Obamamania!

I had an interesting day today. Looking back on it, it really was a packed day revolved around Obamamania. First, let me say that I am still really upset I was not in the states for his inauguration. I really wish I could have been in the country for Obama’s inauguration.

That said, I really enjoyed my inauguration experience today, but let me start at the beginning of my day, which had absolutely nothing to do with Obama getting sworn in. I woke up before dawn for my interview with MSN, the Entertainment section. It went pretty well, and as far as I know I'm starting on Thursday as a full time intern at MSN doing some video work, but also producing content, and other stuff I am not really sure about. Therefore, I will definitely not be updating this blog as often as I have been since most of my days probably will not be noteworthy and I will actually be busier than I currently am. The Microsoft building is incredibly modern and intimidating right on Victoria St. across the street from where Billy Elliot is playing. It’s very cool, but very intimidating. I’ll write more once I actually start and know what I’m doing.

Anyway, so then I came back to the flat at the more reasonable hour of 10 and me and my flatmates headed to Madame Tussaud’s, which is a museum of wax figures. In honor the inauguration and their brand new Obama wax figure, all people who could prove they were American citizens could get in free! Madame Tussaud’s is, in my opinion, very overpriced for what you actually see (around $30) so I was convinced that this was a hoax until I got that ticket in my hand and realized it was not. We got the see the whole museum for free! Finally, being an American in London actually paid off! Literally.

The museum was okay. Very cheesy and many of the celebrities looked very little like their human counterparts. It was worth going for free, but I definitely would not have paid for it. I also stood in the long line just to get a snap shot of the wax Obama, so that was cool. It was a fun thing to do, but definitely not a must-see.

The inauguration was scheduled for 5 PM London time, so with class tonight at 6:00 we were all very worried about watching the whole thing. Our program people convinced the pub on Imperial’s campus to air the coverage of it, so with a pint in hand, me and a ton of other American students watched our new president get sworn in from 3000 miles away, although there were some English students there as well. It was quite exciting to watch it in a pub packed to its limit with people. Our journalism professor was there too and we asked him if it was okay to be late to lecture if Obama’s speech went long. He only answered our question by saying that he was not leaving the pub until the inauguration ended, so we assumed we were safe. However, his speech did not last longer than imagined and we did make it to class on time.

It is actually kind of fun to be over here for this early part of Obama's presidential career. English media are definitely talking a lot more about Obama than our media ever talk about Gordon Brown. I made the comment earlier that I really do doubt that the majority of Americans can name England’s prime minister, when it would certainly be impossible not to know who Obama is in the U.K. Anyway, it was a very interesting day with a nice international perspective on an American event. I hope everyone had time to watch the inauguration and enjoyed it.