Yesterday was undoubtedly a historic day. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States and the first African American President; change is coming (if you don't think so, you should stop reading). So to commemorate this special day, MIT decided to set up lecture halls all around campus for the viewing of the Inauguration ceremony. They even gave all employees 11:30-1:00 off so that they wouldn't have to skip a bit of work to view it (though skipping work for this occasion is totally worthy it imo).
The problem was that I had PE Volleyball until 11:50 on Tuesdays, and Obama gets sworn in at noon. So I had to immediately run to the locker room and changed like a madman. Didn't even have time to shower . And subsequently made my way to 10-250.
10-250 was the second largest lecture on campus and seats about 450 students. When I sneaked in through a side door, all sweatly and out of breath, I saw this:
The entire place was packed; people were sitting on the aisle everywhere.
Luckily I got there a couple of minutes early and managed to catch Joe Biden getting sworn in:
and then Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill, and Gabriela Montero performed an amazing rendition of Air and Simple Gifts arranged by John Williams (:D):
It was pretty funny watching Obama and Justice Roberts stumble across the swear of oath, which is like 2 sentences long. And then the man himself spoke:
Everyone was dead silent as they tentatively listened to President Obama give his hopeful but also solemn speech. It was as inspiring as some of his previous speeches, but it definitely spent shivers down my spine and gave the goosebumps. All in all, the Inauguration was a pretty awesome event to witness with others from my academic community.
Where and how did you guys watch the Inauguration? What was it like for you? If you were actually there, post up a blog asap!
Cool. I had parallel computing this morning at 9:30am, and since I'm on the west coast the inauguration took place at 9:00am, so the professor invited us to come early to watch. I went and was rewarded with donuts and coffee :D The stream was reallllly laggy though, since for some reason the prof decided to use the MTV stream lol
On January 21 2009 22:30 SnowFalling wrote: if there's one thing I love about the usa it's that you treat your politicians almost like rockstars :D
That's pretty unique to Obama. You'd be amazed at how much 'Obama merchandise' can be pushed before he has even done anything. People just HAVE to have this guy's face on their dinner plates.
I personally really couldn't possibly be arsed less by the fact that he's black. The whole practice of U.S. politics is a joke and a farce in my opinion.
On January 22 2009 01:13 EsX_Raptor wrote: I'm at UHD and there were a crapload of african-americans in the cafeteria watching this all proud.
I'm asian and i felt proud when I watched it. It's a step in the right direction after the 8 disastrous Bush years and a step forward in social progress.
For people outside of the the US, you may not think it, because our societies and culture differ, but Obama is a big deal to many Americans. We've been through a ton of crap over the last 8 years, so it's really nice to have a breath of fresh air.
On January 22 2009 01:13 EsX_Raptor wrote: I'm at UHD and there were a crapload of african-americans in the cafeteria watching this all proud.
I'm asian and i felt proud when I watched it. It's a step in the right direction after the 8 disastrous Bush years and a step forward in social progress.
For people outside of the the US, you may not think it, because our societies and culture differ, but Obama is a big deal to many Americans. We've been through a ton of crap over the last 8 years, so it's really nice to have a breath of fresh air.
On January 22 2009 01:13 EsX_Raptor wrote: I'm at UHD and there were a crapload of african-americans in the cafeteria watching this all proud.
I'm asian and i felt proud when I watched it. It's a step in the right direction after the 8 disastrous Bush years and a step forward in social progress.
For people outside of the the US, you may not think it, because our societies and culture differ, but Obama is a big deal to many Americans. We've been through a ton of crap over the last 8 years, so it's really nice to have a breath of fresh air.
All I know is that Obama is really good giving speeches and tell people what they want to hear. I really hope for US and other countries as well that what he says will be done with actions and not just words. So lets wait and see what happens.
EPT
. And subsequently made my way to 10-250.![[image loading]](http://i311.photobucket.com/albums/kk452/caelym08/Inauguration%202009/crowd.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i311.photobucket.com/albums/kk452/caelym08/Inauguration%202009/biden.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i311.photobucket.com/albums/kk452/caelym08/Inauguration%202009/obama.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i311.photobucket.com/albums/kk452/caelym08/Inauguration%202009/Image007.jpg)
