July 30 - The Conclusion of the MTT Tournament

After a full day of debating (and judging!), we have just learned, that, unfortunately, none of the MTT teams that the Brother Rice debaters were assigned to broke to quarterfinals. The following are the overall team records, excluding the fifth round, which was a non-disclosure round:

John's MTT Team: 3-2 (picking up 10 ballots and dropping 5)
Nick's MTT Team: 3-2 (picking up 8 ballots and dropping 7)
Yuri's MTT Team: 3-2 (possibly picking up 8/9 ballots and dropping 7/6)

While the MTT tournament and the entire 2011 Youth Forum concludes tomorrow, we cannot, unfortunately, participate in the final day of the the Forum. The day's activities primarily take place in the Beykoz campus of the Doğa Schools (a very distant campus from the hotel and airport), and the Forum does not provide transportation back to the hotel until midnight, it is not going to be feasible to participate when our transportation for our 5:50AM flight out of Istanbul leaves at 2:00AM from the hotel. While I was honored to be selected as a quarterfinalist judge, unfortunately, the logistics of tomorrow conflicts with the Youth Forum schedule.

During the day, Mr. and Mrs. Tolksdorf visited Sultanahmet again: the Haghia Sopia, the outside of the Basilica Cistern, the Hippodrome, and the Obelisk of Theodosius.

After the day concluded, we travelled to Bağdat Caddesi to eat at the Sayar Restaurant, and enjoyed some delicious and filling Turkish food. The journey by cabs today was uneventful, other than the cab we had back from Bağdat was tricked out. Aside from custom rims, the steering wheel and gear shift lever had aftermarket wood paneling, the dashboard had a video-interface sound system, and along the I-pillar on the driver's side, was a carbon fiber set of three guages - RPMs, oil pressure, and water temperature, all of which glowed blue.

Pictures from today:
Rough order: Sultanahmet: Hippodrome/Obelisk of Theodosius (Egyptian Obelisk), Serpant ColumnGerman Fountain, Haghia Sophia and outside the Basilica Cistern


Post: Alex