Obama!!!

Obama won! Woo! Queue up Hail to the Chief!

So yeah, I was and still am a very committed Barack Obama supporter and fan, and I watched eagerly the election results on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning. The problem, of course, was that the first polls didn't close until 12am London time, and Obama wasn't projected as the winner until 4:30am. I think a combination of nerves, excitement, and probably copious amounts of alcohol contributed to my ability to stay up that late...

I spent my time in what turned out to be a huge party at one of the LSE's cafes on campus. It had been a stressful week because, as External Liaison of the Democrats Society, I was delegated the responsibility of receiving emails from people who wanted to join in on the festivities. Our society is actually quite badly organised, which is discouraging, and I only ran for the position because it's going to look good on my resume, and it turns out I actually have to do something! Fancy that. So someone put my email address on the Democrats Abroad UK website, along with the event information, and I received roughly 70 emails over the course of the week - about half within the 36 hours prior to the party - and I had a bit of a time answering all of their questions, in part because I wasn't informed of half the answers. Finally, 12 hours from go time, I got everything down and was able to send out a huge mass email and releive my stress once and for all.

Why I felt the need to tell you all of that just now is beyond me, but it turned out that the party had around 500 people. When I got there, they weren't even letting people in because it had reached max capacity - I sweet-talked the guard though and he let me in because I had two cases of champagne that we (the Dems Society) were going to sell later in the night. It was a great atmosphere, with students and people from all over. I would say only about 50% of the party was Americans, which gave it an interesting vibe and it was nice to get differing perspectives. Almost everyone was an Obama supporter, and when he won a state there was massive cheering... as opposed to the loud boos when McCain was projected winning a state. Also, I got interveiwed by an Iranian TV station. Check it out: http://www.presstv.com/Detail.aspx?id=74402&sectionid=3510301 (click the link, and then click the little video camera next to the title)

When Obama was projected winner mayhem ensued, and it was not unlike the scenes you must have witnessed in the press all over the country and the world. I was very impressed with John McCain's concession speech, and I hope his legacy isn't tarnished by the fact he sold his soul to the Devil in order to win the Republican primary. The victory speech was amazing, which is expected by Barack at this point, but I think he did an excellent job of keeping it sober (he cancelled the fireworks even before he knew he had won) and, what I like most, reiterating his call on young people to serve their country in some way shape or form.

But now it's story time. Yay!

After the party was over... 5:30am? A bunch of my friends and I decided it would be a great idea to wander through Westminster (London) to find a breakfast place to eat. Somehow we ended up in Trafalgar Square, which is an amazing place in itself. Go check out pictures on google. Anyway, I thought it vastly appropriate to pop a champagne bottle right in the middle of the square. It was perfect! Great place, a bunch of crazy drunk Americans... and cops. Lots of cops. In fact, one of them decided to let us have a piece of his mind. I've roughly reconstructed the conversation:

"Hey! Listen up!

1. This is not America. This is Great Britain.

2. You are way too loud and bothering people.

3. I don't care about America.

4. I don't care who won the American election.

5. I am not American, I am English.

(and this is when he looked me in the eyes because I was holding an open bottle of champagne, which is apparently legal everywhere except Westminster?)

6. If I see any of you drinking alcohol, I will write you a ticket right here for 300 pounds.

Go away right now or I will arrest you."

Besides the redundancy and blatant disrespect, not to mention the fact that Trafalgar square is entirely composed of stores, museums, and gigantic concrete statues (exactly whom were we bothering?), I found the man quite charming... and persuasive.

We did end up finding an eatery in Leicester Square, and I arrived home roughly around 8:00am. It was a wonderful night, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

I think that's probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the last week. This weekend is my first hockey game at Oxford, Monday is birthday extravaganza, and next weekend I'm going to Barcelona.

Other than that, school work is getting a little out of hand. I mean, I'm keeping up OK, but the amount of work is seriously stupid. When are we students supposed to have time to party and travel? In fact, I've written this post entirely on the premise of procrastinating finishing an essay due tomorrow afternoon!

...And on that note, I bid you adieu.