Texas State University

Next up we headed to the hospitable Texas State University, situated just outside of Austin in San Marcos. Fresh from our journey from Dallas we were greeted by Laura and Amanda and taken straight for a private tour of the Texas State Capitol building. The vast nineteenth century pink marble monolith was, we discovered, specifically designed to be just a few feet taller than its counterpart in Washington. Our guide, Michael, nimbly helped us over the usual tourist barriers to see some of the key artefacts and stand on the floor of the senate and congress. Amongst the stream of trivia we learned was that much of the original building (including most of the floors and ceilings) was constructed from glass (now covered) such that early on at night it would literally shine as a beacon for miles around. After a few drinks in Austin’s famous Sixth St. we were promptly taken to Wayne Kraemer’s picture-box house in the heart of the historic district. We enjoyed some of the best steak we’ve ever eaten (although Wayne says the recipe is a closely guarded secret) and met our future opponents Ryan and Shanna as well as many others on the debate team.

In the morning we traipsed through a couple of classes answering questions about the UK; students seemed somewhat disappointed that English people do not (on the whole) live in castles nor know the Queen personally but we made up for it with our apparently ‘quaint’ accents. After our morning ‘cultural exchange’ we were taken on a pretty impressive tour of the campus by the seven foot tall Seamus. Texas State’s most famous alum is Lyndon B. Johnson and as such almost everything on campus is named after him (roads, lecture theatres and the debating society) as with most of the universities we have visited they have absolutely phenomenal facilities. Uniquely they also have the source of a freshwater spring on campus offering students and locals the opportunity to dive into some of the clearest, bluest water we’ve seen. The evening’s debate against Shanna and Ryan had a fantastic turnout of somewhere in the region of 200 students. We were tasked with trying to convince the audience that the U.S. government should impose strict neutrality laws – with the effect of banning Fox News. Despite us having to effectively support the scrapping of many of the rights in the First Amendment our well-crafted jokes appeared to convince the audience to take leave of their senses and support us. The rest of the night saw Ben constantly offered a range of American beer to try and convince him that it really could be drunk.

Our last two days in San Marcos afforded us the opportunity to get down to some serious Worlds format coaching with the whole squad at Texas State in preparation for their trip to Oxford in November. After a long but hugely enjoyable day we were taken to somewhat of a Texan tradition – a nationally renowned bring your own beer barbeque place: ‘Salt Lick’. The restaurant is huge, it probably seats about 300 and takes no reservations. Despite having to wait over an hour and a half the reward of all you can eat ribs, chicken, sausage and beef along with brilliant company made for a brilliant evening. The next day we were treated by Wayne to a trip to San Antonio, the original capital of the Republic of Texas where we visited the Alamo, drank prickly pear margaritas (whilst serenaded by a Mariachi band) and toured the Tower of the Americas to see for miles around.