The election night was absolutely amazing!
First thing, with my personal invitation and ID I waited in line for the metal detector along with other partygoers in chic suits and dresses. I instantly felt so important!
At the entrance we received a whole package of stuff,
pins with Obama and Romney's face on it, a Spanish/American flag pin, background profile about the candidates, a student badge, information about the ambassador and the party.
Of the two other Alcala students I knew only one, and once I found them we basically chased the ambassador for half an hour to get a picture and squeeze in a question.
I actually got to bond for a minute with the first lady ambassador - over lipstick of all things!
There were carton cut-outs of Obama and Romney, already it was pretty obvious which candidate was most popular. Lets just say, Romney stood lonely in a corner for most of the night...
We saw a lot of Obama pins, and the 15% of Romney fans were too afraid to wear theirs :)
There were about 300 guests of which 50 American students and 50 students from all over Spain. The ambassador prided himself on that. He wanted the night to be all about the future, so inviting students seemed logical.
We got vouchers for drinks and a sandwich and there was a popcorn stand. Everything was America themed, plastic cups in red/white/blue, typical popcorn cups, flags for all the States, etc.
Dozens of tv and radio crew walked around the room all night to interview both Americans and Spanish on their ideas. I tactically avoided interviews, I think my Spanish would've completely ruined it.
I knew I wouldn't be staying until 6am but after my schoolmates left at 12 I decided to stay a bit longer. Unfortunately my feet were already killing me so I'd have to try and socialize sitting down.
Which I have to say, worked pretty well. The first question everybody there asked was: who do you think's gonna win? - there were a lot of shrugging shoulders on that one.
So it came to no surprise when a Spanish reporter asked me that same question. We got talking and it turned out he once studied in Leuven for a year and he had a lot to say about Belgium. Small world...
Later, I made contact with 4 all-American guys, also students in Madrid. Pretty quickly I felt very comfortable and we had a good time.
Suddenly a Spanish lady walked up to me, asking me where I was from and what I do. She wanted to introduce one of her students so we could pick up a conversation. Apparently she was going around coupling her students with strangers. That way, I started talking with a Mexican fellow who gave me my portion of Spanish convo for the night. He immediately invited me to come join him and his friends for a Mexican dinner some time.
In the mean time, large screens would project the progress in the election results, and the ambassador would interject a speech now and again, in Spanish, with a beautiful American accent. He gave it a good shot though :)
When I left I took a taxi, then a night bus to Alcala, which took 45mins, and then another taxi from the station to my house. My next class started in 5 hours 34mins, 33mins, 32mins... zzzzz...
If I had worn different shoes, I might have stayed longer. If I didn't have class the next day, I would've stayed longer. If I had stayed longer, I would've met a lot more people. If I brought a camera, I could've taken some good pictures...
But all in all I had a really great time - I really have an itch for the corporate world which was even more obvious tonight!