The last days were really stressful, so I didn‘t have much time to write my blog. But long story short; there was a football game on Friday. It was at another high school, we played the Hawks and lost 41:44. That was a shame, because everyone was so sure that we‘d win, since the last few years the pirates always beat the hawks. Here are some impressions:
I came home at about 1:30 am, so I went to bed immediately, not because I was so tired, but because I would have to get up the next morning at 5:30 am.
My first debate tournament started Saturday at 8:00 at Princeton High School. It‘s a one hour drive, so we left Wylie High School at 6:30 in the morning. I didn‘t compete at that tournament, but it was really nice to watch my friends and get an idea on how such an event works.
When we arrived, we went to the cafeteria to wait for the postings. There was nobody there yet, still we had a lot of fun. 
The Princeton mascot is the panther, which is painted on almost every wall.
At tournaments there are different categories you can sign up for. The one that I will do is cx debate, which this year talks about gun sales. The contestants (group of two) have to cover either the affirmative or the negative and then try to convince the judge to vote for their side. The rounds take place in classrooms and there is one person judging. A round works like the following:
- 1AC: The group arguing for the aff presents their case and advantage (8 min)
- Cross ex: opponents can ask them questions and try to trap them (3 minutes)
- 1NC:The group arguing for the neg presents case and disadvantage (8 min)
- Cross ex (3 minutes)
- 2AC: aff group reacts to the neg and extends own arguments (8 minutes)
- Cross ex (3 minutes)
- 2NC: neg group reacts to the aff and extends own arguments (8 minutes)
- Cross ex (3 minutes)
- 1NR: Rebuttle, neg points out opponent‘s mistakes and tells the judge why to vote for neg (5 minutes)
- 1AR: Rebuttle, aff points out opponent‘s mistakes and tells the judge why to vote for aff (5 minutes)
- 2NR: second negative rebuttle (5 minutes)
- 2AR: second affirmative rebuttle (5 minutes)
Because there are time restrictions and everyone wants to present as many arguments as possible, cx-ers talk extremily fast. If you look up „cx policy debate“, you‘ll probably find some examples of how fast they speak. For everyone that‘s not used to it, it‘s almost impossible to follow all of the arguments. And that‘s what kinda scared me. But in this round, my only job was to flow what they said, which means take notes. It was just training for me, since while debating you also have to flow what your opponent argues, so you know what to respond to.
The round went about 1:40 minutes. Afterwards I went to see another type of debate, called LD. It‘s also a kind of debate, but it‘s more about morals than facts and politics. In addition you debate alone and the speed (called spreading) is not as much of an issue than in cx. I watched two rounds of LD, because my friend Justin was debating. The topic was whether colleges ought not to consider standardized testing, such as the SAT or AP tests that the US currently uses. LD was easier to watch and flow, since they didn‘t speak fast at all. I‘m now already considering to change to LD, but I‘ll try cx first…
Afterwards I went to watch my friend Michelle perform her dramatic interp. She doesn‘t debate, but the subject debate, as well as the tournaments also provide speech events. In DI (dramatic interpretation), each perticipant performs/acts a dramatic written piece. Michelle‘s piece was about a mother that lost her daughter Andrea due to a car accident. She put herself in the role of the mother, telling the audience the heartbreaking story about the accident and how she as a mother copes with it. She acted it so well, almost all of the people were sobbing, including me. No wonder Michelle made it to the finals!
For lunch I ate a hotdog and then the results were posted. None of the students of WHS made it to the next round; except Michelle. Following, everybody went to Michelle‘s performance to cheer her on, since she was the only remaining team member. One of the girls that were also in the finals even came into the room with a bin. since she was sick and vomited before, she just wanted to warn everybody. She mastered her performance, but afterwards ran out to empty her stomach again. It was kind of gross, but she did well for being ill…….
The finals took place at about 4:30 pm and after Michelle was done, we all went back on the bus and drove to Wylie High School. Afterwards we all went to Chick fil a and had a team dinner together. It was really cool, I met some new people that are on the debate team but not in the same class as me. This group dynamics is something I had never witnessed before. It‘s full of spirit and support, and the debate team is a second family for a lot of the students.
Today, I went to a chocolate event in downtown Dallas with my host family. Some of the chocolate was really good, but there was also bad chocolate. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and after leaving the event, we walked to a nearby park, that apparently is located over a highway.
At about 5:15 pm, my boyfriend picked me up at home we went to church together. His family is really religious and they asked me if I wanted to see their church sometime, so I of course said yes. The church wasn‘t like a typical catholic church in Europe, it looked more like a reformed church would look like from the inside. The mass wasn‘t any different though, and let‘s be honest, I just went for the one sip of wine 😉
After church, me and Jacob went to Firehouse subs to get sandwiches and then we went to a park, before he dropped me off at my house.