Backblog: Round 4, Do I remember the 5th of November?

You know I'm avoiding schoolwork when there are two back to back blogposts. Today I'm going to take you back to the beginning of this month, on that day when we heaved a global sigh of relief over the US Presidential election results. I had been following the campaigns pretty closely since I got here (through the miracle of the interweb), and even went to a Democrats Abroad debate watching party. A lot of my friends here are American, but even those that aren't were all worked up on election night. We opted to go to a bar near campus to watch the results, as it was having a PoliSci Society-hosted election party. The only problem was that bars here close at 1, so we had to leave before any significant results had come in. I watched a bit more in our residence common room, but as I had a seminar the next morning at 9am, I only stayed up til about 2am. I have to say, though - it kind of felt like Christmas morning to wake up early the next day, while the city was still quiet, knowing (well, hoping desperately and suspecting) the happy results that would await. Watching the final speeches and videos of the celebrations was the equivalent of opening presents. It's really been amazing to see how Obama has truly been claimed as a "global citizen" - one of my best friends is in Kenya right now, and she's been telling me about how crazy the Kenyans are about Obama - she even went to see "Obama: the musical." Few were happier than my American friends here - many were preparing self-imposed exile, either staying here or even heading north should the results have turned out differently.

In the same spirit of celebration, though maybe not in the same spirit of the events which inspired the holiday, it was appropriate that the next day was Guy Fawkes' Day. Guy Fawkes' was the one "British" holiday which I had heard a good deal about before coming to the UK, so I was expecting burning effigies and the whole shebang. Apparently, however, the English are much more into remembering remembering the 5th of November - I guess the Scots wouldn't have been so heartbroken had the English Parliament been blown up. That being said, there were still fireworks going off all around the city. It happened to be a fairly foggy night, which, while gradually decreasing our ability to see the fireworks as said evening progressed, did give the night a particularly moody atmosphere. Here's a picture taken by my friend (my camera can't deal with low light) on Calton Hill, from whence we could see fireworks nearby and those going off all around the city:

I'm really enjoying the fact that Edinburgh seems to like incorporating fire/fireworks into its holidays (probably to counterbalance the fact that the sun now sets around 4pm). So I'd have to say despite the post-election tiredness, fog, and lack of effigies, Guy Fawkes' Night was still pretty cool to witness.