Salutations!

Thank you for returning to the blog, we are trying our best to update as much as possible but, as requested, we are being kept super-busy debating, teaching and being brilliantly hosted.

This blog post is about the great time we had in Greencastle Indiana, at DePauw University.

Our driver Norm drove us across the city to our hotel, which was situated right on the campus. We dropped off our bags and were taken to lunch by our amazingly funny host Geoff Klinger, who gave us a tour of the University’s expansive campus. For dinner, some of DePauw’s great debaters, and huge personalities, Bre, Amber and Patrick, who treated us to the true student-cuisine that Is Marvin’s! (Think McDonald’s but authentic!) Afterwards we went to an ice-cream social held by one of the sororities, and were introduced to a bunch of incredible people including, Natalie and Varsha to name but a few. We weren’t quite brave enough to play volleyball with the other students, but our accents gifted us a great many new friends that evening.

The next day we were kept on our toes. We started the day with a lunch in the University cafeteria, which looked just like what you may have seen on Mean Girls. Afterwards, we had a high stakes, one-on-one debate, about the legitimacy of torture. for a communications class where the winner was awarded $1.00! The reasonably liberal audience resolved that torturing terrorist suspects was illegitimate, allowing us to calibrate the sensibilities of the crowd for the main event later that day.

We suited up, as is customary, and found a room full of people, most of whom were women curious to hear our British accents, or so the student newspaper article would have you believe. We debated THB the US should end the War on Drugs. The debate descended into one about the merits of legalising cannabis which, although a tough sell to any room full of liberal students, we managed to win by a reasonable margin.

With debate won we filled our stomachs at Buffalo Wild Wings, a great Western Rib shack, before changing and heading to a frat party, convened by the President of the debating society. It’s safe to say that we had far too much fun that evening, but met a great number of interesting people from all over the world. The following evening, on what was our final night in Indiana, we went to a Sports Party, also held at one of the University fraternities. The party was crazy, and not short of a few dishevelled students unwinding from a stressful first semester. We finished the evening the way we began, with a meal at Marvin’s with our favourite people (Natalie, Varsha, Bri and Amanda) before riding off into the Indiana sunset the following morning, ready for the adventure that would be Texas!

P.S Stay tuned for the first instalment of our trip to Texas, it’s a great story and involves Ben and I eating some deep fried food you never would have thought could have existed.

P.P.S After the debate we were given some T-shirts that Ben chose to wear over his suit to show his appreciation. The photograph is posted alongside the blog.