February 13, 2013

We made it back to Valpo and after catching up on some much needed sleep, we are looking less and less like zombies with each passing day.

The reality of what we were able to accomplish continues to sink in and last night we had the honor of sharing our trophy and stories with the entire International Moot Court team. (Carry a giant trophy around definitley makes you feel like someone special.) We can only hope that our hard work, dedication and success continues to inspire the teams that we send around the world to various competitions.

Thank you to everyone that followed our blog and sent words of encouragement and congratulations. We couldn’t have done it without you!

-Lakshmi, Andi and Megan

We are in Paris right now, waiting for our next flight to Chicago. This was one whirlwind experience. The four days flew by so quickly, with non-stop action. I can’t believe we are about 8 hours away from being home. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

The people at Government Law College (the law school that hosted the competition) were the most gracious people I have ever met. They truly know how to put on an event. I cannot thank them enough for all they did for us.

I am so proud of my team and all the hard work finally paying off. This is definitely going to be a trip for the books, and one our team is surely never going to forget.

- Lakshmi

WE WON BEST TEAM!!!!! After a tough round against New York University, it was announced that Valparaiso University had won!!!!

Lakshmi was also awarded the honor of Best Speaker!

So as we are leaving on a jet plane tonight, we will leave the city of Mumbai and the country of India as undefeated at 7-0 with our first place trophy for Best Team!!!!!

-Andi, Lakshmi & Megan

February 9, 2013

Lakshmi is underselling all this just a bit. We were ranked 7th heading into the Octo-Rounds, 3rd heading into the Quarter-Finals and…………………………………………………………….we are now 1st heading into the Semi-Finals!

These girls are doing great and I can’t wait to see how they argue tomorrow!

Also, the internet connection isn’t strong enough to upload pictures so you will all have to wait. Sorry.

-Megan

February 9, 2013

Today, if you all are following this blog, was the day we had the octo-final round (made up of the top 16 teams) where we had to moot both sides and the quarter-final round (top 8 teams compete).

We did very well. Today we have successfully, not only qualified for the quarter-final round, but we are officially in the semi-finals.

We are ecstatic and can’t wait for the semi-final round bright and early tomorrow morning. Everyone out there, please keep your fingers crossed for us. We are taking one moot at a time… we are going to just keep swimming.

Till next time… it’s lights out from Mumbai.

-Lakshmi

February 8, 2013

After our two preliminary rounds today (one in the morning and one this evening), we advanced into the octo-rounds tomorrow morning. Out of the total 26 at the competition, we were ranked 7th overall!

Tomorrow morning we will argue each side once, for a total of two moots. We will then find out from those moots if we will advance into the quarter-final rounds. However, until then, it is time to focus on doing well in our moots tomorrow morning.

Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful messages and support! It is great to know how much support we have from back home!

-Andi

Today is the day Andi and I get to compete. This is the time when the past 6 months of hard work, sweat, tears will finally pay off. Let’s do this… it’s GO TIME!!!!

- Andi & Lakshmi

February 7, 2013

Today was the official start of the competition. We were expecting a simple orientation meeting followed by the Researcher’s test, but Law Government College had much more planned for us. It quickly turned into a 9 hour day that ended with us receiving our first opponent’s brief to prepare for tomorrow morning.

I took the test and the feedback from all the other researcher’s that I spoke to seemed to mimic my own sentiments. Luckily, the score from the test does not effect the scores for our oralists. I’ve pretty much given up my dream of winning the prize rupees in this category.

After the test, we got to see one of the more affluent neighborhoods as we traveled from the college to Sahyadri State Guest House on Malabar Hill. This beautiful venue was the site of a panel discussion, which we all enjoyed a great deal, and the group photo, which we enjoyed quite a bit less. (While Lakshmi is constantly smiling, Andi and I are much less pleasant without adequate sleep.)

As luck would have it, the first team we face in the morning is one of the first teams that we were introduced to. That seems to be how these things always work out. Lakshmi and Andi are even more motivated since they especially want to beat these English boys and their game faces have been on all night.

We only have a little bit of time to look over their brief and try to get some sleep before we have to get an early start tomorrow. But, by tomorrow night we will have completed both of our Preliminary rounds and find out whether or not we have advanced. So keep your fingers crossed! Hopefully we will even have a little time to post some pictures. Again, fingers crossed.

-Megan

February 6, 2013

After 29 hours of traveling, 3 flights and 1 somewhat frightening cab ride, we have finally arrived at our hotel. Time to get a little sleep before the events start in a few hours. Hopefully we will have some pictures soon.

-Megan