Huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world

Well, after my last post, I ended up going out to see the new James Bond movie with the group (while it wasn't horrific [unless you ask Ciaran], it was a good waste of time that I otherwise would spend futilely refreshing CNN's website, even while knowing that the polls wouldn't even close until well after midnight over here)

After getting back, we set up our own little election party (if you can't read Ciaran's sign, it says "Go Democracy") - we had a pretty decent crowd at the beginning of the evening, though many slowly but surely headed

 off to bed as the evening wore on. (Patrick and Mionne kept coming in and out to check in, and Julia stayed up until just about the very end) We set up the live stream of MSNBC (fantastic, as it was great quality and - happily - just went mute with a picture of the two candidates during commercial breaks)

After the majority of the East Coast had come in and we saw that it would be about an hour before we started to hear about the middle states, we put in Arrested Development and took a break from the talking heads. (A really fantastic choice - I highly recommend it next time) We tuned again for the middle states to come out, then went back to AD for the next break. We pulled out the bags of American candy, as well as stuck a pizza in the oven. Patrick stuck his head in to say goodnight (and good luck) sadly only about 5 minutes before the West Coast (woot!) was called, and Obama was officially put over the 270 mark.

There was much whooping and hollering and loud music and candy thrown and dancing around the room. But, more to the point, we all kind of looked around and realized that we had just lived through a historic moment - right there and then. 

I loved being there with Brits, because I got to hear their perspective - not only from a European "we love Obama" perspective, but also to hear their take on American politics vs. British politics - and their views on Maggie, Tony, and Gordon. They marveled at the vote counts - over 50 million votes for each candidate. We cheered as the electoral votes for Obama just kept going up, and basically started to go a little crazy from the adrenaline, the fact that it was well past 5AM, and the massive amounts of sugar flowing through our veins.

We kept the video going to watch McCain's concession speech - for my part, I was really, really glad that this was such a clear-cut election, and that McCain got out there so soon - although I suspect that the polarization of America isn't going to go away that soon, thank God this wasn't another "we'll know in a few days" kind of election. We all agreed that McCain's speech was well-written, well-delivered, and very gracious - we also all agreed that he looked like he very desperately needed a nap and a cessation of stress and anxiety. And major kudos to Steve Schmidt for keeping Palin from making her own speech at the concession - the moment was John's, and he did an excellent job with a heartbreaking task.

Finally, Obama came out to give his acceptance speech and, after much screaming and cheering, we shushed and hushed and all - comically nearly simultaneously scooted our chairs closer to the computer. The speech was magnificent. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was Toby and Sam's writing, with some WG Snuffy playing in the background. We let out a cheer when he mentioned those of us listening abroad (and, when he mentioned those of us in the 'forgotten corners of the world', someone muttered, "that's us!" to laughter), and by the end of it Zara and I were crying, though I suspect the red eyes in the rest of the room were not entirely due to the lateness of the hour. True to the fact that I was surrounded by film students, when Obama was joined onstage by Biden and their families, se

t to music and lit beautifully and surrounded by cheering, crying people, we couldn't help wonder aloud if we had accidently put in a movie, rather than simply watching the news. 

Since it was nearly six, we simply hung out talking until 6:15, when we all (save Ciaran) wandered down to the bus station, gibbering maniacally and randomly shouting out YES WE CAN to any pointless question asked. Zara and I got off near Cemetery Junction, where we walked down to Bournemouth U in search of pancakes - when we found that the school cafeteria didn't open until 9, we simply went back to her place for Cornflakes. I arrived on campus to "help" with a film project of Julia and Patrick's - only to basically collapse on a bench outside the costume shop, coughing like the living dead. (Between the cough I already had, the screaming, the crying, the lack of sleep, and the very, very cold air, I didn't sound all that great) Patrick and Julia put me back on the bus, and I came back home and crawled into bed. I unfortunately woke too late to join the group for Bonfire Night in Wimbourne, but Bournemouth is having a fireworks festival this weekend, so I'll just head out to that and pretend it's still the 5th. :)