An American Election Abroad

Part two: “Everyone burst out crying”

By Chris Berdik

With the inauguration of Barack Obama just days away, we thought we'd look back to the night he was elected — with a twist. Hundreds of Boston University study-abroad students spent November 4, 2008, on foreign soil watching American history unfold. In cities across Europe, they awaited the results along with milllions of people who had no say in the contest but nevertheless were glued to a television during an an all-night party with America as its theme.

London pubs became American-style “bars,” serving hot dogs and Budweiser. Posh Geneva hotels featured country music and mechanical bulls. Televisions from Dresden to Madrid were tuned to CNN from the moment the polls started closing (around midnight in most cities) until Obama was declared the winner, shortly before dawn.

And while almost half of all U.S. voters (46 percent) checked their ballot for John McCain, there seemed to be no such political split in Obama-crazy Europe. Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of the “America” conjured up by overseas entertainment spots, the BU students who took part in the festivities say Europeans were as interested in the election’s outcome as any American they know.

“Everyone I talked to, I wouldn’t say envied the American system, but loved it,” says Dan Weber (CAS’09), who spent last semester interning for a member of the British Parliament in London. Click next to the photos below to hear six BU students talk about their election-night experiences in Europe. On January 14, BU Today featured group election stories from BU study-abroad students.

Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu.

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