It’s kept me too busy to blog every day like I intended to, but the world debate championships has been a load of fun.
Getting here took ages. From Seattle I went to San Francisco, and from San Francisco I went to Taipei, and from Taipei I finally went to Kuala Lumpur. That travel day took 33 hours and I still had to clear customs and take a bus from the airport to our hotel an hour away. But I was able to sleep on the long flight across the Pacific, and arrived only a little bit exhausted. After a relatively early night I had more or less beaten the jet lag.
The next morning we had the tournament briefings but everything was in the hotel we are staying. So, I didn’t have to get up very early or go anywhere. It was a nice way to settle in.
That said, when I first arrived to check in I was placed in a room with two guys from the University of New York. Oscar and Jake were pleasant and nice, but Jamie and Daniel, two of my friends from Oxford, thought that I was rooming with them. It turns out that I had been double booked for rooms and I’d been assigned both to the room with Oscar and Jake and to the one with Jamie and Daniel. I only found this out in the morning and ended up moving my things downstairs four stories to room with Jamie and Daniel, which was a good decision for me all around being a member of the so-called “extended Oxford delegation”.
Unfortunately we all took the day to finish sleeping off our jet leg. Then the next morning we had to take a 7 AM bus from the hotel to the university campus where the tournament was being hosted. The bus ride took an hour and we still didn’t start the tournament until about 11:30 AM because teams and judges didn’t check in properly when they arrived and had to be hunted down before we could run the draw. The tournament continue to run late and we didn’t arrive back at the hotel until close to 11 PM.
One would expect the problem to be fixed for days two and three. Regrettably, that wasn’t the case, and for the next two days we woke up at six in the morning and only arrived back at the hotel quite late at night.
On break night at the end of three days of competition, we only got to go back to the hotel very briefly before heading to the club that the tournament had booked for the break night and New Year’s eve party. All of that was really fun. In fact the rounds themselves were very fun. I only wish that we didn’t have to wait several hours in between each one.
The motions have been fantastic and the adjudication core deserves a lot of credit for setting interesting, innovative, and challenging topics.
I didn’t think that I would enjoy winning as a judge. But the motions, the chair judges, and the teams have proving me wrong. It’s been a pleasure to watch and listen to brilliant students and judges. I learned a lot about how British parliamentary debate should work and about host of interesting topics. My chair judges apparently liked me back because I was selected partly through their feedback to chair round seven and also to break to the elimination rounds as a judge. I’m honored by the trust that means the adjudication core is putting in me, especially since this is the first time I have judged a British parliamentary tournament. It also is the first time that Swarthmore has been represented in worlds elimination rounds in at least six years if memory serves, and I’m proud to represent a wonderful institution and debating society at the highest levels of competition.
We had today off and went to a nearby shopping mall for lunch. I would have like to get into the center of the city to explore, but we’re on the periphery and the traffic getting into the city is less than ideal. Nonetheless, it’s been a nice much-needed day of rest and relaxation in the middle of an intense and long tournaments. I’m looking forward to tackling elimination rounds refreshed and energized in the morning.
Most of our meals have been provided for us so I haven’t eaten in the hotel restaurant yet. I intend to break that spell tonight, since I hear it’s pretty good.
Shut out to all of my friends in the Oxford delegation, in the US, and generally around tournament. I’m looking forward to finishing strong and traveling home for the rest of winter vacation.
Angry Philosophy 