First of all, I didn't realize what a big deal the U.S. elections were to people here. I mean, I realize that America is a big country, and has a certain amount of clout, and that we like to stick our noses everywhere and as a result we do affect other countries. However, I don't think I was prepared for people here not only to be interested in the election, but also really well-read on the topic. As least most of the people I talked to.
The only problem with this was that some people came off as though it were more important to them (important as in it has more of an impact) than to me. I found myself in a couple of situations with various Scottish and other non-Americans when I was listening to how upset they would be if Romney won. Say what? I am the one who would be going to be going back to the country! Not them! One person told a girl on my floor that (in all seriousness) they should have the right to vote in American elections (He's from somewhere in the U.K.).
Anyway, the Politics Society here was hosting an Pajama Party in the campus pub to watch the BBC coverage of the elections all night. Thanks to the time difference, nothing really started happening until about midnight here-it was going to be a long night.
The place was packed-not just by Americans! And I guess America is the only place where a pajama party means wearing your pajamas. You could pick out the Americans because they (we) were the only ones actually wearing pajamas. Umburrassin! Everyone else (read=almost everybody in the pub) was wearing normal clothes. Oops. It was like living the scene in Mean Girls when Cady dresses up as something scary for a Halloween party, only to find out that that is not what you do!
Around 2, after drinks stopped being served, it cleared out a bit and we found some seats near a TV. At this point there were quite a few states that had been called and it was pretty neck-and-neck. BBC showed the same few interview clips of various Americans on the candidates and intermittently talked about other world news. For the most part everyone in the pub was hoping for Obama to win, although there were a handful of Romney supporters as well. There was also a table that just cheered for everybody. Hey now, this is not Little League!
At about 3, we went on a chocolate run to the vending machine. I was so tired! Not to mention I knew I had to be up to do stats analysis at 9am. Yuck!
Around 4 results for Ohio and Florida were still coming in. I decided I would go back to Geddes after they were called. This turned out to be a bad idea. I do believe BBC put it quite well when calling Florida "politically nightmarish" in their nice posh accents.
At about 4:30, when I couldn't take it anymore, I headed back to the residence hall. Of course, right after this Ohio was called, and people were unofficially officially calling the election.
Overall, despite all the sleep deprivation it was a really great experience! It was a good excuse to get a toffee nut latte the next day.
On a more random note: The next day (or later the same day), I participated in my friend's experiment for her biology class to test foraging behaviour/ability. You were given 7 1/2 minutes to walk around a field finding semi hidden golf balls numbered from 1-5 (leaving them in their place). After this, you were timed and had to run around and find enough gold balls to add up to a score of 40. I was the fastest of everyone-just 1 minute and 19 seconds! It was probably all the coffee I consumed.
No comments:
Post a Comment