What's Up Civilisation?!

Hey everyone!

Sorry we've been terrible at updating this. The internet doesn't work in our dorm rooms unfortunately (well, little else seems to work at this tournament). We're well into day 3 of this tournament and the LSE teams have been plodding along with some moments of brilliance (Sean and Zhi haven't killed each other) and instances where things have gone tits up (Anser being well and truly ill).

As far as rounds have been going the LSE teams have entered day 3 of the tournament on the following points after 6 rounds.

LSE A - 12
LSE B - 12
LSE C - 10

All in all we've been having a good tournament and hopefully we'll make the break tonight!

So what's really being going on? In brief because we're about to start round 8, here's what we've each been up to:

Anser
Anser had a bad case of the flu, Judith took him to the sketchiest hospital in the Southern hemisphere, Anser disappeared but was found with family friends in city (only Pakistanis will have family in all corners of the world), he was previously held up in a small dark room in the Kenyan airport as the organising committee thought it'd be awesome not to give him a real visa but a photocopy instead.

We're Alive!

We're alive. We've got far too many stories. This is the third world in all its glory. There is no internet or toilet paper (I'm not joking about this one).

LSE A is on 8 points in Round 4
LSE B is on 9
LSE C is on 7

We'll update more after Round 5, hopefully the internet will still be working.

Judith

The Long and Winding Road

Hello from Heathrow!

People say that traveling to Botswana is a difficult process and now it seems I understand why. In fact, it's got nothing to do with Botswana and everything to do with London. Tube strikes and a broken Heathrow Express have already claimed a victim in the form of Emmett who couldn't get a bus despite leaving his flat at 04:30! He took a cab to Paddington only to find the trains in the same state as the English at 6p.m on a Friday night and subsequently missed his plane to South Africa. Thankfully, Christmas/Boxing Day miracles prevail and he is now on a plane to the southern hemisphere and will be catching a bus from Jo-burg to Gaborone. Hopefully hysterical stories will come out of that leg of the trip. The good sort of hysterical, I mean.

John, Zhiheng and myself have braved the elements and have wound up in Heathrow safely from Toronto, Singapore and Paris respectively. The thought of another 11 hours on a plane is daunting but nothing a couple of Bloody Marys can't cure (the wonderful people on Singapore Airlines put me right to sleep for 13 hours this morning). Frankly, John and I have had it easy. Transiting from one terminal to another isn't a problem at all, Zhi's braved central London on Boxing Day on foot with luggage and no tube!

Finally, Anser is apparently in already in Botswana (minus points for being so keen) and Sean has finally gotten a visa and a passport to re-enter the UK (minus points for being so trusting of the Home Office) so the LSE team has stumbled through phase 1 of the journey to Botswana Worlds.

Lots of Christmas Love and Good Cheer To You All!
Judith

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

Hello Everyone!

We realised after our escapades in Turkey at last year's World University Debating Championships in Koc, that keeping a log of events would've helped us remember the events (of the night before) better, made us a little more honest in our story-telling once back in London and of course enabled us to keep you all updated with our successes from Day 1 till the Grand Finals.

This year we'll be heading to Botswana for a thoroughly exciting 10 days of debating on the edge of the Kalahari desert. We're sending 3 teams and 2 judges to Worlds. They are -

LSE A - Anser Aftab and John Ashbourne
LSE B - Sean Koh and Png Zhiheng
LSE C - Judith Jacob and Emmett Soldati

Judges: Quah Pern-Yi and Carlo Cabrera

Worlds begins on the 27th of December and we hope to be updating you constantly once we arrive.

Happy Holidays!
Judith