Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Un Presidente Para Mi Presidente


It's a pretty big deal to be from the United States from now. The Dominican Republic loves Barack Obama. During lunch time yesterday, everyone who I know was whatching the historical inauguration. I watched it with my host mom and grandma (dubbed over in Spanish, of course), and they are both about as excited as I am about Obama being the president of the United States.


For the past two weeks, people have been really excited to talk to me about Obama when they find out I am from the States. When I told my neighbor that I'm from Ohio, he replied "Obama won Ohio!" Yesterday, since the inauguration, Obama has been all the talk.


It's really interesting that people care so much about our president. Last night at dinner, I talked to my host dad about it and he was telling me about how dependent the Dominican Republic is on the United States. Because our economy is down right now, so is the DR's. I guess is does make sense. The leading industry in the Dominican Republic is tourism and so if people from the US can't afford to take vacations, they won't be helping the tourism industry in the DR at all. Aside from that thought, the fact that Obama is our first African American president is also relevant down here because racism is still pretty high. He's seen as inspiring, intelligent, and what the world needs right now. I'm proud to have been a part of this historical political movement and I think we have a bright future ahead of us. I'm looking forward to seeing what the States will be like when I return in July.

Being that the most popular beer here is Presidente, I had to go out Tuesday night and grab a Presidente for my new president! Good thing I didn't have class on Wednesday! :)







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