From a distance

How difficult it is to be here today! The people from whom I'm renting my apartment don't have satellite television, which means there's no CNN or BBC or any English-language programming at all (unless "The Hills" qualifies). No, that's not entirely true. CNN's on from 4am to 6am. Of course, if I set the alarm to get up for the news, the rest of my day is seriously effected by it, so it's not something I can do regularly. That means that, in order to stay on top of what's happening, I either have to buy the International Herald (2 euro!) or New York Times (6 euro!!) or wait for the Sunday Times (14 euro!!!) or hang out at the Internet Train (the name of the franchise). What news I get, in other words, is what news you get, but less regularly. I say this because some have asked me what the election looks like from here, presumably from the perspective of the average Italian. Alas, I can't say that I know. To my shame, although I invested in a Rosetta Stone "Teach Yourself Italian" program in plenty of time to learn the basics before I got here, I even now haven't done anything with it. I have no idea what's going on around me and pretty much limit my communications to sign language, as in pointing to the pizza I want and then indicating how many slices. I know what you know: that if the Europeans had a say, Obama would be President of the Western World. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that Obama campaigned here. In any case, I'm sure that doesn't come as news to anyone back home, or as a good reason to vote for him. In fact, I'm sure many would find that reason enough not to vote for him. After all, we don't want our allies to think we give a hoot about their opinions!

We're 6 hours ahead of New York here. Do they still wait until Alaska and Hawaii close before announcing how other states voted? If so, that should happen around 6am here - just as CNN goes off the air, and 3 hours before the Internet Train leaves the station! Of course, Italian TV will be covering the election results, and "red" and "blue" looks the same here as there, so I should be able to follow the plot, if not the dialogue. Aaarrrgghhh! Maybe if I get through enough Rosetta Stone lessons between now and then...