Debate 8: Webster University, St Louis MO.

Hello St. Louis the gateway to the Midwest, we have crossed the Mississippi

We arrived in St. Louis Saturday afternoon and were met by the President of the debate team and 100% All American Girl: Alaina Gonzalez-White who was to be our brilliant host for the weekend. Unlike last weekend when we debated in Vermont – we were to have the weekend off for debate at least. This however didn’t mean we were able to rest; we had to experience St. Louis. We first met Scott Jenson who is the head coach at Webster along with his wife Jeana and has been hosting the British team for years, plus they and organized last years tour. He brought along his kids who are 9, 5 and 3 who provided constant entertainment thought the meal. That evening after convincing Alaina that we wanted to cook for ourselves (and her housemates) rather than be taken out for dinner for the 14th night in a row we drove to Whole Foods (a very American phenomena) to buy stir fry stuff, having suitably charmed our way through Alex’s prawn and lemongrass starter we were then taken country dancing! We are not sure it gets any more American than this – we drove across the Mississippi to Illinois to a place called ‘Wild Country’ it looks like wall-mart on the outside – barn in the inside with patrons of all ages most wearing Stetsons. Before the main live band came on about 9.30 we all stood up right and removed hats for the national anthem, where the lights dimmed and the flag was illuminated before being blown by a little fan as the anthem reached its climax. So moved by the display we made sure we had several more weak and fairly awful bears before taking to the dance floor – not being line dancing experts it was a learning curve but one we were just about able to master.

After a brief recovery period - the next day Alaina took us to Forest Park - the site of the 1904 World’s Fair were we went to the St. Louis History museum where we learnt both about the World’s Fair and Charles Lindbergh one of St Louis most famous sons. After that Al and Al were taken to Al’s grill St. Louis best barbeque place before we went to the city museum.

http://citymuseum.org/phototour.html - Best sums it up as the museum is pretty indescribable but basically is a huge playground for both kids and grownups. We both had a great time and totally forgot about debating whilst acting like 10 year olds.

That evening we played Softball with Alaina’s housemates, once again we felt very American, plus we put our new mitts to good use. We feel that our all round game is developing well! - the exercise was also much appreciated. That evening we were taken for Vietnamese food before crashing out back in our hotel room.

Monday morning started with some excellent 'Einstein's' Bagels and quite a lot of coffee, as we attempted to stretch off the impact of the previous evening's softball game. It was another unseasonably warm day and although our Kilt/Black Tie outfits were well received on the Webster Campus, they were a tad impractical! We debated in a magnificent church, that is now used as the campus cinema (our performance was to be followed that evening by a Buster Keaton marathon) and although the debate took place at lunchtime, we were delighted that over 40 students and faculty turned out to hear a passionate discussion on the merits of immediate military intervention in Darfur. A unique feature of this particular debate was the fact that the audience was encouraged to move and sit on whichever side of the motion they supported - Ayes to the Rights and Nos to the Left . As they debate progressed we were pleased to see members of the audience drifting over to our side and by the end of the round we were winners by the narrowest of margins. With our undefeated public debate record in tact (7-0) we enjoyed our lunch with the Webster Debate team and then retired to our hotel for a much needed afternoon nap.

Alaina picked us up a few hours later and we headed downtown to visit St Louis's most famous landmark, the Jefferson Expansion Memorial – commonly referred to as 'The Arch'. Conceived in the 1960's to be 'The Gateway to the Midwest' this stunning stinless steel Arch allows breathtaking views across St Louis and the Mississippi river if you are brave enough to take a tiny metal capsule on the 4 minute ride to the top!

http://www.gatewayarch.com/Arch/index.aspx#

After returning to earth, we headed off to a charming little Italian restaurant , where we met the Jensen Family for a farewell meal. Alex and Noah (3 years old) had a fascinating discussion regarding the meaning of the word 'Chip' in the UK and America. It was the sort of cross-cultural exchange that exemplifies that spirit of the tour and was a lovely end to a terrific stop…