O yeah.

I forgot to mention this in my earlier 'Amsterdam' post, so I'll do it now as I sit waiting for a soundcheck that may never happen in Solingen, Germany.

My camera was stowed deeply so I couldn't capture this pretty amazing and strange scene unfolding in front of me as I sat with our pile of baggage at the entrance to Amsterdam Centraal Station and Aidan was off searching for a non-existent pay phone to connect with our buddy Roger.

We heard the results of the election via our pilot who announced it to cheers on board our flight, interrupting my viewing of the very awful new X-Files movie (I know, there's no surprise, but I couldn't help myself); however, the European print media was already being distributed and no results were printed. At 4pm, as I waited, the Amsterdam METRO News started putting out a special afternoon edition declaring Barak Obama as the new President of the United States. Judging by the crowd picking up these papers 2 things became evident:
1. People in Europe were not anticipating the election results with the same level of stress I encountered in my American friends and family. It seemed they pretty much forgot it even happend. That is until...
2. The general populus, or the small sampling of a few hundred Amsterdam citizens that I witnessed that afternoon, is very pleased by the results.

It's hard to describe, but as people looked at the cover of the paper and then up at the crowd more than a few dozen looked so very elated(?), or maybe they were just looking for someone to share a celebratory nod -- or possibly drink, with. It was strange and kind of encouraging in a far off, language barrier way.