Election Day Abroad

Tonight, Bill and I have plans to go to an election party hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Budapest.  We figure this is probably the only fancy-schmancy election party we will ever be able to afford, so we have to seize the opportunity while it's here.  The funny thing is, that since we are nine hours ahead of the west coast, the polls will be closing in California right when the party here is ending at 4:00am.

Since it is election day, I got thinking about what I was doing this day, four years ago.  Four years ago at this time I had been living in Chicago for just two months, just as I now have been living in Budapest for two months.  During the 2008 election I was working at EF International Language School, literally across from Grant Park where I brought a group of students to see Barack Obama's acceptance speech.  Today I am working at a Hungarian university, and will be at an election party that is nearly 5,000 miles away from Chicago.  And four years ago, I didn't even know Bill existed, and now I get to share every election day with the love of my life.  Oh how life can change in just four years.

Grant Park during the night of the 2008 Elections