Election - November 2008

Wow! President-Elect Obama. Am still pinching myself, and finding myself happy, continuously. For those of you who wondered, indeed, the rest of the world was just as ecstatic as all those Obama supporters in the US about his winning the election. I would have liked to be in the US celebrating the resounding victory with my friends, but at this historic moment, to have been overseas celebrating with my European friends was also a memory to keep forever.

I awoke spontaneously at just after 3 a.m. in France on November 5th, realized immediately that it was just after 9 p.m. in the States, and that there would be initial results reporting. I turned on my radio and listened for the next few hours to the French stations announcing the electoral college tally. Finally, at just after 5 a.m. my time, as requested, my mom called me with the news, that the election had been called for Obama. So incredibly exciting! I waited until after 6 a.m. to send a texto to Priscilla to give her the great news. "Beautiful" she wrote back. At that point, I was listening to Barack's speech from Grant Park on the BBC news. It was one of the first times I had heard him speak in real time (live), and it was a magnificent speech. Chills went up my spine. This was history in the making - as trite a phrase as that now is!

Credit goes too to John McCain, for a very eloquent and supportive concession speech. I hope he does decide to go back to the guy he was, and continue to work hard on behalf of the people in America.

I am proud to be an American in Europe now. As one British paper's headline said yesterday, "America just became a little cool again."