Hi there folks. As promised, an update to keep you posted on recent goings-on with the tournament. The tournament began with a day of adjudicator training, including a practice round and a test to make sure that we are competent to judge, as well as to enable the tabulation staff to place the most qualified judges in the highest-seeded rounds. This picture shows Girouard struggling through the test. Somehow, he made it and has been judging all tournament. I think it's a testament to my coaching skills that he passed. [img=http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/hemingway155/P1000162_test.jp [View Full Entry]

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Hi there folks. Sorry the reports have been sparse the last couple of days. The tournament has begun, so we haven't been doing as many things that make it onto the front of post cards, but we're still having fun. The internet is running really slow, which is causing me problems in uploading pictures, but I'm going to leave them uploading when I head out today so hopefully I will be able to post pictures and a better narrative later this afternoon. [View Full Entry]

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From the jaws of defeat… Today almost was a disaster. We had a lot of trouble getting in touch with someone who might help us navigate the city, and had basically given up all hope of another great day in Beijing when Vincent (in the clutch play of the day) tracked down Cecily’s cell number for us. We promised to immortalize the clutch play here: When I say that the people are nicer here than anywhere else I’ve been, this is a really good example. Cecily got out of bed, negotia [View Full Entry]

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Off the top, a programming note: Truman email is not working very well on the servers here. That means if you want to talk to Mark, you can email him at ramcard14@yahoo.com Today was definitely a day of marked contrasts, because we went exploring the area around the compound, including both the alleyways of rural Daxing around the compound and the very urban area of downtown Daxing. The one constant was that at every turn we were helped out my our new Chinese friends. The day began with the opening ceremonies for the tournament, featuring speeches from past winners, academics from [View Full Entry]

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Hi there folks. Just a quick update -- our internet has been down for two days here. They just got an engineer in that has it up to some degree, but it is slow. I have text for the last two days saved in word and will get on formatting it with pictures, so look for an update tonight. Also a heads-up for all the worriers out there -- if we drop off the face for a couple of days, you can probably assume that it reflects issues with internet access (our only means of communication right now) and not an [View Full Entry]

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Suffice it to say that today went much better than yesterday on any number of levels, and we learned one very important thing - it would be almost impossible to make the most out of a trip to Beijing without having some local friends with you. The generosity and friendliness of the people here is astounding and the people we have met have universally contributed to making this an amazing trip Our day began with arranging transportation into the city from the compound, where we were going to meet some students from Beijing Foreign Studies who would show us some of [View Full Entry]

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Hi there folks. Well, it's almost 2AM in Beijing, and my body just decided to realize it's in China, so I'm wide awake, and thought I would fill you in on our trevails in the process of getting here. Thankfully, we stayed in KC the night before the trip so we didn't have to tack on an additional few hours to an already long trip. We had some issues with the weight limits for bags in going through KCI (they're really sensitive about 6lbs and I think some of these burly union workers need to suck it up). Thus, we all [View Full Entry]

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Hi there folks. After some research as to what blogging service would be accessible from China, I settled on this as a venue for posting updates and pictures of my trip to Beijing. The blogging won't begin in earnest until the 16th of May once I hit the ground running, but a few points of information you might find interesting... We'll be serving as guest adjudicators for the FLTRP Cup, which is the most prestigious debate tournament in China. Our accommodations: We're being put up in what from all accounts is a beautiful convention center in Daxing, which is a southwestern [View Full Entry]

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