The reason I started to transcribe the flow

November 5th, 6:10a.m.
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

My alarm was ringing incessantly in my ear. I got up in a shock wave of what seemed to be a mix of excitement, anticipation, uncertainty, all wrapped up with the distinct sense of exhaustion. Never was much of a morning person. But on this morning, my grumpiness did not have the opportunity to stand center stage. I, along with the rest of the world, was going to discover who was the elected president of the United States of America for 2009.
I sat in my living room, AC set on high blast, droning on and on in the background. The hot Saudi sun was already up, sizzling away for the country to take in. I sat alone that morning, and switched on to the extensive live coverage of the election on CNN international. The announcement came between 7:45 and 8a.m. Barack Obama is the President Elect for the United States of America. I jumped up in sheer delight. I even let out a "yes!" throughout the quietness of my home. It was a strange feeling. I'm not American, I wasn't born there, I didn't spend a lot of my life there, I don't even know the 50 states by heart. But I was quite proud of the Americans. Then the commentary started. Not the panel of experts that sit around and discuss and provide their powerful insight and engage in stimulating conversations. The running commentary that goes through my head. I had so much to say, so much to discuss, so much to reflect on. I would rely on the late hours of the night, midnight my time, so 4pm D.C. time, when my friends would sign in online and we could chat endlessly about this and that. I even found myself picking conversations at work with people who did not necessarily care about the results. Nor did they understand why I was so amped by something that did not even involve me. I needed to express myself, to share, to listen and be heard.

Then I decided to take this flow of ideas that this election hype had fueled, and begin to blog.