Early End

So...today was the last and fourth round of the preliminary competitions. Steve and Arli had this round, and they KICKED ASS. After the 85 minute round, both Jason and I were like- HOLY CRAP. That was FANTASTIC. They were SOOO good. It was ridiculous. They went against Peking University, who were really aggressive, but they held their own and TOTALLY won the round. The session just went so well, and I was blown away. Everyone in that room were- judges, mediator, coaches, observers, etc.

Steve and Arli as Team Awesome.

Prepping for the session.

With the Chinese team and a really fantastic mediator.

The four of us came back and totally passed out for a bit before venturing out again. We wanted to go to the Musee D'Orsay, but ...it was CLOSED. Monday = CLOSING TIME. No bueno. So we walked around, and by this time, we are extremely comfortable in the part of Paris that encompasses the Louvre-Arc du Triomphe-Eiffel Tower-Champs Elysees area. So instead, we walked from Musee D'Orsay back through Champs Elysee and stopped by a France in Relief museum. It is the COOLEST museum ever, especially for topography/map lovers. These reliefs of all of France were done in the 1800s-now, and they are exact miniatures of these small French towns/cities. It was really neat. We did take some really cool pictures:

The four of us are the ones in the mirror. This is to give a scale of just how big these reliefs are.

They had this photo booth thing...that we couldn't figure out...

We thought they were silhouettes

Until some guy showed us it WASN'T...

I swear we're smart enough for law school...

We went back to our hotel afterwards, and got ready for the reception at Jones Day for the competitors. Um....Jones Day is in a freakin MUSEUM. Not kidding. Will post more pics as I get them from my teammates, but they had this 18th century style French bed, and every single room in there looked like we were walking through the Versailles. Service was impeccable, and wine/champagne/hors d'oeuvres. ....at last, the winners were announced....

Jones Day. One of the rooms. It was just absolutely ridiculous.

So...American has always had a really good showing at this competition, and we even won one year. The competition has evolved a lot in the past couple years, and this year there were 68 schools entered. Only 16 schools advance to the next round. They also give out 'special awards' at this reception, and there are a handful- best mediation plan, best opening, best overall performance, best advocacy, and best improvement. Well, I am proud to say that we won Best Teamwork! We did not advance to the semi-finals rounds, but I am proud we got this special recognition. Our teamwork dynamic is the best in the competition, that's pretty big, and saying something. The 16 schools who advanced were excellent and well-prepared, and we do wish them the best.

Since we weren't part of the 16 teams who had to wake up at 7am the next morning to compete, we stayed at the Jones Day reception and went out to the competition bar afterwards with the rest of the mediators and judges. many were surprised to see that we did not advance, but it is what it is. We all had a great time hanging out with the people from the competition. Meeting all these people from around the world really is something.