Obama-rama!

Witnessing such a historic event was pretty cool. Sadly, I'm pretty well stuck in an expat bubble where I only have real contact with Americans and Canadians. I am happy to report that everyone I know over here is pretty excited about the Obama victory.

It was interesting to experience election day half way across the world. While everyone at home was staying up late to watch the results, my co-workers and I all had our computers up so that we could check the counts during our break times. Of course the Americans were a little more excited about the constant updates, but I was surprised at the level of interest from the Canadians. I would say most of the Canadians in my office have a working knowledge of American politics, some more so then myself. They say they have always been aware of the candidates in our elections. It kind of makes me feel like an idiot that I have no idea who their country's leader is, let alone when their election is, or who is running.

As I said before, I haven't had a chance to really get a Korean's take on the election. However, when we were all gathered around one computer listening to Obama's acceptance speech streaming form a computer our Korean supervisor walked in. When she realized what we were listening to she said "Oh, Obama. Yay!"

There was a moment in the office on Wednesday that I don't think I will ever forget. At one point Obama said "for those huddled around radios in forgotten corners of the world" (or something like that) and we all cheered. At the same time that the election results started to sink in, I also was hit with jsut how far away I am. It gave me goose bumps just to hear his voice. It's a very exciting time. We all keep talking about how historic this is and how proud we are to be around to see it happen (Americans and Canadians alike). If I have one regret from coming to Korea, it's that it kept me from being in Grant Park on the evening of November 4, 2008. I am so jealous of all of you who were there.