Obama Wall in Washington, DC

I wandered down by the monuments this afternoon, thinking I would see military types. It is almost veterans day after all. Instead I found an Obama wall.

Avaaz (sort of an international version of Moveon.org) collected messages and photos from people in 189 countries and posted the messages on a wall at the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial steps.

Passers-by added their own scrawls. They were messages of congratulations and anticipation. Many expressed their hope that Obama would tackle environmental problems, human rights violations, poverty, and violence.

It is going to be so nice to travel without having to hope nobody finds out where you are from. The people who make those Canadian flag emblems that backpackers have been using to disguise themselves better start making Obama buttons.

Obamamania in London

These are the turnstiles at Paddington Train Station in London. Note the photo of Barack Obama on the third turnstile from the left. Obama's photo was everywhere in London.

The Times Newspaper in London put these ads up. There were enormous photos of Obama down in the subway stations. They have no words on them. The only way I knew it was The Times was by looking it up when I got home.

Nobody is quite sure why The Times put these ads up. They say it is to make people think. Since they put a "10" next to Obama (for 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister), I'm assuming they want to think about Obama moving on to Britain once he's served his eight years here.

I heard quite a few Obama conversations as well. When people weren't talking about Obama, they were talking about the financial crisis. It was pretty much like home, except that the Brits kept saying they were going to be "sensible" - unlike us. I think being sensible is highly overrated.