once you go Barack...

It’s taken me two days to fully recover from
Tuesday night’s celebrations; I can only imagine
what the atmosphere is like back home and in the US.
In Berlin’s city center, hundreds of Democrats
gathered to watch the election at the Babylon theatre.
When that sold out, the rest of us congregated
at a bar down the street and when that closed at 3am,
we rallied to watch the results projected
on a screen outside the theatre.

Our entourage included people from around the globe,
united in our support for Obama, drunk on his success
as the votes rolled in. At 5 am, when his victory had been
announced by even FOX news, we didn’t want to go home
and the day after we couldn’t tear ourselves away
from articles, news coverage and discussions
rehashing this historic achievement.

I have heard lots of mixed feelings about Obama since
being here, they seem to have a love-hate relationship
with him, unsure of what his presidency would mean
for European-American relations. For one, during his
somewhat contentious speech given here in the summer,
he eluded to the fact that he’d expect a higher European
presence in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, the general feeling
here since Tuesday has been one of genuine delight and relief.

The expats we have met feel like they can finally be
proud to be American, a sentiment echoed around the world, I’m sure.

I am not naïve enough to think that change can happen over night, but watching his victory speech brought tears to my eyes and corny as it may seem, hope to my heart. We will see what the next few months and four years bring, but right now let us rejoice in this momentous event.

craigslist scams

Our first attempt at finding a flat almost had us wiring 350 euros to this woman, Caroline, who claimed she was out of the country. After we sent the money, she would send the keys. She even went so far as to tell us she was a 'God fearing' woman and would never rip us off. By creating a fake email address and posing as another potential renter, we caught her in her scam. Since then, more than a dozen others (including Caroline again) have tried to get us to wire money (using the same emails, word for word). Lesson learned, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Below is her initial e-mail, had the high-lighted part been there to begin with, perhaps we would have been a bit more skeptical.


Hello,

Glad to know that you have interest in renting my flat. For now I
would not want to disclose the exact location of my flat for some
personal reasons.My flat is a 2 bedroom flat fully furnished and very
beautiful.

I have just recently moved to Africa, Nigeria precisely on a
voluntarily mission with a non profit organisation I have been a
voluntarily worker since last year assisting people and since I left,
my apartment has been empty and
this could be bad for the furnitures and other items
in the locked flat if they are not used.

For this reason I will be renting my flat to you just for your
monthly budget. It includes everything you need,
a fully stocked kitchen, Internet,
electricity, gassheets,towels, and other miscelleneous expenses
Unfortunately I wont be able to show you the flat as
I have left with keys of the flat with me
and the flat is currently locked since I have traveled.

Well I want you to know that the flat is well furnished just the
the way I left it, it is clean and needs no repair of any kind
and I hope you would take good care of it. But you would have to make an upfromt payment for the first month of the rent, please be informed this initial deposit will be deducted from the house rent.

After which I have received the upfront payment I will send down to
you the keys to the flat and other documents of the flat so you can
move in at your own time.

I await your reply soon,
Caroline