This Friday - Online debate from Pittsburgh

Updated blogs of our time in Colgate will follow soon, but some advanced warning for our keen followers:

This Friday, we are pariticpating in a public debate at the University of Pittsburgh as part of a conference on rhetoric they are running, and we'll be speaking in opposition to the motion "This House Believes amnesty is a necessary tool to address gross human rights violations in deeply divided socieities". It will also be streamed online, and you can even discuss and ask questions online. It starts at 12.40pm EDT (which I think is 5.40pm UK time) and you can find it here: http://xrl.us/amnestydebate

Day eleven - Colgate

After over a week in beautiful Ithaca, we finally, and sadly, said goodbye today for our next stop on the tour. We are staying in New York state for a few more days, and our journey involved a two hour drive to Hamilton for our stay at Colgate University. Despite the weather having turned (we were bizarrely lucky last week in Ithaca, with lots of sun, and temperatures reaching 30 degrees on Friday), the drive was pretty beautiful with the famous colour of New York states fall showing through. We had lunch with Scott who had kindly driven us from Ithaca, and after checking into our hotel, we were picked up by John, our Colgate host and taken for a quick look around the Campus. Colgate was was recently listed as the most beautiful campus in the country, and it certainly was impressive, particular against the backdrop of New York state in the fall.

After another excellent meal we joined the Colgate debate team for their weekly meeting, where we participated in a practice debate on funding abortions. The day ended well, with the wonderful hospitality of Colgate being continued by students of the debate society, who took us to a pub in Hamilton. We also saw deer on our walk back to the hotel!

On an aside, today was also an exciting day as it was the day our blog reached 1000 hits! Thank you to all our loyal followers!

(photo: Colgate campus)

Day Ten - Ithaca College debate

We continued our theme for the weekend of (watching) sport by attending Scott’s (the coach of the Ithaca College Forensics Team) son’s football (soccer) game. Football at the younger level is organised by the local government and is a great way of getting kids involved in sport at an early age. Afterwards we went to a great Mexican restaurant with Scott’s family and began to psyche ourselves up for the debate in the evening.

Britain v Ithaca College: Thbt Tony Blair is a war criminal

This was a fun debate to take part which was mainly due to the cross examination element imported from policy debating which really enhanced the quality of debate. The affirmative, Ithaca College outlined why they believed That Blair was guilty of the crime of aggression was the war was not an authorised conflict. Furthermore they argued that Blair knew that war crimes would be committed during the course of the war so he bore responsibility for what happened during the war. We ran that earlier resolutions along with 1441 provided the war with some legality but in general the spirit of the laws of war crimes had not been broken and that there was no malign intent on behalf of Blair. There was a good, diverse crowd in the audience and some of the ponts made during the floor debate were really good. There was no announced winner as this was mainly a show debate to attract new members but it was a thoroughly enjoyable debate and we were lucky enough to be treated one of my favourite deserts – a banana split. (Lizzie Bauer, Jo Box, Alex Just, Samir Deger Sen and Lewis Turner will get the reference)

The realisation soon hit us that we would be leaving the students here at Ithaca College. They hosts here were incredible we felt sad that we would have to leave in the morning.

Day nine – Americans and their sports

We've learnt a lot in our first week in the States – the excesses of American food, intricacies of American debaters, the US prison and university system – and today we learn about American sports. This weekend is 'homecoming' at Cornell, where alumni return to the University, and so the the football match (by which they really mean American football..) is a really big one. We were intrigued by the pre-homecoming match build up whilst staying at Cornell, (with dramatic radio adverts and posters everywhere), so we were very excited when our Ithaca College host Scott said he had tickets for us for the game. It was Yale vs. Cornell, and we went along with Scott's family and some other Ithaca College students.

Coming from a University where we don't even have any real sports facilities, and where inter-University sport really isn't a big spectator thing, this was quite a different and exciting event. The Schoellkopf Stadium in Cornell where the game was held holds over 25,000 spectators, and there were about 20,000 people watching the match today. With lots of free red t-shirts and memorabilia available (the Cornell sports teams are called the 'Big Red'), paid for as 'gifts' to the crowd from alumni, it was quite a spectacle. The whole thing really was much more than just a sports match. As it was the first home game of the season all the Freshman (first year students) were on the pitch at the start as the players came on to an enormous applause. There was also a cheer leading group throughout the match chanting (who's only weakness was that they were prone to dropping each other during particularly tricky moves, but this only added to the entertainment factor..) at the crowd, and the mascot - the Big Red bear - hanging around the place. There was also an enormous marching band who played the national anthem at the start, and then various inspirational pieces throughout the match and during half-time. We embraced the Football experience with hot dogs, and had an amazing time! Sadly, Yale won 21-7 (there was a fair bit of anger from the crowd over a few ref decisions..). I didn't really understand the rules – it stops and starts every few seconds, and there are inexplicably about a thousand players on each team (or perhaps more like 50, but still, a lot) such that there is a crowd on each side. I was able to recognise some exciting play at some times, and Lewis grasped it much better and is now an avid fan.

