So...

The past few days have been pretty eventful.  On election day here in Amsterdam there was a variety of election parties.  These weren't even all aimed toward Americans.  It's interesting that most of the Dutch (and other Europeans I meet) are acutely aware of the influence the US has on their own countries.  I have not seen excitement like this about an election even in the United States.

I ended up going to an election party at a movie theater/student cafe by the university called Kriterion.  They played CNN on one of the large screens in one of the theaters, had guest speakers from the consulate and the university, a band, etc.  With the time difference it didn't even start here until 12am and by the time I got home it was almost 7am.  I watched everything, poll results coming in, to the speeches at the end with McCain and Obama.  I definitely felt like it was worth it.  

Personally, even though I know many of my family members (and even some very close friends) don't agree with me, I was and am very glad to see Obama elected.  He may not be perfect, but I don't think anyone is and I personally feel like he will do his best to work with everyone and promote positive change.  I know that there are many people who would have rather had McCain elected but I hope that Obama does a good enough job to show some of you that it wasn't a horrible mistake.  I have a bachelor's degree in political science and most of the family I think is pretty aware that I am toward the left, however I respect everyone's opinions and feel that voting should be a personal choice.  I was not the biggest Bush supporter but I would never bash anyone that voted for him.  It is more important that you participate in the political process to me.  I am very disappointed to see many people I know ranting about all of the "crazy people" who voted for Obama.  He may not be their choice, but they should still respect other's views.  The fact is, even with Bush as president there are millions of people who did not like the way he was running the country (also I think this is evidenced by the most recent election) but I like to hope that Obama will be able to bring people together more as he has said he hopes to do instead of the extremely divisive party politics I have seen all my life growing up (and first hand working at the legislature in AZ for the Supreme Court).  

Enough of politics... all we can hope for is that the country's situation improves.

I am working on my thesis again all weekend.  It is going to be a very busy week next week as well.  We did make the time yesterday to go see the new James Bond movie on the night of premier.  It was good, very action packed.  Do not expect a deep plot line.  I have only seen 2 James Bond movies out of the over 20 that exist though so I honestly don't know how this measures up in comparison to the others.  The picture below is of Sandi (my friend visiting from NY) and I on "museumnacht".  She is gone now but we had a really good time while she was here.  I hope everyone is doing well as usual, miss and love you all.