Election Day 2008!

Election Day 2008 – 4 novembre 2008

(I wrote this mainly for me just so I have an account of what I did for the elections! Not that interesting--just tells what I did on Election Day and the day after--but read if you'd like!)

After not sleeping well the night before—I woke up at 4 am and it took foreeeever to go back to sleep—I woke up extra early on Tuesday to read all the newspapers, websites, etc. online with election excitement! The day we’ve been waiting for for 8 years, the culmination of nearly two full years of campaigning, is finally here! The couple days before Tuesday, I’d read articles online for two hours before even starting my day…pitiful! I ate breakfast with my family who was very excited and optimistic for the election and went to normal Tuesday classes. Sooo difficult to concentrate, although everyone afterwards agreed that that was the longest Travaux Pratiques class yet. I ran home after class to read/watch more of the coverage online, ate a quick lunch, and then hopped on the tram to go back to campus for Translation…which turned out to be canceled! The teacher never showed up so we just left after 15 minutes. What a perfect day for that to happen! I went to the BU bureau with Clare and Monica where we took care of some random business and found out details about our election party. Then we went to Monoprix and bought snacks for the election party chez moi.

I mostly hung out at home all afternoon, continuing to read newspapers online, watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report, network coverage of the day, live streaming MSNBC video, etc. Around 22h I met up with Clare, Rachel, Max, Lauren, Marion and the Julias at Bukana Pub, where the owner was super excited for the election and gave us a free drink in honor of Obama! He also had these black cowboy-like hats that he put on himself and me and we did the Uncle Sam Wants You finger-pointing pose haha. He turned on CNN for us even though it was only 5 pm in the States and nothing was happening yet. We hung out for a while, random people came to talk to us about the election, and then Clare and I left and went back chez moi where Kelly met us!

Mathis was still up so we watched part of some movie before realized we needed election coverage as it was almost 1 am! We went down to my room with popcorn courtesy of Clare in hand and turned on NBC’s live streaming election coverage with Brian Williams! From then we just hung out all night watching and cheering and eating delicious St. Felicien cheese, among other things! Kelly fell asleep very briefly, Clare slept for maybe three hours, but I did not sleep a second! I was not a bit tired at any point either…so exciting! It was looking good all night long, of course, with Obama winning Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. And then a little after 5 am, they called it for Obama! We were all completely dumbfounded and shocked that it was called so early and suddenly! It was such a surreal moment seeing hundreds of thousands of cheering people in Chicago’s Grant Park and even news commentators without words. Shortly thereafter, McCain gave a speech from Phoenix conceding in what we all thought was a gracious and surprisingly good speech (if only he’d campaigned that way, he might have had a chance…).

After McCain’s speech we quickly got ready to leave to go to the BU office for our 6 am party to watch results come in (although it was decided already!). We arrived shortly after Marie-Eve at ten till 6; I quickly set up my computer and pulled up NBC right as Obama was taking the stage in Chicago for his victory speech! Kelly, Clare, Marie-Eve and I all watched the speech there as other BU students trickled in, some already knowing the result and others still unaware. Obama’s speech was, of course, incredible and very moving and emotional. I especially liked the part about the centegenarian from Atlanta who had voted. Obama talked about how when she was young she was unable to vote for two reasons: she was black and a woman. He then talked about all that the United States had accomplished in her lifetime ending each line with “Yes we can!” Very moving thinking about how far America has come in the last 100 years and how far it could and will go in my lifetime.

We continued watching more coverage after Obama’s speech and eventually watched it again as more students hadn’t yet seen it. We hung out for a while, eating croissants with tea/coffee while being interviewed by reporters from France 2. People eventually cleared out to go to class, but as I didn’t have class until 10h40, Anna and I stayed and just continued talking for a while. I was planning on skipping class and just going home and sleeping, but no one else was going to, so I felt like I should go—plus it’d be a fun day with Obama’s victory. But the deciding factor was when Anna and I decided that we should buy champagne to take to class. We went to Les Halles where I bought two bottles of champagne (one for class, the other for dinner with my family that night). I went home to be greeted by Alain shouting “Yes we can!” with a heavy French accent! It was very exciting…Maé and Alain were both really happy and pleased with the results (like every single French person) and we talked about the election and my night for a while before I left and went to shower and read and watch coverage.

I then went to class where upon seeing I’d brought champagne, Mme. Juliers gave me the bises! She apparently loves champagne and proceeded to take 15 minutes explaining to us how to “sabrer” a bottle of champagne—opening it with a saber or heavy knife. We then all toasted the election and a better world and drank champagne (at 10:30 am!) while going around the room and saying what the election meant to us and what we thought of it. Very fun!

I then went home after class to read more and watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report live hour-long special from election night over lunch. Then I went to bed and slept for 3 hours, waking very oddly to my alarm, where I ran over to the BU office to get BU Libéré. Then I came back home with Clare who was having dinner at my house to celebrate that night.

My family said we were going to have un repas amélioré in honor of Obama’s victory! It ended up being tons of fun of course! They had some friends over to prendre l’apéritif which was very entertaining. We had port to drink along with these homemade cheese straw-like things, olives and smoked salmon. We discussed the election of course and French society and politics in general. It was hilarious because it was so typically French! Everyone was yelling and talking at the same time about everything, even though they all agreed on the issues they were discussing! So funny! The friends left and we then ate dinner. We started off with champagne before dinner and with a great salad. At one point I was trying for literally 30 seconds to get a piece of salad on my fork that turned out to be a leaf from the sunflower decoration imprinted on the plate! It was hilarious and everyone cracked up about it for a long, long time! For the main course we had blintzes which are very different in France than in the US. It was essentially pancakes that you top with smoked salmon, fish eggs, lemon juice and cream, or whatever you want of that. Very good nonetheless though! This was served with a nice Vacqueyras red wine.

Next came the cheese course, a nice board consisting of Picodon, Roquefort, St. Marcelin, Comté, a tomme of chèvre and vache, and St. Felicien. After cheese came fruit (pears and great green grapes) and then dessert, really good pear and chocolate ice cream. Alain then brought out some marrons glacés, this chestnut candy that was really good, albeit sweet, that we enjoyed with the rest of the champagne.

Funny story from the night: Mathis (just like his father) was being all negative about Obama saying nothing’s happened yet, we have to wait and see if he can live up to what he’s promising, etc. So I told him to stop being a party pooper, teaching him that English expression by translating it into French for him and his parents. He then translated that back into English, “stop shitting on our party” which Clare and I found hysterical! We all laughed about it for a long time and kept saying it throughout the night (and subsequent days!). Soon enough we looked at the clock and realized it was midnight, so Clare had to leave to catch the tram! I went to sleep pretty much immediately and slept 11 hours, skipping my morning French class because I felt quite bad when I woke up for it since I didn’t sleep the previous night!

I went to the university to meet Sam, my tandem partner, for lunch and Mme. Juliers saw me in line, saying “You weren’t in class today, Geoffrey!” as she walked by. She came back and started talking to me and Sam and ended up cutting in front of us in line. Then, she paid for our lunches! I found it pretty hilarious that I don’t go to class and she pays for my lunch! Very exciting few days and I think the feeling that Obama’s going to be our next president is still sinking in! Yay for America! I’m so proud of my country for the first time in a long time!