The American-ness of our day continued, when we went back to Scott's house with some of the Ithaca students and his family for hamburgers cooked on his grill. We then swiftly headed to our next, slightly more bizarre sporting event of the day – 'Roller Derby'. This consists of women on skates, essentially fighting each other whilst skating round a small oval track. It has quite feminist vibes, with the Ithaca team named the 'Suffer Jets', and all the players taking on feisty and aggressive nicknames. Intriguingly, they mostly wear underwear-esque outfits... There is one player on each side called a 'jammer', who has to pass through the pack of the rest of the players and lap them to gain points. The other players thus have to try and block the opposing team's jammer from passing (and can use fairly violent means, including pushing, pulling clothes and hitting other players..). It's quite intense and very entertaining to watch, with the rules easy to pick up. The 'Suffer Jets' were ultimately victorious over the 'Upstate Cupcakes', 121-47, and again the evening was made more entertaining by the American ability to dramatise the sport. There was a band playing inspirtational tunes between 'jams', and a super dramatic commentator (who also doubled up as an entertainer at half-time, singing a tune he had written, entitled 'Roller girl'). We were truly inspired and later researched the history and rules of the sport...(check out youtube for some exciting videos!).

All in all, feeling quite emersed in America's sporting culture, and definitely have seen the extent of the competitive spirit in the American psyche. Another excellent day on tour!

Day Eight

Mary and I were told that we would be part of a Q&A session on the Third Way and Britain for a European politics class which we really looked forward to going to given our interest in British politics. The class seemed to be fascinated by our highter education system. As most of you know students in the US pay significantly higher tuition fees than home students in the UK. The average student in our class paid almost $45,000 dollars a year so the audible gasp in the room when we told them how much students in the UK paid was understandable. Healthcare seemed to be another issue that the students couldn't get their heads around. The fact that we don't have a health care system controlled by insurance companies yet still get better health outcomes intrigued them.

In the afternoon Mary and I were invited to sit on a forum about the ground zero mosque, a controversy that his gripped New York and the country as a whole. Ithaca College is a liberal college and so a consensus developed quite quickly that the backlash against the college was unjustified and given that this was not a mosque, nor was it at ground zero the media had done a good job at sensationalising the story.

The day was rounded off by a trip to an excellent Japanese restaurant with Mary and I deciding to opt for the chicken bento box. An excellent choice in my opinion.

Frat Parties Uncovered

Some may say that the rules prohibiting those under the age of 21 from drinking are draconian but one way that American students seem to overcome this is by joining organizations known as fraternities. There is a process known as rushing where prospective members shop around for a frat to join and during this process would be expected to pledge in order to show their commitment to their "brothers". Frats own their own property and many are housed in some of the nicest buildings I've come across any University campus (some even have their own chefs). Fraternities rely on income generated by membership fees and alumni donations and are regulated by the University.


Mary and I went to a frat party this week and it seemed to live up to all the hype. For those familiar with the Oxford Union imagine President's Drinks with more alcohol, more music, no suits/dinner jackets and beer pong. We met a lot of friendly people and a particular shout out should go out to Alex Bores, Danny Blackman and Leah Salgoda amongst many others for being amazing fun. A mention also goes out to all the revelers who were fascinated by our British accents. Oddly enough I met an American student who used to live in the part of East London that I grew up in. What a small world. Despite the negative press that frat parties have Mary and I had a great time. The people were really friendly and down to earth so the frat system certainly gets a thumb ups from us.

Day seven - Ithaca college

Our trip to our next destination was not a long one, with our new abode approximately 2 blocks away from the last (which was, incidentally, an intriguing guest house owned by lots of Scientologists). We're now being hosted by Ithaca college, which is on the opposite hill to Cornell, and the accomodation is pretty palatial, with essentially our own appartment.

