This is the day we finally met the Chinese teams and were put into a larger competition group. Because of the food the night before and the day ahead of us, saying that butterflies were in my stomach would be an understatement. When we got to the location, Madi and I thought that we could hide in the back of the room and avoid social interaction … how wrong we were. When we arrived at the facility, we were told to prepare a small statement about who we were, why we were in Cheng Du, and a special skill that we had. Now, unbeknownst to us, we were the only American team that could speak Chinese, and when we got up to the podium and started giving our statement, a gasp from all the students and faculty could be heard. We were giving our statement in Chinese! The rest of the day went really smoothly after that, and we could tell that the group that we were put with was really smart and qualified. In fact, the next day the teams in our pool actually won all their debates (including us) and we became the Champion Pool! -Eon Kounalakis, Grade 11
Convent & Stuart Hall Travel 