NATO, Strasbourg, and Obama

So, let me tell you about my awesome venture to Strasbourg

I saw a lot of bigwigs within the context of my NATO Youth Summit; the highest level person was the Secretary-General of NATO – he’s a pretty important guy, if you didn’t know that.

(That's him.)

There were (surprisingly, for me at least) a lot of students from non-NATO countries, the most controversial of which were Afghanistan (there was a remarkable amount of Afghan-Germans – odd), Ukraine, and Georgia. Needless to say, there were a lot of negative vibes coming from them.

I was at this little summit for all of Thursday where we were served pitiful “buffet” lunches and dinners that had little food, but amazing wine and champagne. On Friday, I had to wake up at 5 am to venture to France for another day of meetings and OBAMA!

We had to walk to the place where the town hall was, and I ruined my shoes in my hustle to get there. It wasn’t because it was far away – on the contrary it was a short 5 minute walk. It’s because I practically had to jog there to try to keep ahead of the pack, as the non-American students were just as excited to see him, so it was a constant race to stay in front. I think this says a lot about our improved image abroad. For me, it’s not a horrible thing to be an American abroad (at least in Western Europe it's still just not horrible. In Eastern Europe it’s AWESOME to be an American – they love us there, but to get back on track…). When we got to the meeting place, the woman who was escorting us through the ridiculous security told us we were the least well-behaved group.

So, I finally got in, sat down, and waited for an extremely long time. Then, Obama came out and gave a very predictable, albeit very nice, speech. Then the town hall portion arrived. I was saving up all my question-asking karma for the past two day, hoping that it would pay off and I could talk to Obama.

WRONG! The first question was from an American, and after that he asked that no more Americans ask questions, as he wanted to hear from French and German students. I was sad, especially when I heard some of the stupid questions that were asked, the pinnacle of which was “Do you regret running for president?” It has to be said that Obama turned it really nicely into a plea for public service, and it was a good ender, but STILL – I was going to ask about NATO’s future and it taking a preventative role in the world and climate change. But whatever. I’m totally not bitter or anything. Not at all. Not the least little bit…


ANYWAY – I was at least on CNN, which has been my life’s goal for a very long time. I wanted to actually be speaking while on CNN and be the primary focus of the camera, but beggars can’t be choosers. I think I’ve already found my new life goal right there.


When we were leaving Strasbourg, our bus had to take a road that went past the Holiday Inn that Obama was apparently staying in (I know – a Holiday Inn?!?). French security actually got on the bus and checked our passports and security badges from the conference to make sure we could just drive on this one road. It was pretty cool to have such a high security clearance, even if it's just to drive past a Holiday Inn.

A small portion of the security.

There were also major protests/riots happening on Saturday. Freiburg had a small protest last Monday against NATO, but, fortunately, it remained peaceful. The ones that went on in Strasbourg on Saturday, though, were crazy. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see any. Or maybe that's a good thing.

Oh, and I also saw Gordon Brown’s and Angela Merkel’s car entourages go by - so at one point in time I was actually only about 100 ft away from either of them. I know, I’m such a geek.

Until next time!