After another heart attack inducing breakfast, we headed over to the Ithaca campus, which has a beautiful view over the lake and the town. After a quick tour, we joined our host Scott in some of his debate and argumentation classes. We gave a bit of a presentation about public speaking, and then had a kind of Q & A session with the students. These discussions generally ended up centring around their shock and horror at comparatively cheap UK higher education system (students at Ithaca Colleg pay nearly $50,000 per year), the appeal of Harry Potter, and 'soccer'. The students were all very engaged and was interesting to have a chance to talk to them. We then headed for an excellent dinner downtown (which I think marked the 15th restaurant meal of the week thus far; I have literally never eaten so much in my life), and then to the debate meeting with the Ithaca team. Smaller than the 100 or so members of the Cornell debate team, the Ithaca contingent, who do Lincoln-Douglas style debate (a version of policy debating) about 10ish members. The day ended well with a visit to a cafe on the 14th floor of one of the towers on campus, with a spectacular view over the city.

Day six - Victory number one

Today was our final day being hosted by Cornell. After a morning of debate tour admin and a bit of motion preparation, we headed up to the Campus to help teach Sam's debating class (students actually take classes and get credits for debating here!). We started with a show debate for the 70 or so students, along with some of the Cornell debate team members, on the topic of banning fraternities and sororities (a topic we have been quite intrigued by when talking to students here). It was a great motion, and we had a good debate on it. Along with Chris, we then delivered some short talks on different aspects of 'advanced debating'. It went quite well.

After dashing to sort out buying a cell phone, grabbing dinner and changing we headed back to Campus for the public debate, on "This house believes Britain is still relevant", which we were opposing. It was a very entertaining and lively debate which we both enjoyed, where the points of clash included issues such as whether England's defeat in the World Cup constituted irrelevancy, and whether the Quidditch on Cornell campus was indicative of British primacy, as well as questions of economics and power in international relations. Chris Croke adjudicated, and the treason we had committed was justified by the first victory of our tour.

We again headed out with some of the Cornell debaters for our final evening in Cornell, before moving a short drive across town tomorrow to Ithaca College. We've been incredibly lucky to have such amazing hosts at our first stop, particularly in Sam, and we are both excited about the rest of the tour and sad to leave Cornell.

Day five – More Cornell Hospitality

Today saw another day of excellent Cornell hospitality. We were taken for breakfast just outside of Ithaca, near the small town of Trumansburg where Sam lives. He took us to the second hand bookshop he and his wife own, and let us choose a book to keep us entertained whilst on our travels. We then headed over to Sam's farm, and checked out his orchard and the picturesque countryside of New York State. Our final stop in the tour of the countryside of Tompkins country was Taughannock Falls, an impressive 215 foot drop.

We then headed back to the Cornell campus, and along with a couple of the Cornell debate team, headed to lunch at a campus restaurant. After a quick stop at Cornell's collection of brains (including the second largest brain ever recorded, which belonged to a Cornell Professor turned serial killer), we went to Cornell's museum of art, which had a pretty varied and impressive collection, as well as an amazing view from the top floor overlooking Ithaca and Cayuga lake.

After such a tough day of hospitality, we headed to the debate squad room and did a practice debate on off-shore oil drilling with Chris and some of the Cornell team; as always the Cornell debaters were really nice and it was a good session.

We then headed out to a great Italian restaurant with Sam and had a really excellent meal. We then headed back into Ithaca, and went hung out with some of the Cornell debaters on the roof of one of their apartments in Collegetown. We've been so lucky to have been made so welcome here, and have had another great day in Ithaca.

Day four - A tale of two worlds

Sam, Chris, Mary and I drove down to McCormick today. McCormick is juvenile prison situated on the outskirts of Ithaca. I knew we were going to head there to run a debating workshop yesterday and was intrigued to see what this experience would be like.

The first thing to note was how intimidating the building looked from the outside (it transpired that the facility had spent $3million dollars reinforcing the security perimeter. The second thing we had found out was the young inmates in this facility had committed some seriously violent crimes.

This facility only has 22 inmates and since certain groups of inmates are not allowed to be near each other for security reasons we had 3 students in our group. The inmates were paired up with a debater and we debated the motion “this house supports harsh punishments for drugs cheats in sport”. The young people we were paired with were initially quite unresponsive but (I have to admit) to my surprise were not only really enthused by the debate but were offering lots of POI’s and giving good speeches. We were only at the facility for an hour but I felt that this was a specific experience in debating that I would not easily forget. On our way out we were shown the claustrophobic cell that the young people sleep in every night. Being locked away in that facility during your childhood must be incredibly depressing and bleak and I can’t help feeling that this activity gave some of these young people a glimmer of hope.

