Day 19 - More Miami

Today was a really interesting day. Mary and I accompanied Dave to two of his classes the first one was Political Communication which seems like a really fun class that I wish I could have taken as an undergrad. We had a discussion about the role of the media in dictating the message of political campaigns and then had a discussion about how political campaigning in the UK differs from the campaigns in the United States. (As an aside Mary and I have found the negative campaign ads on TV totally hilarious)

We then went to Dave’s debate class and had a rather heated group discussion about immigration – specifically whether or not immigration become more restricted and was the “path to citizenship” plan a good idea or not.

In the afternoon Mary and I decided to explore Miami on our own and after spending a while working out how the ticketing system worked (we ended up getting a travel card) we headed down to Dadeland South to a huge shopping Mall then went to the opposite end of town to government centre and went to do...some more shopping. A good days worth of shopping is always a great way to prepare for a debate...

Before our debate we had dinner at a restaurant called the Titanic which was themed around...the Titanic. I had one of the best steaks that I have ever had at this place so Titanic got a big thumbs up from me.

Our debate was going to be televised on a student run TV station and the show was called “We the students” This was an incredibly professional operation with really expensive gadgetry and surroundings. The topic up for discussion was “Thw allow prayer in schools” which is a huge issue in America. There were really no rules and we could interrupt each other at length whilst the other side was speaking but that meant that the debate was much more vibrant and fluid. We argued that the separation of church and state was a concept that did not have to extend into the classroom whilst our opponents argued that this would impose religion children and this would be unfair. We really enjoyed this very unique experience.

Afterwards we headed to a Shisha bar and chilled out with the University of Miami’s policy debate team over beers. This was a fun stop and it’s really sad to leave but North Carolina awaits...