Hi, My name is Helen and I am Olympic junkie. I love, love, love the Olympics. I'm not sure what it is because I wouldn't say I am a huge sports fan, but maybe it's the Social Studies teacher in me.
One of my favorite parts of the Olympics is the Opening Ceremony. I love to see the show that the host country puts on. I love to watch the countries march in. The geeky Social Studies teacher in me loves seeing the population of the country and the number of athletes they have brought to the games. (I believe that Russia brought the most athletes to these Vancouver games.)
My favorite was the 2004 Athens ceremony. The Art Historian in me was giddy when the performance art created a Cycladic figure! I remember vividly narrating the event, much to Natalie and Amy's enjoyment (or chagrin). You see, I am a wealth of useless information and I love relaying all the stupid factoids I know and learning a few more along the way.
For the parade of nations, Greece always enters first (summer or winter) as they were the inventors of the Olympic games. Followed by the other nations in alphabetical order, except for the host nation that comes in last. This past Friday, Canada and Vancouver gave us their stab at it- and, well. eh. It wasn't all bad. I was fascinated to see the country of Macedonia enter between Finland and France. Well, come to find out the official title of Macedonia is "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". (FYROM) I'm sure this tidbit of information will benefit me at some future cocktail party or trivial pursuit game:) I teach a very small amount of Canadian geography so I already knew that the whole country of Canada has less people than our state of California. I did not know, but find fascinating, that 90% of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the US border.
You have to expect some level of performance art at these opening ceremonies. I thought, Canada is home to Cirque de Soleil-this should be cool. Well, it was kind of painful. It just didn't seem to flow. A great deal of the performance was dedicated to the aboriginal native peoples of Canada. Which I'm totally fine with, but it seemed to go on, and on, and on.......
And seriously-
Two words = Slam Poetry
The torch was lit (even though the giant crystal thing malfunctioned) and the games have begun. Yay for figure skating, mogul skiing, biathlon, and even curling!
Thank goodness I'm on vacation to enjoy it all:)
