Yes we can; yes we did!

Barack Obama won the presidency this morning and I've spent my day smiling. I had friends over last night and we enjoyed Oregon beer I'd brought with me, chips and salsa, and carrotswith ranch dressing (also imported). All this Americana food was served with a side dish of an Americana playlist (mostly country, Ray Charles, the Eagles and the Beach Boys) and our table was set for the night. At midnight I set up the CNN online video feed on my computer and went to sleep with the coverage as my nightlight. My alarm was set for 4, but I woke up several times before then. I would look at the screen, read the headlines, and kept going back to sleep until I knew it was time for the swing states to start producing results. My roommate Lionel, who has become quite interested American politics (or has at least put up with my constant need to talk about it), woke up at 5 and came to watch McCain and Obama's speeches. I had spent all of yesterday running possible scenarios through my mind and predicting how I would react. Sitting in bed, I was too tired to be wild. At this time in the morning, the results were more calming than exciting.

I went back to sleep before going to a breakfast at the American Corner (an American cultural institute in Innsbruck) and then on to teaching. Coffee at the breakfast started to fuel my energy and excitement again. I was smiling from ear to ear as I biked to work, then talking to myself as I walked up the mountain to school. I was getting text messages and phone calls all morning from my European friends telling me congratulations. It wasn't so much that they were congratulating me personally, but the European community feels that with Obama's victory, they too have won. My favorite text message was from a friend who said, "Congratulations, Ryan. Tonight your country allowed the rest of the world to dream again." Beyond agreeing with Obama's policies, it is this hope he inspires that makes him and his victory so special to me.

I am proud of him, but more proud of my country for electing him – for what it says about us as a nation and the possibilities we possess. It will not be an easy road and I keep telling people here that Europe's honeymoon with Obama could likely be short-lived. But I have faith in him and I can't express the satisfaction of seeing firsthand that the rest of the world now has faith in America again.

In other news, I made my debut on Austrian TV last night. (At the link, go to "Wochenarchiv," then to Dienstag 04.11, then to "tirol 7000 fern der heimat.") I was interviewed by a Tyrolean news station as part of a story they did on the election, specifically American voters in Tyrol. This clip will fit in nicely with my media resume. I may have never published anything, but I talked to Al Roker on the Today Show, damnit, and I can be seen in the background, looking confused, during a Cameroonian news story on our group's medical screenings. All of these things should help me get in to grad schools and find jobs.

I took a long nap after teaching today. I'm now rested and happy. And so proud to be an American.