Thursday, April 30, 2009

Obamamania



When I was in China last summer, Kobe was the celebrity in the spotlight; this year in Europe, it's Obama. And I quite literally mean a celebrity; Obama is everywhere: his face is on everything, his posters cover every surface possible, and he is always on people's minds and entering into conversation. I started off my semester watching the inauguration in a random pub, finally feeling proud of my country for the first time in a long time. Since then, it's not uncommon to have a conversation go:

ME: "I'm American,"
EUROPEAN: "OBAMA!!!!!"

The Obama-related interrogations are definitely made easier by the fact that I have always been a firm Obama supporter, but these conversations are always a little bit tricky since I have lived out Obama's first months on the outside. As of right now, the only things I know about how things are going under our new president is from media and hearsay, so it will be quite interesting to re-enter an Obamafied America. But nevertheless, how refreshing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Shelby! My name is Seth, I'm a sophomore at the University of Rhode Island, and I'm deeply considering going to Copenhagen for study abroad with DIS. This would probably be my only time going abroad to study so I want to make it a memorable one! I found your blog on the DIS website and I'd love to hear more about your experience in Denmark, as I too am looking for a social experience, as well as a great time learning about a new culture! If you could either email me back, facebook, whatever, that would be awesome! Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing all about it!

-Seth Carreiro