Thursday evening

I did get to make several signs for publicity tomorrow, which was fun. Tonight has mostly consisted of a bunch of random things, including data entry and a bunch of sorting and counting out materials for canvassing tomorrow. Tomorrow starts “Get Out the Vote” which sends lots of volunteers out into the community, which should be fantastic. Seeing lots of locals get involved will be cool, as well as joining up with people arriving from Iowa to help. It really is amazing to see so many people coming together in support of this candidate, especially people that are getting involved with a campaign for the first time. I still feel that this is really important to this country and that I am a part of something so much bigger than myself, bigger than New Hampshire.

Currently, I’m quite alone, as the entire office is watching the speeches following the announcement of Barack Obama as the WINNER of the Iowa Caucus!!! It’s exactly what we wanted to see – Obama on top and Hilary not in second! I, on the other hand, am sitting in another room, watching my Kansas Jayhawks battle Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. So far they’re ahead, but they’re making me quite nervous!

Watching Barack acknowledge the win was really awesome – his speech really blew the others out of the water. He’s so amazingly inspiring – it really reminds me why I am doing what I do. At the same time, I found it quite disappointing to see that Biden has dropped out. I really really hope that when all is said and done, he can be Secretary of State or Vice President. I think I’m actually going to abandon my darling Jayhawks soon so that I can manage to get some sleep tonight – they better keep this 10 point lead or make it even sweeter!

-Amanda

Day 2 - Amanda

The day started with Marc and I getting quite lost on our way to pick up one of our fellow supporters, but we really enjoyed our scenic trip through the winding New Hampshire roads. Once we finally found our way, we were assigned to do some more phone banking, which we worked on for about three hours.

We headed to a little country store for a sandwich (which was amazing) and took a quick detour through the town of Exeter. The downtown was really neat – its obviously really old, but unlike a lot of main streets in small town Kansas, it was absolutely packed with shops, restaurants, and the like.

- Amanda

It all begins!

After waking up with a terrible case of the stomach flu, I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to make it to New Hampshire this morning! One panicked call to my mother and some Dramamine later, however, Marc, Clarissa, and I arrived in scenic Manchester, NH, amazingly without winter related flight delays. I was pretty glad we just had a quick layover in Minnesota, because the temperature there was 2 degrees Fahrenheit when our plane landed!

We got an interesting phone call from poor Michael, saying that he would be delayed because his tickets were booked to Manchester, England instead of Manchester, NH, which sounded like a disaster. (It later turns out that he won’t even be getting here until tomorrow morning – hopefully it all worked out for him.) We dropped Clarissa off at the Obama HQ in Derry, NH. Marc and I helped Clarissa get her things into the office, then we took off for Brentwood, NH. Our HQ is wonderful – it’s situated in someone’s kitchen and there are about 8 college students working out of this office. It’s pretty neat politically and geographically, but I’ll have more on that tomorrow. We phone banked for about an hour, inviting people to a house party with a local Congresswoman, which should be pretty interesting. Senator Obama will be at a rally tomorrow in Exeter, the neighboring town – I’m so excited!

The whole area is just amazingly pretty, with all of the trees and the snow on the ground. The little towns kind of remind me of the towns like we saw in the South – packed with history and little hometown stores and eateries. It’s so cute. We finally reached our house for the week tonight at about 10:30 and the couple came out to greet us – they’re absolutely wonderful to talk to and just some of the kindest people. We sat and chatted with them for about 30 minutes tonight, but I was finally about to fall asleep from my long day. It looks like its going to be a good week!

- Amanda