The world beyond U.S. borders is a deep shade of blue right now, and not just because 70 percent of it is covered by water. Students studying abroad this semester said living outside U.S. borders has exposed them to the surprisingly intense international support foreigners have for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. College of General Studies sophomore Sean Metcalfe, who is studying in London, said the general population thinks Obama will win, even though citizens doubt America’s decision-making abilities. ‘They also assume that we won’t vote for Obama,’ he said. ‘They talk to us like they have to inform us about how much better Obama is.” Metcalfe said if Republican presidential candidate John McCain wins the election, it will ‘probably be the last straw for them in terms of trusting America’s judgment.’ In Latin America, BU international relations professor Scott Palmer said he discovered a massive interest in the election’s outcome, even if many observers are not familiar with each candidate’s specific policies. ‘Somehow, the Obama persona has captured the imagination of most Latin Americans today the same way JFK did in 1960,’ Palmer, who founded the BU Peru Summer Program in 2000, said. ‘Most are fascinated with the prospect of an Obama presidency, even without much knowledge of who he is or what his policies would be if he won.’ Other foreigners have followed the details of the presidential race as closely as any American. BU international relations professor William Keylor said he receives a constant stream of emails from European friends and colleagues asking him for updates on the election. ‘Europeans are fascinated with the developments in the U.S. presidential election,’ he said in an email. ‘Their newspapers cover the campaign in great detail. They know all about the hockey mom, the Weatherman terrorist-turned-Obama supporter, even the polling data in the ‘battleground states.” Living abroad has also affected how thoroughly U.S. students followed election coverage, they said. Metcalfe said the hubbub over the election prompted him to research more himself. If he were home, he ‘would not have read as much information online and would not have checked for updates quite as often,’ he said. College of Arts and Sciences senior Cherisse Cavan, who is currently studying in Madrid, said despite her location, she has not been able to escape media coverage of the election. She said the media experience in Spain has ‘definitely strengthened’ her knowledge of the issues. ‘From what I’ve seen on the news and what I’ve talked about with Spaniards living here, the majority of the people are pro-Democrat,’ Cavan said. ‘I think people here know that whatever actions the U.S. takes will definitely affect their country, especially with the economic crisis.’ Anis Hoffman, a CAS sophomore who is completing a Bahai volunteer project outside Vancouver, Canada, said Canadians also voice support for Obama overall. ‘It seems to me that almost every person I meet in Canada supports Obama and basically assumes that you do too,’ Hoffman said. ‘And the ones [who] don’t support Obama just don’t really care.’ CAS junior Annalisa Dias-Mandoly, who is studying in Grenoble, France, said in an email that the students in her program plan to throw an election party tonight to watch the results on television more than 3,600 miles away from the action at home. ‘It’ll be around 2 a.m. here when the East coast polls close,’ she said. ‘You can bet that we’ll be up all night.’