We had both been looking forward to our visit to Miami. The iconic South Beach, Will Smith song and promise of sunshine have all made this a regular tour stop for the UK Team. The U. Miami campus is in the very luxurious Coral Gables suburb of Miami – with the buildings themselves being in a white almost Bauhaus style. The debate took place in the school Book Store (an enormous shop that sold just about everything you can imagine in the school’s green and orange colours) and was on the motion that, “Hard Power is better than Soft Power.” It was a unique setting and we both enjoyed the (rather heated) debate and the intimate audience.
We were offered the chance to have dinner at Hooters (a patriarchal restaurant chain that thankfully has only made it as far as Nottingham) but declined and opted instead for a charming local bar by the marina. We ate outside and kept up the great British tradition of discussing the weather, noting that ‘inclement weather’ in Florida generally means pretty mean hurricanes!
The next day we mailed another box of tour memorabilia to our beloved manager Sam in Ithaca and headed to campus to teach a Persuasive Communications class. As ever, it was fantastic to interact with the American students and we may also have taught a future NBA star – six foot nine Anthony King. Watch this space!
Dave, the U Miami Debate coach, drove us down to South Beach were we waded in the Atlantic Ocean and played a few points of ‘Air Volleyball’. The photo below has been short-listed for the ESPN College Sports Photo of the year:
After all that excited we relaxed in one of the Art Deco Cuban bars that line Ocean Drive, sipped mojitos and ate some tasty Cuban appetizers – it was a good time to be a member of the UK Debate Team! That evening we dined at another American institution – The Cheesecake Factory. It’s hard to describe the menu; it’s basically a book with hundreds of combinations of salads, sandwiches and pastas and three pages of various styles of Cheesecake. Feeling rather bloated we headed out into Coconut Grove – a happening part of town – to experience our first Miami College Night. Continuing our strong tradition of beating the Yanks at bar sports, we entered a local Foosball Tournament (tempted by the chance to improve our record and drink free Corona!) and managed to battle our way, against the odds, to the semi-finals. Several beers later, and a 30 minute drive to an out-of-town shopping mall to find a pool-table (that was unfortunately closed) we retired to bed happy that we had spent a November day wearing shorts…
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