where people were chatting and relaxing and a group of girls were dancing. We then boarded the bus and headed back to Pristina.
While on the bus, I heard some lovely karaoke, and our scores started coming out. Team Canada’s scores for problems 2 and 5 were missing, so I spent the rest of the evening nervously refreshing the scoreboard. I reunited with my teammates at dinner in the hotel, where we learned that coordination would end at 2am due to the long grading process for problem 5. After some discussion and eating, we all headed to bed.
The coordination day! The day when all leaders put their brains together and hope that no swords will be needed. Since we managed to get some sleep this year (as opposed to EGMO 2024!), both Courtney and I felt alive and ready to get to work. I had to quickly handle a personal matter the night before, and so I had a few papers left whose score I wasn’t particularly settled on yet. That usually happens when a girl provides a solution that does not follow the usual scheme, and then it becomes quite a gamble on what you and the coordinators will agree on. This gets harder if the solution is not complete – in those cases, it is our job to finish the solution (if it is possible) and then argue for how much each piece is worth.
For those who have never heard of coordination: it is the time when leaders and coordinators get together and try to agree on scores for each of the participants. From my experience, coordinators are professional and trustworthy people, who are extremely reasonable but also might make mistakes (imagine grading hundreds of papers in various languages over the course of 2 days; I honestly think those people deserve a separate applause!). On the bright side, since our papers are usually written in English, we rarely have some extreme cases of long coordination or heavy misunderstandings. However, that also means that we can only gain so much room for “misunderstanding”. Since there is no translation involved, it is hard to fight for points based on misunderstanding. But it happens (and we did gain a few points that way this year!)
Our schedule was not bad; we were happy to see a lot of morning coordinations of problems we were confident about. Still, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a discussion – and one of the P2 submissions ended up being a solution that had to be assessed with a separate grading scheme. Luckily for us, we were not the only team with that solution, and, because of the schedule, by the time we came out of the room with the goal of “fixing the gap”, the other team had already fixed it (thank you to the awesome team from India!). We decided to go through the Appeal Committee, which ended up lasting until maybe 9 p.m., and since I refused to sign off the marks until the Appeal decision, our team waited for those for quite a bit. Sorry, girls!!!
Later on during the final jury meeting, everyone more or less agreed that the P5 grading scheme should not have been accepted. But it was, and we had to stick with what we got. As Sophie said, that coordination lasted until probably 2-3 am – by then, we had gone to bed, so I cannot confirm or deny the final timings. But let’s say that around midnight, quite a few people were still there. Unfortunately for us, the team did not solve the problem to the point that we would consider full solutions, so in our case it was more of a fight for partial progress of any sort. But that didn’t stop us from getting sent back (like ALL of the other teams) to look for a very specific point in the grading scheme. This also became quite an interesting time for me as, after the first coordination, I started losing my voice. As a result, for the rest of the trip I only had some minimal ability to speak , which made all interactions with others… interesting!
P5 would have been an awesome example of the importance of mathematical communication, if it wasn’t so ridiculous. Long story short, the problem is easily reduced to a board with side length 2n. Hence, if you send a snail to ‘properly’ (without intersections, etc.) walk the whole board, the route is equally splitable into equivalence classes mod 4. Now, one could say that this requires an extra step stating that the length of the ‘proper’ route (in the problem it also needed to be a cycle) is equal to the area of the board, which is 2n*2n=4n^2, which is divisible by 4. And unfortunately, I agree with this – I agree to “some sort of justification required”, but the coordinators needed a very explicit line of argument here. (For people who are curious why I am agreeing with it, let me try to quickly recreate the reasoning given by our coordinations. If you consider a table 2*3 and send a snail on a cycle, then the cycle has an even length, but is not equally splitable into equivalence classes mod 4. That’s why both sides of the table being even is important). This is why the coordination lasted past midnight!
After this, the jury was given a choice to either have the jury meeting start at 3 am and then proceed by schedule, or to go to bed and have the final meeting during the “planned excursion” to Prizren. You can only guess which option we picked!
[Honjar]
Our second excursion was a trip to the Prishtina Mall – apparently, it’s the second biggest mall in Europe! We arrived an hour before the mall opened, so we hung around the entrance for a while and started a game of Mafia that somehow expanded to around 20 people from various teams.
