Heron with with our new president!an extra half-hour, and the metro was a crush of people. We each had a backpack, Heron's full with a month's worth of travel experience, so we used our bags to help cram our way onto a metro car. "If we get separated," we told each other, "we'll meet at Balderas," naming the metro stop. We had no contingency plan for separation of limbs from bodies, or what to do if the mad rush of people smashed the air out of our lungs. These were potential problems best left unspoken.
It's spelled K-E-R-M-I-T. No joke.
We made it to the Embassy's Benjamin (Ben-ha-MEEN) Franklin Library, and the guard doing the rub-down was remarkably non-plussed at the sight of our backpacks. Luckily, my underwear was safely at the bottom when he did the revision of the contents.
The event started at 9 a.m., which is when they let the guests through the metal detector and into the library. (This was after the bomb-sniffing dogs were lead through the library). We gathered with a large number of guests, the ambassador, and a few other ex-pats to watch the CNN coverage. It was moving, electric, and one could not help but feel a profound weight watching, from within another country, our new president talk about the United States and how it would interact with other countries. I couldn't help but notice how the crowd was very quiet at any mention of the former president, and applauded enthusiastically for Obama.
Fellow Fulbrighter Gretchen reacts in a normal way to having a dozen microphones jabbed in your face.
Afterwards anyone who looked like they might not be Mexican was accosted by reporters. The ambassador high-tailed it out of the room, leaving us to supply the comments. We were asked such light questions as, "What do you think about the US invasion into Iraq?" and "How do you think Obama should deal with the economic crisis?" I'm as curious as the reporters are to see what Obama does his first year.
Well, my degree in Spanish allows me to say this about the economy...
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