Perhaps one of the most visible spectators at the National Mall for President Barack Obama's swearing in was someone who didn't have the chance to vote for the new U.S. president. 

Lubomir Dzamba, a Canadian resident, strapped two flags -- a Canadian and an American - to a pole and roamed the area around the Washington Monument with a sign that said, "Enough of bush league, make us proud" 

"We translate everything to hockey," Dzamba said. "So you, for eight years, like NHL team playing, high school hockey league and losing. So we said, when you make it, when you get a new [Wayne] Gretzky, we'll celebrate with you."

Dzamba was one of the many international citizens gathered Tuesday who couldn't vote on Nov. 4 but came to celebrate President Obama's election nonetheless. 

Diego Visquez, an Argentinean who lives in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C. biked down to the National Mall wearing a ski mask. While he couldn't vote for Obama, he encouraged his friends to back the Democrat.

"On paper I'm a citizen of Argentina but I grew up my whole life in this country," Visquez said. He braved the cold of Inauguration Day because he believes Mr. Obama's inauguration is the start progress not just in the U.S. but in the rest of the world. 

"It's a point in history where we are in a constant state of flux, not just because of America but because what the country the United States what it means to the rest of the world. The fundamental shift of power, it's happening here with Obama but also with the economic situation and with the geopolitical situation."

Joao Mumhoz and 13 of his Brazilian friends that work at Camelback Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania drove a car to Washington, D.C. to see the inauguration.

"It's pretty nice to have the possibility to come here, Brazilians here and cause Obama is a person that represents the change for every world," Mumhoz said. 

David Muthiora travelled to the inauguration with a jubilant group of Kenyans celebrating the inauguration of  a man whose ancestral roots reach back to his country.

"We are very welcome. There have been so many happy people: whites, blacks, Asians," he said. "No racialism."

The Nairobi resident said he was hopeful Mr. Obama's presidency would be able to maintain the uneasy peace in his country.

-- Interviews by Anna Shoup and Dave Gustafson; Photos by Aileen Humphreys