Soon after, we made our way into the mall, with the US team joining us because their guide needed to take care of some tasks. We first visited the food court and our attention quickly got captured by a rolled ice cream shop – something we’ve only seen on Instagram videos before. We each ordered some ice cream and took videos of them being made. After we finished enjoying our treats, we went upstairs to the arcade, where there were a range of options like escape rooms, go-karts, and claw machines. We settled on bowling, challenged the US team to some friendly competition, then proceeded to get destroyed by a large margin. Finally, all the teams returned to the food court to have lunch and travel back to our hotels.
After taking some time to rest and change into our team uniforms, it was time for the closing ceremony! The ceremony went pretty smoothly, with a few speeches from the organizers before handing out the medals. After getting all our medals, we took many photos with the other teams – one somehow ended up turning into a 5-team group photo with Canada, US, China, Australia, and New Zealand! We also played around with swapping flags, gifts, and mascots. Finally, we ended the night with a dance party, where we made a humongous conga line and learned a Belgian Waltz involving pairing up and dancing around a circle.
I’m not going to recap the meeting as it was mostly administrative, discussing various points of EGMO Regulations, this year’s organization, the cutoffs for the medals, the next EGMO location, and more. I personally do not really understand the point of cancelling the excursion for our deputies since they do not have to come to the meeting. Closer to lunch, the girls (finally!) learned what the medal cutoffs were, and then we had some time to nap before getting pretty for the closing ceremony and the party afterwards.
The ceremony was very to the point – I loved that! It did get a bit funny since there were more girls going on the stage for the higher value medals, but that also meant that there was less space for everyone to fit on the stage. Hence, a lot of pictures are quite cramped… or maybe we should start carrying small flags (like the one Courtney brought this time but then it disappeared during the opening ceremony…) The party seemed fun for the girls, but note to future me – I have to teach the team some dance moves!
[Sophie]
Since our flight was to leave the morning after departure day, our team had an extra day to spend in Pristina. We woke up quite late (after staying up until 3am playing cards with other teams the night before) and packed our bags before heading out. We spent the day exploring more of the city, with Urta sharing interesting bits of history along the way. We visited landmarks including the Newborn Monument and the Statue of Bill Clinton. We also stopped by a souvenir shop and ate lunch at a Shawarma fast-food restaurant. Feeling pretty sleepy, we returned to the hotel in the afternoon to rest. For dinner, we ordered pizza and relaxed in the hotel. A few of us were able to get some sleep before being awoken at 1am to board the bus to the airport, marking the end of our time in Pristina. Though we were definitely tired, it was awesome to have had one more day to explore and enjoy the city, and to reflect on all the fun experiences and memories we’d gathered over the past week.
This year, one of the girls, Honjar, left with a different team the night before, which for us means one less head to keep track of (but it doesn’t mean that we didn’t stumble over “missing one of them” multiple times over those 24 hours). After waking up, the rest of the team showed me some highlights of Pristina’s city centre – finally some sightseeing for me! But most of the team seemed tired and some of the team members felt quite sick, so while they went back to the hotel, I managed to see some of the city on my own. I got to try a few of the local foods recommended by Team Kosovo, e.g., burek (delicious!), and see the city lights in the evening. After a few hours, I knew how to find my way around in the area, including knowing the locations of the post offices since my best friend and I have a tradition of sending postcards when we travel. The best part was communicating with the post office workers since I didn’t speak a word of Albanian and they didn’t speak English – this is a moment of appreciation to all of the charade games I have ever played – very useful!
After getting back, Emma and I went downstairs to be on our laptops while the rest of the team was resting. By the time we were departing (past 1 a.m.) I was, personally, a bit out of it due to the lack of sleep and general tiredness. Hence, a huge thank you to Courtney for being more awake during this travel chaos.
[Courtney]
The flight back was fairly uneventful. We flew from Prishtina to Vienna, and then Vienna to Toronto. Our first flight departed Prishtina at 5:00am, which meant that we all spent the three-hour layover in Vienna sleeping on the airport chairs. I was surprisingly invigorated by this chair-sleep, and was subsequently the most awake on our flight back to Toronto, allowing me to watch four movies on the in-flight entertainment system while the rest of the team tried to get some plane-sleep (which is, unfortunately, several orders of magnitude worse than chair-sleep).
In the end, all of the girls returned to their parents in one piece as promised, and with this, we entered the whole “past the competition” stage of sharing pictures, writing online posts, and actually getting back to our normal lives. This also concludes our travel story!
