Bye bye Bush

And good riddance. On Tuesday, January 20 together with the many American ex-pats in Barcelona as well Spaniards and other Europeans, I witnessed the swearing in of our 44th president, Barack Obama. I think the entire world may just have been watching. The emotion of it all was incredible. Being in Barcelona to watch it turned out to be a pretty cool experience. It was amazing to me that so many non-Americans came out to watch the event and to participate in the jubilant experience. People were attentive to Obama's speech, they cheered, they teared up, and everyone was impossibly happy after it was over. When former president Bush and his wife got on the helicopter to leave, everyone waved goodbye and cheered. I've never known a crowd to be so universally happy to see a president take his leave. It was definitely the end of an era. Words can't even describe what a happy occasion it was. I felt like I could just float away. Amazing!

My students show the post-inaugural glow.