No need to tell people I'm from Canada anymore

So, I hear there was some sort of election in the US on Tuesday. How'd that go for you? Actually I should know the answer to that...as its all anyone's been talking to me about for the past 2 days. The people in my hall start chanting O-BAM-A when they pass my room. I've been congratulated even. Well gosh that's nice, but I didn't do anything. I didn't even vote (I know, I'm a bad American) Since I haven't been doing anything too exciting this week, I figure I'd share with you some of the things I've noticed regarding people's attitudes towards America and the election.

First, on the subject of America in general, only two cities seem to matter to the students here. When I ask if they've been to the states, they've either been to New York or LA, or want to go to New York or LA. Most people have heard of Chicago, but believe it to be on the east coast, somewhere warm with no snow. People have heard the name Iowa before but don't know anything about it. Probably a good thing, as the few who do know are relentless with the comments on corn and barn dances (I swear, I've never been to one!) In one of my lectures last week, the professor was talking about genetically engineered corn. He said- Believe it or not, in America, there are entire states devoted to growing corn!- I think I may know a little something about those. No one seems to know how many states there are either. Sometimes I'll ask, usually the answer I get is 48. Then I correct them and go on to recite all of the states alphabetically in song form. Europeans are impressed by this.

Now onto the election, because I'm sure you haven't read enough about that on the internet already.... For the past 3 months, I have been asked time and time again what I think about the election. For the most part, the Europeans tend to be in support of Obama. And although I'm not that well informed, I managed to stay more informed than all of them. So I could answer most of their questions, like "So is McCain a Democrat or Republican?" After awhile, the constant talks about the election started to get on my nerves. I'd be at a party, having a good time, when someone would come up to me and say- You're American right? What do you think of Obama's plan to blah blah blah- and I'd answer, because I'm nice like that, but secretly I just wanted to get away. At one such party, I was talking to a student from Iran, who asked what I thought about Bush. I gave my standard answer of saying something he's not my favorite, a lot of Americans disagree with his policies, and so on, and then he responded telling me that he and a lot of people in Iran, especially young ones, like George Bush. I was surprised by this. He said it was because he puts a lot of pressure on the Iranian government so they can still have a few liberties. It was his dream to go study in America. It seems to be a lot of people's dream here. "Just to see what's so great about it."

So anyways the election is over now, so maybe all the questions will be over too, we'll see. Some of the Swiss boys on the floor stayed up until 4 am and watched the results on election night, while the American (me) slept. I wish I could have been back in Ames to watch with all my American friends. It would have been even cooler to be in Chicago. But its also an interesting perspective to see people's reactions here. And I've seen how excited people are about America, and even in the subjects I'm studying, the US seems to set the bar for everyone else. So I guess I'm lucky. Even if I have a lame accent or overweight friends, the US is pretty sweet. (Totally kidding about you being overweight btw, you look great!)

I read that newspapers announcing Obama's victory are selling out quickly all over the world. So here's a little something from Sweden. The newspaper I usually read (or attempt to read)

Wait? So George Bush was Obama all along? I knew it!