Election Night

US Election Watch Party

Being abroad on election day: quite an experience. Never have I followed media coverage on an election day closer than I did last night.

Last night the Oxford Union hosted an Election Night Social for its members. I arrived at the Union at 10pm with Adrie, Britney, and other Olivia and there we joined other students to watch the US election results come in on a TV projection. There were beer, burgers, and other "American food," or what the Union thought was American food (like Pringles and Donuts).

I'm really having difficulty describing the feeling of being one of the few Americans in a room of British students watching news coverage over MY country. My best analogy: I felt like I was a football fan at a Superbowl party with people who were there strictly for the snacks. The result was an extreme feeling of patriotism and I then found myself giving lessons to the British students around me on American politics.

I left the Union around 2am when my eyes started drooping heavily and returned to the flat where I crawled in bed with my laptop still streaming the results. It wasn't until 5am that I could break myself away and go to sleep (this was also the time that the winner was called). I slept through the rest of the morning and have been sitting at my computer with coffee ever since I woke up, watching the speeches and more coverage of last night.

I do not like to post political things online and try to avoid making political statements in general (unlike my brother who sent me a text at 5am letting me know that I could sleep easy because Obama had won). But being in another country while America was celebrating a day of democracy, really made me feel more political than ever. I got so wrapped up in political thoughts and the "American spirit," that soon the cheers and boos, or worse, the inattention to the TV from the British Oxford students began to greatly irk me. I might have gotten a little carried away: when a guy took my friend's seat, I tapped him on the shoulder and said it was taken. He shrugged and turned his back on me. "OH HELL NO," I thought. And then I pressed my knee into his chair hoping he would be uncomfortable and move. When he didn't I could physically feel myself getting angry, because here I was trying to celebrate my country while this douche-bag sat in front of me, oblivious to the importance that this night was to me. So I stole his beer... DON'T MESS WITH ME! USA! FREEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!! I really wanted to pursue a fight with him further...but his ability to come in and claim the seat for his own, Christopher Columbus style, was honestly the most American thing I'd seen all night.