Americans, Feeling the Love

At Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam, a waxen Barack Obama watches as a figure of George Bush is moved outside to the sidewalk. Workers added a set of packed bags. (By Evert Elzinga -- Associated Press)

Organizations of expatriates, including Democrats Abroad, say there have never been so many, and such large, celebrations outside the United States to mark the swearing-in of an American president.

In addition to sold-out balls in capitals around the globe, many other Obama bashes are planned. In Cambridge, England, people are gathering to listen to Obama's speech at a Hawaiian luau, a nod to Obama's roots in that state. In Antigua, Guatemala, Americans have hired a disc jockey to play Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and other tunes Obama keeps on his iPod. In Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama spent time as a boy, students from his former elementary school will perform a traditional dance at a party featuring some of his old classmates.

David St. Onge, 57, a John McCain supporter who works in the pharmaceutical industry and was in Moscow this week, said he has noticed a change in how his Russian clients treat him.

"They seemed to think better of Americans because we elected a black man as president," he said as he walked through Red Square. "They think we're more enlightened now."

Andrew Leik, 40, an architect from Michigan living in Cologne, Germany, said that along with "it definitely being much easier now to be an American" overseas, he has noticed that German friends who had refused even to visit the United States are planning vacations there.

In France, Rick Parks, 64, a retired New York City public school teacher, said he has noticed gestures of friendship and "definitely a change in attitude" toward the United States. Gone are the days when relations with France were so testy that french fries were briefly renamed "freedom fries" in U.S. House cafeterias.

Parks said North African souvenir merchants at the landmark Sacre Coeur basilica in Paris smiled at him and hailed Obama's election as a victory for them all, saying: "You are our people."

Many people said they have been surprised that a new president in the White House would have such a direct impact on their lives thousands of miles away.

Brandon Luker, 26, a PhD student from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who is in India researching Islamic issues, said Muslim scholars have given him slightly better access since Obama's election.

Jennifer Granger, 34, a teacher from New York who lives in Prague, said she no longer hesitates to say she is American.

"Thank God! It feels better," she said. "The people I work with give me high-fives and say things like 'You can be proud to be from your country again.' "

Perhaps as a sign of the eagerness for a new era, a wax figure of President Bush with his packed bags was placed on the sidewalk outside Madame Tussauds wax museum in Amsterdam on Thursday.

In London, as part of the promotions related to Obama taking office, U.S. citizens can get into Madame Tussauds free on Inauguration Day, instead of paying entrance fees that start at $18. About 300,000 Americans live in Britain and any of those, along with any visitors showing up with their passports, will be waved in.

All week, Krispy Kreme doughnut shops in Britain have been offering free cafe Americanos to those -- American or not -- who walk up to the counter and say Obama's trademark slogan, "Yes, we can!"

Kit Maloney, a Boston native who for the past eight years has lived on and off in London, said strangers have begun to quiz her on all aspects of American life and on how a country could elect a black liberal intellectual, something people tell her they can't imagine happening in Britain any time soon.

"For the first time in a long time, it's cool to be an American," she said.

Correspondents Karin Brulliard in Johannesburg, Edward Cody in Paris and Emily Wax in New Delhi, and special correspondents Karla Adam in London, Shannon Smiley in Berlin, Brian Byrnes in Buenos Aires, Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo, Gabriela Martinez in Mexico City and Sarah Schafer in Moscow contributed to this report.