Last night my Internet went on the blitz (not unusual), so I only caught 2 minutes of the live translation of Obama’s inauguration.
They were a good two minutes. Right as he began to speak about our role in the world, I tuned in. An hour later, frustrated that I missed most of the speech, I ran into one of the African students who also lives here in the dorm. “Oh, it was great, did you see it?” he asked. Turns out, there were at least two rooms full of African students watching the broadcast live on other floors.
This morning I finally got to watch the whole speech, which had me a little teary-eyed, I admit. One of my German floormates had it going at full-volume an hour later.
Although I was disappointed not to hear the speech immediately, it was great to be here in Russia, knowing that people all around the world were watching and celebrating along with us.
Today I gave a local reporter a quick phone interview about the event, so I hope Novgorod residents enjoy hearing about my reaction and how I wasn’t the only foreigner here to gain new hope from our new president. Sometimes, it’s not so bad being the token American in town!
Happy Inauguration!
Update (January 22): Here’s the article where I’m quoted (it’s in Russian). Turned out well, except for the part where the reporter corrected my quote talking about the African students in our dorm to say “African American” students. Oops.
