Debate 25: Kenyon College, Gambier, OH.

Arriving in Columbus we noted that it was slightly colder than it had been in Miami – in fact it was much much colder! Jesse a student at Kenyon College picked us up at the airport– the college is a very selective liberal arts college with only 1,700 students, many of which are from the East Coast or Chicago. The debate program is student run, but the tour has been coming to Kenyon every year for the last 10 years. In the car to Kenyon we discovered that on this very small campus we were competing with a speech by Margaret Atwood at the same time as our debate - not to mention Saturday night drinking…

We arrived late on Friday night and were taken for dinner and then for a proper student Friday night out – with warm up drinks and then a bar crawl to all of the bars in town (two – Gambier is a seriously small place). We were able to sample local beer from Ohio before the evening became very strange. We discovered Jesse had spent a term in Edinburgh at the university, interning for the SNP at the Scottish Parliament, as well as drinking in all Alex’s locals. Moreover he had stayed at the same apartment building as Alex whist living in Washington D.C. Then Alistair met a girl who had just graduated form his high school, Latymer in North London and was now at Kenyon on a scholarship – while Alistair was coming to terms with this random excitement, Alex was introduced to several people who had spent last year in Oxford and discovered several close mutual friends. We had several more drinks before returning to our delightful cottage on campus where we were living.

On Saturday we walked around campus and were taken for a lunch of ribs at a small restaurant outside of town. During the drive we passed several Amish wagons and homes. That afternoon we took advantage of Kenyon’s new $80millon sports centre – which was built thanks to a very generous alumni donation. We taught Jesse the basics of cricket before we played some basketball.

The debate that evening was on the subject ‘This House would lower the age of drinking to 18’. We were arguing to keep it at 21. Jesse debated with a fantastic Classics professor who is very popular on campus for his eccentric lecturing style. Despite competing with Attwood and her Booker we got a good turn out and the debate was very funny. After we were finished we went to a very smart frat party and sampled their beer and then we walked down the hill on which Kenyon sits to a 21st birthday party. We took to the beer pong table and were able to win four games in a row much to the frustration of some more experienced and notably more sober team. Although it should be a note for the future that playing beer pong out side, wearing black tie in temperatures just above freezing is not a great idea. The only downer on an otherwise awesome weekend was leaving while slightly groggy at 7.30am to take out flight to Indianapolis via Chicago…