an American vote is sent!

"Thanks Toshi, you've just made your vote today!" a slender woman in her late 20s said to me, after knowing that this was my first American presidential vote, ever.

"Well thanks! So am I the only first-time voter here today?"

"Hmm lemme see.. If I'm not wrong, Yes, there was nobody your age who had come voted here before.. Congratulations for becoming a historical first-timer in Indonesia!" she offered a warm handshake, which I accepted.

"Glad to hear that", I smiled.

So today (11 Oct) I have came down to the Ballot Open House in Chang's private residence in Kemang, a leafy upscale district in South Jakarta, accompanied by my Indonesian national father, who also speaks fluent English.

I met around 5 to 10 Americans there (who were all Caucasians), and it sure was nice to start speaking English to those Americans with a real accent.

There I had to fill the write-in ballot with my Presidential and Vice Presidential pick, which of course we Democrats should have picked by default. Even you my blog readers agree with us Democrats.

With 84% of the votes for Obama and 16% for McCain, I guess I have no other choice, eh? I respect your aspirations, and I've delivered them. That's too wide a margin already, haha.

And anyways, McCain isn't too bad imho. I just think that Obama is the only one who could stop the war in Iraq and fix the economy by reducing taxes for middle-class Americans.

So I took a while in getting to converse with some of them, and sought help from the person in charge (who was Chang himself) with my federal write-in ballot which was to be sent for free to the States by Fed-ex.

"So where will be voting on November 4th?" I asked Chang, intentionally using the American date order.

"Well Toshi, you've just voted today! This was your vote!" he smiled.

I had previously thought that this was some kind of an election rehearsal, or a part where I only have to register my personal details.

It took me by surprise that this Ballot Open House, where I had written the choice of Obama-Biden and two other names affiliated with Democratic Party that I did not know of, was in fact the election in itself.

I was not supposed to get an Obama pin as a souvenir, since they had run out of it. However, a Virginia man in his 40s offered to give me his as a souvenir.

I thanked everyone for their welcoming and friendly attitude. It sure was nice to meet American folks again after years of staying in Asia... I'd love to come to such (American) events again in the future