we took a tour around campus. Baylor's campus impressively has had a live bear on campus for nearly 100 years (it being the University's mascot), and has a million dollar bear habitat! We headed to lunch with Kyle to a great Mexican; we've become used to having excellent food in Texas, but the one surprising thing about the was that a man at the table next to us casually had a gun in a holster around his belt. He was also wearing a cowboy hat, and so I definitely felt we were getting the genuine Texan experience...That evening saw our public debate, on THW negotiate with terrorist, which we again proposed. We were against grad students and debate coaches Amanda and Kyle, and it was and fun debate, with another really great turn out. The audience were also able to be the first to sing Lewis 'Happy Birthday' in advance of him turning 24 on Sunday. Afterwards we headed to one of Waco's finest restaurants, for what was probably one of my top meals on the tour so far.
Friday morning we experienced some Waco history, with a trip to the Dr Pepper museum, which originates (or as they like to say, 'discovered') in the town. Perhaps due to the not so subtle pro Dr Pepper message (which amusingly included trash talking other fizzy-drinks brands) the Dr Pepper we sampled in the cafe at the end was bizarrely good, and I have since been converted to the cause of Dr Pepper... We then headed to lunch with the debate team - which not only offered great food, but is also an eaterie favoured by George W Bush, who has a ranch in Crawford which is just outside of Waco (the walls of
the restaurant are adorned with pictures of the owner with the Bush family). The afternoon saw more animal related fun, with a trip to Wacos very impressive Zoo; the baby monkeys in particular were unbelievably adorable. As per the picture to the right, Lewis tried some of his debating skills on a Leopard; they didn't work quite so well though. The day ended well, spent eating and hanging out with the debate team, who are luckily a great group of interesting and funny people, making our weekend a great one.
Saturday was an exciting day in Baylor, with it being homecoming weekend, and a big game for their football team, the Baylor Bears. The day started with the homecoming parade (which we were told was the biggest homecoming parade in the country) passing by the road outside our hotel; sorities and fraternities spend literally tens of thousands of pounds on super impressive floats, one of which included a working ferris wheel. The marching band and great atmosphere was out first taste of the days festivites! Dressed in our newly acquired Baylor green and gold T-shirts, we headed with Matt to Baylor's 50,000 seater stadium for the big game against Kansas State. Baylor traitionally hasn't been that successful with College football, but this year the team has been doing well, and winning this match would mean gauranteeing them the chance to play a cup game - the stakes were high! The stadium had an incredible atmosphere, with it being pretty much 
full of green and gold fans. The pre-match hype was unlike anything I've seen before; there were entire troops of dancers and cheerleaders, an enormous band that played the national anthem (a stadium of people with their hand on their heart is always an impressive sight) and the state anthem (the band even made the shape of Texas whilst they played this!). The freshman ran onto pitch the welcome the players, whose enterance to the stadium included a wall of smoke. A bit different to University sports in the UK...The game however, only lasted about 2 minutes before it was delayed due to an imminent storm; all 50 or so thousand fans were then told to shelter under the stands, and the game didn't resume for about 2 hours. The atmosphere remained very friendly and exciting t
hough, with people continuing the singing and chanting in the very cramped area below the stadiud. Baylors is a Baptist institution, which was was evident with the spontaneous 'He's got the whole world in his hands' amongst the crowd whilst waiting for the crowd to pass! The game eventually restarted, and it was a close game, but Baylor managed to get and maintain an upper hand; due to the late start and the fact that the weather remained wet and a little cold, we left at half time, but were very glad to hear later of a Baylor victory! We again spent the evening with the debate team, and at midnight were able to sing Lewis 'Happy Birthday', this time for real!Sunday saw a pleasantly late start, before heading to the debate squad room, where we got to see our first full policy debate. I remain in awe of the speed and quantity of information the debaters both follow and produce! Our final night in Waco started with Lewis trying to protect his ego by not loosing at FIFA on the X-box, followed by a great meal at a local restaurants, where the list of new things I've eaten in America was extended to include Alligator and 'Hush Puppies', which are not shoes but rather fried Corn bread, and also very good. We ended the night watching, for a second time, The Social Network (which remains a good movie, to be recommended!).
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