On my second day here, i attended a study abroad orientation, where an "Obama Inauguration" gathering was offered. Well, today i, along with a couple hundred and some other American students and faculty members attended that event, and it was exciting, fun, and at the very least, interesting.
It was scheduled to be held in the Student Services Center, which is kind of like MSU's student union, at 4:30, but as we were watching before the coverage on some tv's in the food court area, we could tell that it was getting close to the actual swearing in, so when they finally did let us into the room, it was kind of a bum rush. It did end up being worth the wait though. The had couches and rows of chairs set up, American foods like onion rings, sandwiches, small fried chicked wings, and of course oriental dipping sauce, as well as American beverages like Coke and everyone's favorite American-brewed Belgian-owned beer, Budweiser. The Study Abroad advisor for UCD, who is definitely Irish, organized the event and was wearing a button that said "G0 Obama OK". She's a funny lady....at the end of the event when everyone was leaving she asked a few of us "What are you all doing later?" when i said "I don't think much of anything, i have a 9 am class tomorrow." she seemed dissapointed that we weren't going to some sort of American party or out to a pub to celebrate; the Irish seem willing to use any excuse to go have a pint, even the inauguration of a foreign president.
Anyway, once we were admitted to the reception room, there did end up being a few minutes before President Obama (I love being able to say that!!!) was sworn in, in which we were coached by one of the faculty members to shout "Yes we can!" in unison for the tv camera of a local news station.
Everyone did quiet down when the swearing in began, and it remained that way until the end of President Obama's (oh my gosh that's not going to get old) speech, with the exception of a few outbursts of applause at the appropriate moments, a few jeers whenever the camera panned to former (YESSS!!!) President Bush, and a few laughs at the awkward "SSashaah" of Pastor Rick Warren's otherwise eloquent blessing.
I found President Obama's speech very powerful, even from thousands of miles away. Our small crowd's reaction mirrored the reactions of the crowd in Washington D.C. Parts of the speech rang even truer than i think they ever could have at home, like when Obama talked about the immigrants from a multitude of other countries and their difficult journeys, but ultimate successes in making the United States into one of the strongest countries in the world. Oh, i could go on, but i'll try to not make this post too long.....
Although i envied all those at home, and especially those in D.C., i do value the experience of watching such a uniquely "American" event in another country, and then being able to hear the reactions of people from other countries. When i did ask a few people from my dorm that are from various parts of the world what they thought of the transition, they uniformly agreed that Obama would be a definite improvement over Bush, especially in areas of foreign policy, but i have also heard people bring up issues like how ideas that Obama has developed in order to improve OUR economy might not necessarily help other countries or even hurt other countries, as we turn to more protectionist policies in order to recover from such a great economic collapse. Ugh, again i could babble on, but i think i'll end on a happy note.....YES WE DID!!!
It was scheduled to be held in the Student Services Center, which is kind of like MSU's student union, at 4:30, but as we were watching before the coverage on some tv's in the food court area, we could tell that it was getting close to the actual swearing in, so when they finally did let us into the room, it was kind of a bum rush. It did end up being worth the wait though. The had couches and rows of chairs set up, American foods like onion rings, sandwiches, small fried chicked wings, and of course oriental dipping sauce, as well as American beverages like Coke and everyone's favorite American-brewed Belgian-owned beer, Budweiser. The Study Abroad advisor for UCD, who is definitely Irish, organized the event and was wearing a button that said "G0 Obama OK". She's a funny lady....at the end of the event when everyone was leaving she asked a few of us "What are you all doing later?" when i said "I don't think much of anything, i have a 9 am class tomorrow." she seemed dissapointed that we weren't going to some sort of American party or out to a pub to celebrate; the Irish seem willing to use any excuse to go have a pint, even the inauguration of a foreign president.
Anyway, once we were admitted to the reception room, there did end up being a few minutes before President Obama (I love being able to say that!!!) was sworn in, in which we were coached by one of the faculty members to shout "Yes we can!" in unison for the tv camera of a local news station.
Everyone did quiet down when the swearing in began, and it remained that way until the end of President Obama's (oh my gosh that's not going to get old) speech, with the exception of a few outbursts of applause at the appropriate moments, a few jeers whenever the camera panned to former (YESSS!!!) President Bush, and a few laughs at the awkward "SSashaah" of Pastor Rick Warren's otherwise eloquent blessing.
I found President Obama's speech very powerful, even from thousands of miles away. Our small crowd's reaction mirrored the reactions of the crowd in Washington D.C. Parts of the speech rang even truer than i think they ever could have at home, like when Obama talked about the immigrants from a multitude of other countries and their difficult journeys, but ultimate successes in making the United States into one of the strongest countries in the world. Oh, i could go on, but i'll try to not make this post too long.....
Although i envied all those at home, and especially those in D.C., i do value the experience of watching such a uniquely "American" event in another country, and then being able to hear the reactions of people from other countries. When i did ask a few people from my dorm that are from various parts of the world what they thought of the transition, they uniformly agreed that Obama would be a definite improvement over Bush, especially in areas of foreign policy, but i have also heard people bring up issues like how ideas that Obama has developed in order to improve OUR economy might not necessarily help other countries or even hurt other countries, as we turn to more protectionist policies in order to recover from such a great economic collapse. Ugh, again i could babble on, but i think i'll end on a happy note.....YES WE DID!!!
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