Let them begin...

Following up a previous post regarding me playing hooky from work (for 30 min), today is the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympic games. It's been a long road for these games in Vancouver. In fact back in 2003, I remember being in LA at a science conference when we heard that Vancouver won the bid to these games. Someone rushed in and yelled, "VANCOUVER 2010!!" And surprisingly I was part of a large chorus of cheering people in the lecture theater.

As a personal tradition, I've always watched the opening ceremonies. In fact as I write this, Portugal's team just entered the stadium. I am a fan of the Olympics, the idea of these games is a noble one. But just like anything with good intentions, there will always be some dark spots. Today is no exception, just within hours of the opening of the games, a Georgian luger was killed on a training run. Georgia put on a brave face tonight walking into the stadium.

Oooooh: now USA entered.

This will be Canada's 3rd time hosting the Olympics. Montreal hosted the summer Olympics in 1976. I wasn't around for that one, but I remember Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics vividly. What I remember the most is the theme, simply called "Winter Games". For these Olympics, the current theme plug is "I believe". I'm not sure if it'll be more popular as David Froster's Calgary theme.

I work in a multi-nation lab. We have a good mix of counties: Canada, Argentina, Swiss, Japan, Spain, and Ireland. All countries are competing in this year's Olympics, so it'll be a subject of talk (and ribbing).


Oooh ... I hear cheering: Yep, it's Canada! TV shots of people cheering in Whistler, cheering in Khandahar... and me cheering right here. Go Canada Go!

Watching the ceremonies more. I really enjoyed the fiddler/tap dancing segment. Beautiful Cdn maple leafs everywhere.

Nice Olympic flag bearers choices, including Terry Fox's mom and a famous UN Cdn peacekeeper (now Senator) Romeo Dallare.

Amazing Measha Brueggergosma's operetta was breath-taking.

Oh, this is better - 5 people lighting the cauldron...

...O - M - G... they flubbed the opening lighting of the cauldron! I can just see it now with Americans ribbing that Canada can't get it up. And then what? Watching a hockey player in a pick-up truck for 10 minutes to light the external cauldron? Well, I guess that's uniquely Cdn. Great show... poor finish. I hope this isn't foreshadowing Canada's performance at these games. Rated E for "effort"?