Greetings from Brux! I'm writing this post sitting at a conference room table in the Crowne Plaza Brussels, the democratic process swirling around me.
Some context: Democrats Abroad counts as a 51st state in the Democratic primaries. DOA voted 2 to 1 for Obama in the global primary, and now each region goes through the process of electing delegates to send to the convention in Denver. The EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Region gets to send a total of 6 delegates according to the global DOA primary results - 2 for Hillary, 4 for Barack, and the caucus site is here in Brussels. In spite of having no idea how this thing works and having to pay my own way (everyone does), I applied, wrote my candidate statement and got approval from the Obama campaign (it's a rubber stamp - everyone gets approval) 3 days(!) before the caucus. I kissed Armin goodbye, wished him a fun weekend on the slopes (and away from my incessant election chatter) and flew to Belgium on Friday. I figured at the least I would meet some interesting like-minded ex-pats.
It has absolutely not disappointed! The festivities started last night with an all-the-Belgian-beer-you can drink 'social' near the stunning Grand Palace. The place was packed -there are easily 400 people here, all kinds of different people, young, old, black, white, you know the deal. Within 20 minutes I had my first small world moment when I was talking to an interesting guy around my age who's also worked in the web industry and knows my friend Natalie B. in Boston - Natalie, Jonah says 'hi'.
It's funny - the first thing people ask is 'where are you from?' and although we're all Americans, the response is automatically the host country we're living in. The answers so far have included: Spain, Germany, France, UK, Lebanon, Norway, South Africa, Israel, Slovakia, Switzerland, Nigeria, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Sweden,Turkey...I am soooo in my element.
I fell in with a crowd of people that moved on to a nearby restaurant. I chomped on Mussels and pommes frittes next to two 'Lebanese' guys (also around my age) one from Hyde Park, and one from Berkley and also sat across from an older 'South African' woman, who is actually African-American from Chicago's south side - all Obama peeps, of course - in fact the guy from Hyde Park had Obama as a constitutional law professor when he was at University - fascinating!. The beer and conversation flowed until we all stumbled back to the hotel well over mid-night. I got my first taste of caucusing and horse-trading politics when, while walking back with the larger group, several people started talking about 'not letting the larger countries (UK, France, Germany) take over again like last time' and agreed to have an early morning meeting of the small countries to start coalition building, I shrugged my shoulders and apologized for being German.
Stay Tuned for more! - a lot more on the way.
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