Texas State

Although the tour did not stop in Louisiana Wayne Kramer, head coach at Texas State (and a former resident of Louisiana) introduced us to Cajun cuisine by taking us to an excellent seafood restaurant as soon as we arrived in San Marcos. Afterwards Mary and I ran a BP workshop for their debate team which aimed to get the students ready for the Oxford IV.

Perhaps one of the most impressive places that I’ve been to in a very long time was San Antonio. Firstly the town really did make me feel like I was in a South American old city a feeling that I have never experienced since I have never visited a country with a strong Spanish/Mexican influence. Secondly we were able to visit the Alamo – the site of a famous battle with Mexican Soldiers who greatly outnumbered the mostly American force of 186 men. The Alamo was something that I’ve constantly heard references in pop culture so actually visiting the site and knowing some of its history has made me feel like less of a pleb.

The students we were debating against were experienced veterans who had actually competed at Worlds before. Luis and Laura took the opposition side on the motion “thw incentivise environmentally sustainable choices. We argued that this policy would work because people’s decisions are based on economic grounds and why we had an obligation to protect the future generation. They ran that this would not work and would be regressive. It was a fun debate which we eventually won but in reality debating was the winner. Yes I actually wrote that.

We were shown a great time by the debaters at Texas State. Two back to back house parties were held in Laura’s house both of which were really good fun. All in all Texas state was a very cool stop

Baylor University

After early flights from Amarillo, we arrived into Waco late morning (the fact we took two flights and remained in Texas is indicative of the epic size of this State...). Matt, the director of the debate programme met us and 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 though, 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!).

West Texas A&M

After what, due to engine failure and other inexplicable delays in Dallas, turned out to be a 10 hour journey, we arrived in Amarillo, in the 'panhandle' of Texas. We were picked up my faculty member coordinating our trip and were taken to the house of one of the University Professors. It was a nice chance to relax with some of the students on the speech and debate team. We then drove back to Canyon, the small town outside of Amarillo in which the University is situated. The drive was punctuated by great excitement for me when we passed signs to Hereford, the Texan version of my hometown.

The next morning we headed to some classes with Katie, one of the debate students. The discussions we have with students in classes like these are always interesting, but particularly now we're in what is quite a different part of the country. This part of Texas is known often as the 'buckle of the Bible belt', and is one of the most Republican and conservative parts of the country (Canyon was until very recently a 'dry' town, and even now only one place that serves alcohol, by pretending its a private members club..). The paradigm from which we were coming in from in discussions was quite different to what we're used to in the UK; the students were open about their backgrounds and and we had a some great discussions.

After classes, we headed with Micah, another of the debate team students, to see some of the local sights. Our first stop was 'Cadillac Ranch', a public art installation off an interstate. It consists of ten old Cadillac cars, half buried in the ground, covered in graffiti and constantly being added to by people stopping off and visiting and taking part in the art piece. Micah had brought some spray paint, and we made our mark (including, since we are such excellent ambassadors, writing 'ESU' and 'UK' on the cars). We then headed to Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest Canyon in the America. There was a superb view of the Canyon, and we also checked out the very impressive outside Amphitheatre where they hold plays during the summer months. It was yet another demonstration of the incredible geographical variation of this country. We finally headed to a museum on Campus that had lots of stuff on the history of the area (from dinosaurs found in the local area to a room full of guns), and then to another class where we talked about how cool our accent is and how Hereford is pronounced wrong in Texas. Good times.

That evening saw our 20th debate of the tour, a milestone clearly recognised by the students of West Texas, who turned out in such large numbers that the originally location was so overwhelmed with people that we had to move to another venue to fit everyone in. The debate was “This House would allow prayer in schools” and the large audience were wonderfully vocal and engaged. Unusually, we were split up and each paired with a West Texas speech team student, where I proposed and Lewis opposed. The result was decided at the end by 'division of the house', Oxford and Cambridge Union style, with the audience exiting the door of the side they most agreed with. The count was close, with Lewis's team victorious (making the count between us 2-1 to Lewis..). We headed out into Amarillo for dinner with the speech team, and had a great final night in the Texas panhandle.

