Caucusing
If you ever get a chance to live in Iowa, do it just so you can go to a presidential caucus. Like New Hampshire town meetings, it's participation democracy. The Democratic ones (I hear the Republican ones are more sedate) involve cramming loads of people into small rooms, counting off by numbers, cramming into other small rooms, counting off some more, tripping over small children, recruiting people to your candidate, cheering for magic numbers (which mean your candidate is viable) and writing numbers on a piece of paper to give to some guy who you hope is the guy that pieces of paper with numbers on them are supposed to be given to.
But really, the chaos is pretty well controlled. It all happens, despite everything, pretty much as it's supposed to. Even with record turnouts, there's someone directing traffic, someone registering new voters, someone checking people in and someone taking care of basic business. And--and in my opinion, this is one of the coolest things--if you want to be a delegate to the county caucuses, all you have to do is raise your hand and say, 'yeah, I'll do it.' It takes longer than going to a primary site and casting a vote, but you don't have to be a party faithful to participate in the process and you can tell right there, right while you're doing it, how much your vote really counts.