Later on in the day we were taken on a tour of Cornell University which was a real eye opener. After 3 years of involvement in student politics at Oxford I gained some insight into the funding pressures that higher education institutions had faced but it was quite apparent that Cornell had the resources to provide a world class University. The main University gym was bigger than a lot of schools in the UK. It was also equipped with a 2000 seater American Football stadium along with a host of other sporting arenas. Perhaps the most impressive part of the University we saw today was the Hotel Management building (Cornell is renowned for its hospitality courses) which was centred near the centre of the campus. This is actually a hotel run by students and serves incredibly good food.

Finally we left to go to the weekly Cornell debate meeting. Over 70 people attended to review the tournament that Cornell had been involved in over the past weekend. We were really impressed with the solidarity of the squad and how proud people were with the performance and successes of their peers. All in all an action packed day which saw us admire the amazing resources and wealth that Cornell possessed and contrast to the intimidating and quite depressing atmosphere of the prison that we were earlier in.

Day three - Binghamton continues

Today saw day two of the Binghamton tournament, with a final preliminary round and then quarters, semis and final. We both judged all three out rounds, and after an excellent final the overall winners were Vermont. Our hosts Cornell did really well too, with one of their teams coming second in the final, lots of top ten speakers, and a domination of the policy division.

Early evening, we set off for Cornell in Ithaca, about 1hr away. We stopped en route with some of the Cornll team to sample Binghamton's unique speciality, the 'Spiedie', which is a kind of sandwich with meat marinated in a specific way. The drive that followed through the rural countryside of New York state, where the trees were just beginning to change their colour for 'fall'. We arrived early evening into a very beautiful Ithaca. Ithaca is a fairly small town in New York State, very much dominated but its two Universities (Cornell and Ithaca COllege, which is in fact our next stop). After checking into our hotel we headed for food and some drinks in 'Collegetown' (the bit of the town around the campus), with Chris who is also in Cornell for a couple of days, and bumped into a few of the policy coaches. Then headed back for a good nights sleep, in preparation for, amongst other things, the prison trip planned for tomorrow!

Day two - Debating starts

Jet lag seemed a bit more useful on Saturday morning, when our body clocks were okay with having to wake up in time to leave our hotel at 7 to be at the Binghamton tournament in time fo the early start to debating (Lewis even went for a McDonalds trip at 5am..). Unlike in the UK, the Binghamton tournament has both 'Worlds' format debating (or 'British Parliamentary', the unprepared, 4 team, 8 speaker format of debating used in the UK and for the World Championships) and 'Policy' debating. This tournament was therefore our first taste of policy debating, and so we started the day by watching a bit of a round of policy. Unlike with 'Worlds' format, Policy debaters debate the same topic for a whole year (this year it's Visas), carry literally boxes and boxes of research notes, and speak very very fast to read out their case. Whilst people claim I speak pretty fast, this is a whole new level of speed... It was really interesting to see, and while quite a different activity to the one we're used to, definitely skills and develops things that BP doesn't. Whilst I found the speech part to be pretty incomprehensible, I like did the 'cross examination', where the the speaker gets questioned for 3 minutes by their opponent.

The rest of the day we were judging the first five preliminary rounds of the Worlds debates. We saw some good debates, and at the end of quite a long day, went for dinner with some of the Cornell debaters.

(Photo of us, our tour rival Australian tour member Chris, our British Debate team forefathers Alex and Ali, and our Cornell host Sam)

Day one - The Journey to the land of the free

Not a huge amount to report on today as we’ve spent most of the day flying. One thing that Mary and I established pretty early on was that we’re quite bad at navigating airports. Luckily the folks over here in America are incredibly welcoming and really friendly which is a great departure from slightly less friendly London.

After touching down from our third flight of the day we were met with open arms by debating guru and Sam Nelson, the coach of Cornell and also by Alex Just, an alumni of the US Tour and a general good egg. There are also other familiar faces down here too. Ali Cormack, Alumni of the 2007 and Chris Croke, the current World Champion both of whom happened to be in New York at the same time.

After being introduced to the Cornell squad we were informed that we would be judging at the Binghamton 2010 Debating Tournament

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Welcome

From Friday 17th we will begin our epic tour of the United States where we will take part in debates up and down this vast country. This blog will detail our experiences and our thoughts about this fantastic oppurtunity now its 88th year.