November 3 , 2004 - page 2



destinations for waves of Irish immigrants, and it’s still one of the liveliest centers of Irish culture in the U.S. In any event, due to the time difference over here, we few faithful baseball fans stayed up until the wee hours watching the games on a fuzzy bootleg channel with reception that kept going in and out. It was not what I was used to, but we all experienced a sense of camaraderie watching together.

Last night’s presidential election was another exciting event that was a totally different experience than I expected. I was impressed by the knowledge and interest in American politics that many European students had. I was quite grateful to hear their take on the whole thing, especially since some had very strong opinions. The Irish and French students who live in my house were particularly vocal. I think it's often really difficult to separate what we hear in the news about certain countries from the actual opinions of real citizens. We all had a great time staying up all night to watch the BBC’s coverage as the votes came in. Although nothing was absolutely certain by sunrise, a few of us decided to have a toast to victory anyway!