The British are coming! The British are coming!

The streets of Capitol Hill tonight were not unlike a scene in a movie about the apocalypse or some grand scale natural disaster.

Policemen and security guards roamed around, but barely a soul could be found - only cold air and the occasional paper bag floating down the sidewalk in the brisk wind.

But we couldn't have be the only people crazy enough to try and get close to what would be the scene of the action in only a few hours - the capitol. Or so our logic went.

We were right.

We were able to trek up to the back of the gated area lined with seats (where the big wigs will sit tomorrow) and found quite a few signs of bundled up life there.

Among the more interesting folks (that is, having more to say then "It's cold" or "Wow, there are so many chairs!") were a group of British students.

Guy Burkitt and Byron Thomas (names seldom get more British then that), both 21 and students at the University of Bristol, were both elated and disappointed.

Both are part of the University Presidential Inaugeration Conference, a conference of American and international students who all signed up and paid to take part in a few days of heavyweight speakers and seminars, as well as a chance to experience the swearing in ceremony and following parade.

Silly them - they thought that the Conference, which costs almost 3,000 dollars, would provide them tickets to the Inauguration. The website does say, "The Conference is comprised of exclusive and private inaugural events... as well as public ceremonial events, such as the official swearing-in ceremony and the inaugural parade."

Guess they didn't read the fine print - the frustrated students were empty handed for tickets, but still wide eyed just at the notion of being here, a continent away from home, to celebrate in Obama's Inauguration.

And, apparently, so is the whole of England.

"Bush was constantly vilified by the media and satirists in the U.K. – the Bushisms, the dreadful things he’s done, that he can’t speak English properly. Obama comes off as the antithesis of that – a dignified statesman," said Burkitt. "What he does represent is a change in image. Obama gives a sense that he’s more willing to cooperate with people around the rest of the world."

"No one thinks that within a week you’ll be out of Iraq and Guantanamo Bay will be shut down, but it’s a new dignity and a new approach that goes down better with the rest of the world," he continued.

Thomas agreed, but was also in awe at the sheer fact that politics could draw such a crowd.

"This kind of culture doesn’t exist in the U.K. – an excitement towards politics, the spectacle of it. It’s nice to be around people who are excited about the political system, the change that’s happening," he said.

- Justin Jacobs, blogging from the couch at 3:49 a.m., approx. one hour and 11 minutes before my alarm is set to go off to wake me up for my journey to the Inauguration. I'll sleep when I'm dead.