Drill Through The George Bush Highway

Dear Followers,

"The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas"

This weekend was a weekend of fear, fun, and fast speeches. I went down to Dallas-Fort Worth this weekend for the Greenhill Fall Classic debate tournament. You see, my partner and I were sent as back ups because two of our other teams had other things going on. I really have no idea why Devon and Mariah did not go, but Miranda was weighed down like every other child in the United States by standardized testing.

Anyways, on Friday I left for Texas with Alex Bahls, Luke Plutowski, Lina Lee, and the infamous Eric Short. Eric Short is a legend. Don't forget that. Here are the teams I debated with what side they spoke against us:

N - College Prep BY

A - Coppell KM
A - University Prep AZ
N - Gulliver Prep AT
A - Westwood KL
N - Bishop Guertin BD

Today was my last day of debate at the Greenhill. While the tournament had its ups and downs, the experience was phenomenal. Lina was covering my behind nearly every round, and she deserves major thanks for dealing with my inexperienced self.

The one thing that really sucked about this tournament was the realization that I would never again be in a novice round. No longer could I depend on people dropping arguments or defaulting to T in the 2NR. Cuomo made a first showing this tournament, and let's just say I have a lot to work on when I get back to Minnesota. On the bright side, I found Cuomo's webpage.

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Everything in Texas is big, no pun intended. Greenhill must be a school for students with parents who make more money than God. There are exotic Indian birds walking around on the campus, and even though there are probably no more than 200 students the campus is larger than Wayzata High School.

Our hotel room was nothing out of the ordinary. Our roommate, Imonal from SPC, was the bee's knees, and his iPad rocked my socks. Debate never seems like debate without Blake, and watching Kentucky walk around with an Edina hat was priceless. I got to meet new debaters, not to mention Bahls' personal idols, Bill Batterman and Calum Matheson.

Did you know that Bahls had lunch at a certain restuarant in Boston with a certain Indian whose last name ended in "nan" with Calum Matheson, and then he recieved a text message describing how a pronoun without an antecedent though he was a "hard worker?" I heard Russian sea turtles were involved.

One of many exotic peacocks on the Greenhill campus.
Bahls had the honor of catching one of the baby peacocks.

The food here was delicious. On the first night we went to Jake's, the hamburger equivalent of Hooter's. You always need to go with the "Jake's Special" with the hickory sauce. On the second night we stopped by Asia Mint: Asian Fusion Dessert Cafe through a torrent of rain that was escalating by the second. I was disappointed by the lack of Beef Chow Fun, but made do with the Crunchy Pad Thai. If you haven't had Coconut Custard or Green Tea Ice Cream Cake, go eat them now.

How Do We Even Know We're In Texas,
Noel