Not all of them understood (not all Americans do, either). But the ones who did ate it up. All of it.

I had one class on Wednesday, November 5. It started at 11 a.m., and when I walked through the door, Obama had Ohio and my home state of Pennsylvania in the bag. I didn't say a word. I couldn't. I simply picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the board, "History is being made in my homeland."

When I was in the middle of writing "homeland," a boy yelled, "Obama." I finished writing, turned around and yelled back, "Obama." We went back and forth, and pretty soon, the class was chanting, "O-bam-a. O-bam-a. O-bam-a."

Tears in my eyes, I leaned against the chalkboard and put my hands on my hips. I was teaching English in southwest China, and my 14-year-old students knew the name of the man who was about to become my country's leader.

Every Wednesday, I have Chinese class in downtown Shenzhen. All of the English-speaking teachers who are a part of the company I work for attend. During the election, several of us never made it into Chinese class and went to a nearby square. Sitting next to a fountain, all we did was talk about the election.

"Palin handed it to Obama," one person said.

"It was Palin and the economic crisis," said another.

"Obama's not going to be able to deliver on most of his promises," a third person said.

"They never do," I said. "All he has to do is fix the economy or get us out of Iraq, and he'll win again in four years."

"Oh, is that all?" the first person said.

The sky was clear, and the air was warm. I couldn't stop smiling. When class let out, a crowd of us went out to dinner. We drank Tsingtao beer and made a ridiculous amount of toasts. A toast to Sarah Palin. A toast to Obama. A toast to America.

The metro was crowded on my way home. A group of men gathered around one of the television screens. Clips from Obama's victory speech were playing. The men were speaking fast and pointing at the screen. I could only make out one word.

Obama.

The author is an American living in China