Detroit

Detroit is a city that has a (unjustified) reputation for being a dangerous and lawless city however I had an excellent time in this great city. Like most big cities there are places around town where it would be ill advised to walk around on your own at night but for the most part the residents of Detroit were incredibly friendly and welcoming.

We were met by Kelly Young and his wife Amy and were then taken to a nice Mexican restaurant in downtown Detroit. Driving around Detroit it becomes clear that Detriot a city that was hit hard by the global downturn and the city has pockets of blighted buildings however the vast majority of the town feels vibrant, multicultural and brimming with life.

The students we spent time with at Wayne State were incredibly funny and great to hang out with. The night before our debate we were taken to a famous brewery called the motor city brewery. I can officially say that we had the most amazing pizza that I have ever had in a restaurant. The theme of good food continued on the day of the debate with a lunch at one of Michigan’s most exclusive private member’s club. Eventually we got round to doing some debating and despite the amazing but heavy lunch we were able to put in a good performance debating whether or not we should negotiate with terrorists in what was a very enjoyable debate. We were lucky to be debating in front of the alumni of the debating team and we even met a debater who debated our predecessors in 1961! I felt really privileged to speak to former students who still obviously have a close connection to their debating societies and really felt that debating had a significant effect on their lives. The post debate dinner made me realise alumni relations was something that debating societies back in the UK could focus some of their attention on especially since many debating societies over here receive substantial donations from their alumni.

And a video of debate can now be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10286941

Days 27, 28 & 29 - Iowa City

After a mix up with our booking at Indianapolis airports, a few phone calls with Brian in Texas who coordinates all our travel, and the re-booking of tickets, we eventually got on a flight to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for our next stop. We were met at the airport by Iowa debater Corey, who took us back to our hotel. That evening we went for dinner with Paul, debate coach and team coordinator at Iowa. It was a great meal, and good to hear about the long history of debate at University of Iowa. Our trip coincided with the 150^th anniversary of debate at Iowa, and a debate alumni reunion hosted by the debate union. Iowa also has a long history of hosting international debaters, having started hosted British teams since the 1920s. It was great to hear about the long tradition of which we are now a part.

The next day we headed to breakfast with Paul at the 'Hamburg Inn' in Iowa City. The Hamburg in is a famous for its part on the US presidential campaigns – since Reagan it's been an essential stop for hopeful presidential candidates during their Iowa caucus campaigning. In addition to the great breakfast, we very much enjoyed the pictures on the wall of the many presidential candidates (as well as the West Wing when they filmed there). We then headed to campus, and met some of the debate students and coaches, and checked out the impressively well set up debate team's room, and Ryan (our opponent in the debate) kindly took us on what was a great tour of Iowa City and the university campus.

Iowa city claims to have more bars per capita of any US city, and Corey and Ryan took us out that evening to sample a few of them. We had a great meal and good fun experiencing Iowa City; cultural understanding was fostered with exchange of colloquialism and practising of accents (Ryan's, though he sounded like he was a character from Oliver Twist, was reasonable; Lewis's American accent sounded more robotic than anything else...) . The evening ended with Lewis proclaiming Corey's truly remarkable talent of being able to instantly alphabetise the letters of any word, 'the most impressive thing so far about America'.

On Friday morning, after a late breakfast, some debate prep, skyping and 'The Thick of it', we joined the Iowa debaters at the first event of the alumni reunion weekend. The team had prepared some great displays of Iowa's debate history, and we particularly enjoyed checking out past programmes of British debates, and talking to some of the alumni who had debated against British team alumni such as Tony Benn. We then headed to the Iowa Hawkeyes football stadium (which holds an impressive 70,000!) for a reception and pre-debate dinner, with alumni and University guests. The debate that evening was the same motion used by the British Debate in 1935, on “That the American written constitution is a safeguard rather than a hindrance to social progress”. It was another fun debate, again using cross examinations, and with an interesting audience discussion after. The alumni weekend celebrations continued in downtown Iowa, where we to experience more of Iowa's bar, and enjoyed great hospitality from the University and alumni. Iowa was a great stop!

