Election Fever

I'm away from the US, but somehow I don't think I can ever truly be away. The US is everywhere in the world, on TV and in the newspapers.  Sadly, when you're actually in the US the existence of this outside world is barely noticed or acknowledged.  

 The US Presidential election took place yesterday and well, if you have an internet connection you knew about it. St Andrews has a lot of American students, so yesterday there were all night parties at various places to watch the election unfold.  Even outside of St Andrews, there was a lot of talk and hype around the US election. Newspapers had large articles about the race in the weeks leading up to it, and television coverage was widespread.

One of my friends here had her birthday yesterday, so we went out to a pub for a while and then came back to hall and turned on the TV to watch the election. The BBC was covering it here. It was a little past midnight here before the first states had counted their votes and there were cheers when Obama won a state.

I didn't stay up all night. I was too tired for that, so I went to bed at two. I was not feeling too well however, and woke up at half four because I couldn't sleep. A  friend of mine sent me a text saying "Obama won" at about 4:35. Since I was still too ill to go back to sleep I made myself a cup of tea and turned on my computer to watch a few clips of the speeches from Obama and McCain. It was quite moving to see it all. Most people over here are happy because they wanted Obama to win. This goes for both the US citizens as well as the non-US citizens out here. 

I was never truly interested in American politics, largely because I am not an American citizen as yet. But I have been reading about the presidential race while I've been in St Andrews. Maybe it's the fact that I'm here and the people here are interested in politics or maybe it's the very nature of this election, which going by the numbers, seems to have brought a lot more people out to vote and seems to have reached a lot of people.

It somehow feels like America has won back a bit of respect from the rest of the world, by electing Barack Obama as President,  the first African-American to hold that high office. It truly is a momentous time in history. It is hard to imagine that just half a century ago, blacks in America did not have the same rights as whites, and now today, Barack Obama is President. The American people have proved that they can see beyond colour and race, and the face of America has changed. The world will see a new America and one in which, as Obama said "all things are possible."

Maybe it won't be so bad to be a US citizen after all.

EDIT: The UK papers a day later.