Editor’s Note: Vishakha N. Desai is President and CEO of Asia Society, a global educational organization.

I read in the American press about Europeans’ preference for President-elect Barack Obama, but I was not prepared for the deep affection, bordering on almost a crush, that I found all over Barcelona on my recent trip there.

In several small women-run shops that I went into, I was greeted with a warm embrace once the shopkeepers discovered that I was a resident of the United States. These warm greetings were followed by exclamations about Obama’s election and many a discussion about how they had stayed up all night to watch the results and had cried upon hearing the results.

Later that same evening I had dinner with three professional colleagues, all female, but from different generations. The conversation immediately turned to President-elect Obama. The youngest of the three, Anna, who had spent years in Beijing and had just returned to Barcelona six months ago, confessed that she cried at the election results because every time Obama talked about “change” she felt that he was talking about change globally. She felt deeply connected to him as a 21st-century global leader who understands what it means to go beyond specific national, cultural or political borders.

Eva, in her 40s, and the more analytical and cerebral of the three, talked about finally seeing the cosmopolitan, intellectually sophisticated side of America that was largely absent in years past. She also pointed out that Sarah Palin and Barack Obama symbolize two distinct sides of America – cosmopolitan and provincial, the intellectually oriented and the anti-intellectual.

The third woman, Maria, in her early 50s, said she was finally relieved that she no longer had to dislike the United States. During the Bush era, she attested she carried the weight of negative emotions because she could no longer respect the country that had forsaken its decency toward people and behaved as the bully of the world. She pointed out, and the others agreed, that the nimbleness of America, its almost youthful capacity to change was back and they were surprised by it.

All three of them previously believed that the U.S. had begun its inevitable decline and it was unlikely that the country could reverse that process. Amazingly, even the current wave of global financial crisis had not dampened their enthusiasm for Obama and, by extension, the U.S. Eva pointed out that the fact that the United States could and did elect Barack Obama — something that no other country could possibly achieve, given the long-standing prejudices of class, race and social hierarchy — was reason enough to rejoice in America coming back as a strong, powerful nation.

Each of these women, in different ways, proved Obama’s point, made early on to his wife and his advisers, that by the very fact of being elected president of the United States, he would change history.

It was striking that each of the women saw different things in Obama and related them to the U.S. in a different way. Anna was less concerned about the U.S.– a powerful nation – and was able to feel the leadership of Barack Obama as transcending national boundaries. Eva was able to see a better aspect of America and appreciate its potential. Maria, meanwhile, was willing to lift her veil of negativity and give America another chance to be an admirable country again. Together they proved that dislike for America is not as deep as many may have feared and the U.S. still matters a great deal around the world. Even the current financial crisis and its implications of American greed have not dimmed the bright halo that the world has bestowed on Barack Obama, and by extension, the United States.