Obama is already changing the world, and getting me free food!

    On the night of November 4th I could not sleep. I was on CNN.com constantly refreshing the electoral map page, making my own predictions, changing states from red to blue, giving Florida to McCain and seeing how close this race could be. But around 4 am CNN predicted that Ohio was going to go to Obama. That's all I needed to know. A tear rolled down my check and I went to bed. Finally, America gets it right.

     If you did or did not vote for Obama, we all know he is going to do a great deal for our nation. I remember reading something similar to "Your 2 cents worth" in a London paper, and one reader wrote "Wouldn't it be a shame if Obama didn't win with the entire world pulling for him?" Barack Obama is not just going to lead our nation, he has the ability to lead the world.

     I did not realize how America affected people outside of the country. I did not know how people looked TO us for guidance. While on our Northern trip my professor, Brenda Jones, gathered every newspaper possible with any relation to the election or photo of Obama. One article stuck out to all of us on the trip. It reads:

"From far away, this is how it looks:  There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim.  There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.

Tristram Hunt, a British historian, put it this way:  Obama “brings the narrative that everyone wants to return to — that America is the land of extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen.”

But wonder is almost overwhelmed by relief.  Obama’s election offers most non-Americans a sense that the imperial power capable of doing such good and such harm — a country that, they complain, preached justice but tortured its captives, initiated a disastrous war in Iraq, turned its back on the environment and greedily dragged the world into economic chaos — saw the errors of its ways over the past eight years and shifted course.” 

     While on our trip we ate dinner at a restaurant in Milan. It didn't take more than a second for the waiter to realize we were American and asked us if we were happy about Obama. We all said yes and this man, if possible, was more excited than us. Later 2 free appetizers were brought out for us to enjoy. 

     Later in Venice we had trouble getting into a museum. We could get in free if we were students, Italian students. It looked like we were going to have to pay a lot to get in. I shouted out that we voted for Obama. The man grinned, took our paper work and let us in for free.

     I have never felt uncomfortable being an American over here in Italy. The people here have always been friendly, however I have always felt judged. But now, no more. I think a burden has been lifted off the perception of America.

     I think the world is going to view us different. I think they have seen that we as a people were sick of corrupt politics and poor decisions. There is a new respect for America. America is now again, after so long, the nation of "extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen."