If you were there - what was it like? why were you there? will you be posting a blog?
I watched the speech from Kuala Lumpur and am pleased that there was such an emphasis on the international nature of the problems that the USA and the World face.
Reply to this Hey Ali and fellow bloggers!
I live right outside of Washington DC and went to Obama's inauguration. It was absolutely amazing!! I got up early that Tuesday morning to "prepare" myself for the day and leave my house at a reasonable time. Media mentioned there would be a couple million people there, but I honestly didn't think it was going to be THAT bad. So I left my house at 6AM to catch the 1/2 hour metro/train ride into the city (I was meeting a friend in the city at 7:30 and thought that would give me plenty of time to travel). When I arrived at the metro station, I saw blue flashing lights (from the police) and thousands of people everywhere. It took about 45min-1hr to get onto the metro and about an extra 1 1/2hr to get into the city. It was ridiculous! But the energy that people brought was incredible!! People were cheering, dressed from head to toe in Obama gear; and I saw people wearing lot of layers, which was definitely necessary - it was so cold!! But luckily the sun was shining (=
The National Mall was split into 10+ sections; I was in the "Blue Zone". People had to line up to enter through the security gate before getting into their sections. People were really friendly until it got close to the swearing in of Obama and Biden, which took place at +/- 12:05. Since security was a bit slow (and the gates through which people entered wasn't well organized either), a lot of people were still stuck in line around noon. So when it got closer to the swearing in, people started to push each other, which panicked many of the parents who were there with their kids. I arrived just as Aretha Franklin was singing and was still able to see Biden and Obama. Apparently there were no arrests and the two million+ people who were there were well behaved! Also, the wait for the metro right after the inauguration was 2 hours!! Crazy!
I was there because I wanted to witness this happening and wanted to experience the energy of this tremendous step for the USA. I don't think I will be posting a blog about this because unfortunately I didn't bring my camera and I like to add photos with my blogs. But please feel free to keep in touch and ask any questions!!
Take care! Nikki
Reply to this Thanks for posting Nikki 😊
If I'd been living there - I too would have made the effort to go - regardless of not being a US citizen. Shame you didn't take the camera - though it might have been confiscated 😉 or worse still meant that you missed the start!
Reply to this Much as I like Obama, that huge crowd sounds like the sort of thing I almost always avoid. On the occasions I have gone to huge crowd attracters I saw a lot of the crowd and spent most of the time jumping up and down to see over the people in front of me, just to get a glimpse of the person I came to see way in the distance.
Reply to this Yeah there definitely were a lot of people!! I can understand how people would freak out and panic. I've been to concerts like that where people push, pull, crowd surf and use each other to see closer; people loose their respect for others and become self-motivated. But Obama's crowd was pretty decent!
Reply to this We would have loved to be there, but the day after the election plane tickets and hotel rates went through the roof (if you could even find one). A couple friends of ours thought ahead and made reservations months before the election, hoping their candidate would win - smart thinking!
Instead we both stayed home and/or went to work late to watch it live from here in Seattle. Apparently most of the state had the same idea because traffic was ridiculous at 9:30am (Pacific time, right after the inaugural address ended).
I too was very pleased on the emphasis on restoring our communication and diplomacy with the international community, even with those foreign nations the U.S might not have the best relationships with. Already I've noticed that the Washington federal website has become, practically overnight, 10-fold more informative, welcoming and transparent than it has been in previous administrations. I hope that's a sign of things to come.
It's still sobering to realize that a good deal of the American populace didn't vote for Obama, and there are some very divisive opinions still present here within the country, but I'm hopeful that in the coming months we'll come to realize that some issues are too important to let party lines interfere. I thought the inaugural address was a good step forward in uniting our, rather divided, nation.
Reply to this Though I stay just 8 miles from DC, I opted to stay in office! Maybe I am not a Obama fan 😊
I did get a preview of the crowd and what the inauguration was going to be like by going to the pre-inaugural concert the weekend before the inauguration. The national mall was packed beween the Lincoln Memorial and Washington monument. I would have needed powerful binoculars to watch the celebrities on stage. Even then they would have looked like dots! But I could watch Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Tiger Woods, Steve Wonder and others on the big screen that had been erected all along the National Mall.
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