Day 26 - Wabash College

We awoke on Tuesday morning to see that yet again we were staying on a very beautiful campus. Wabash college is in a small town in Crawfordsville, Indiana. It is one of only three remaining all-male colleges in the US, and is fairly small with around 800 students.

After breakfast with some students, we had a tour of the campus. Wabash has a very good endowment, and as a result has excellent facilities, especially given its small size. It is also a college full of traditions; with a bell that rings new students in and rings out graduates, a bench you can't sit on but must paint under the cover of dark, and an arch you can't go under.

It was also interesting to hear about the dominance of 'greek life' on campus - about 60% of Wabash students are members of fraternity. Unlike most Universities, students at Wabash 'rush' (the process of choosing and being intiated into a fraternity) before the start as a Freshman, and most live in Fraternities throughout their time in College. We got to learn more about the frat system when we went for lunch with Tommy, one of the debate team students, at his fraternity 'Sigma Chi'. It was great to meet some more students and to experience a meal in a frat - like most frats, Sigma Chi has chefs who cook thier meals in the week, and they all eat together in the dining room. There is a definite sense of community around the greek system, that Wabash students are very proud of.

After an afternoon nap (the sign of a good day), we got ready for the debate and headed to dinner with a couple of faculty staff and the students who we'd be debating. It was a great meal (good Mexican food is definitely something the UK is lacking in compared to the States..). We then headed back to campus for the debate; the motion for the evening was 'This House Believes the US has a duty to spread democracy by any means neccessary'. It was a great debate, in particular because the audience were great and really engaged in the debate, which made it much more fun and entertaining. You can watch the debate on youtube in the link below!



After the debate, some of the students very kindly invited us over to their fraternity, TKE. We continued what is now a tradition (of two years..) of British Debate teams visiting TKE at Wabash, and enjoyed visiting their house, continuing to foster Anglo-American relations. We again had such a great welcome, and as always it was interesting to talk to some of the frat brothers and compare cultural differences (questions included "Do you all do cheese rolling?"). Another good day on tour.

Days 24 & 25 - South Carolina continued

After another Brunch in the Furman dining room overlooking the lake and beautiful campus, we headed out with Lee (the debate society president) to a local shopping mall for a bit of shopping. This is always welcome, particularly for Lewis who likes to buy new clothes and throw away his old belongings as we go.

As those of you who know Lewis will probably know, he is a big fan of Inception (verging on obsessive). In part so I can participate in some of the many conversations Lewis strikes up at every stop about the film, and in part because Lewis's company has convinced me it must be amazing, we had been keen to see it for a while. Watching it in South Carolina required some research; we eventually located a cinema about an hour away that was showing it, and headed over there and watchted it with Brandon. We all came out kind of confused (even Lewis who was watching it for the 4th time..), but definitely enjoyed it. After a car journey home discussing whether or not it was a dream and other such perplexing and important questions, we went back to Campus for a debate meeting with the team. We discussed and agreed the format, and it was great to meet some more of the Furman students.

Monday started early, with breakfast with some of the debate team at a local restaurant. We then headed to some classes with Lindsay (one of the students we'd be against in the debate), which as always was an interesting comparison with UK University education. Then came the debate; the motion was 'THW allow extremists to speak on University campuses', and we were opposing. It was another great debate, with a nice combination of formats - incorporating Points of Information, as well as a cross-examination time, and second speeches for each speaker. The audience vote saw a shift in our favour, and the judge panel (of a student and professor) was split. We're going to say this pretty much means we remain undefeated...After a great final meal with Brandon in the University cafeteria, we headed back to the house to pack up and go.

The rest of the day was just more flying, with us making our third visit to Charlotte Airport (definitely know the best places to eat there now..), and completing our 11th flight of the trip. We arrived late into Indiannapolis, for our next stop - Wabash College. More on this later...

(Photo: Furman campus)