Obamanation

So there we were, in front of the tiny tv in our common room: American, French, Canadian, English, Tunisian, Romanian, Czech, Italian, spellbound. Many of us had stayed up all night, watching the CNN broadcast from midnight on, we Americans trying desperately to explain the electoral college, the popular vote issues, red states and blue states and swing states. Laughing at the "holograms" and the tv personalities, praying for Obama, barely daring to hope as the map slowly turned bluer and the magic number approached 270.

At 5am, when they officially called Obama the president elect, we exploded. We screamed and hugged and laughed and jumped up and down and chased our coffee with champagne, and let out a huge collective sigh of relief. I had been so nervous for so long that I could barely believe it was real even when it was announced. We calmed down enough to listen to the speech by McCain, and waited through the same two commercials repeated interminably, until finally, Barack Obama, the president elect, addressed the nation. There was, for the first time all night, universal silence (and perhaps a few tears), as we all listened, giving no commentary until the final applause.

I am so happy I really can't write it. It has been bittersweet for me to be abroad for this election, which I have followed (if from afar) more closely than I have ever followed any one previously. On the one hand, watching the festivities on tv made me a little sad not to be there firsthand. On the other, all I had to do was look around to see half a dozen countries represented, the expressions on their faces making it perfectly clear they understood the importance and shared the joy of this moment. After all, hadn't they all stayed up all night on a Tuesday to watch it unfold? It is amazing the extent to which the entire world is watching us. The election has been hugely covered in all the French (and British, and Italian) newspapers I have been reading lately, and the entire world was in support of Obama. They could hardly believe someone like Sarah Palin was seriously being considered, and we are all very relieved to have dodged that bullet. I am exceedingly proud that, by electing Obama, the US has finally done something right in the eyes of our international neighbors. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful new chapter in our history, both for Americans at home and for people all over the world. So I leave you to go about my normal Wednesday tutoring business by saying, Good morning, America.