Vancouver
I got a chance to spend most of Saturday in Vancouver - low points included incredible lines, an attempted pick-pocketing and the flame not being visible due to "uh...structural issues or something about the protesters."
But the high points were just awesome - streets flooded with people from all over the world; everyone laughing or cheering, hyooooge Jumbo-tron screens everywhere broadcasting different events (we stood and watched what turned out to be Sven Kramer's gold medal race in Men's 5000k speed skating); everyone dressed in the colors of these games or previous games or their home nation; children and adults with temporary tattoos of the Olympic rings or the maple leaf or a flag of *pickacountry*. A contingent of the Italian team and/or staff looking terribly flash and handsome, casually smoking and flirting in the rain. Granville Island swamped with artists and TV crews (those Swiss really loved the public market because they filed the same shot in 4 places), random groups of Canadians on street corners getting groups of people to shout "GO CANADA" as loudly and frequently as possible. The exchange of pins, scarves, smiles - we cheered on a jump rope team for 10 minutes. We stood in line for a silly amount of time in order to get into Hudson Bay so we could spend our hard earned money on trinkets and such. But no one was pushing or angry or rude. I have carefully preserved my temp tattoo (a little saran wrap and voila! showering was no problem) and I get all warm fuzzy when I see it.
It was... lovely.
I watched the opening ceremonies on Friday night with someone who asked me why I love the Olympics so much. And I realized it's because this is one of the few times I have hope that humans will make it. That maybe if we can learn to leave the guns and missiles and threats and move toward healthy means of settling disputes (either intellectually or athletically) there's a chance we don't destroy ourselves.
This will end in 2 weeks and I'll go back to being fairly sure we'll self-destruct in some dramatic way. But for two weeks every 2 years I get to dream a little dream.
But the high points were just awesome - streets flooded with people from all over the world; everyone laughing or cheering, hyooooge Jumbo-tron screens everywhere broadcasting different events (we stood and watched what turned out to be Sven Kramer's gold medal race in Men's 5000k speed skating); everyone dressed in the colors of these games or previous games or their home nation; children and adults with temporary tattoos of the Olympic rings or the maple leaf or a flag of *pickacountry*. A contingent of the Italian team and/or staff looking terribly flash and handsome, casually smoking and flirting in the rain. Granville Island swamped with artists and TV crews (those Swiss really loved the public market because they filed the same shot in 4 places), random groups of Canadians on street corners getting groups of people to shout "GO CANADA" as loudly and frequently as possible. The exchange of pins, scarves, smiles - we cheered on a jump rope team for 10 minutes. We stood in line for a silly amount of time in order to get into Hudson Bay so we could spend our hard earned money on trinkets and such. But no one was pushing or angry or rude. I have carefully preserved my temp tattoo (a little saran wrap and voila! showering was no problem) and I get all warm fuzzy when I see it.
It was... lovely.
I watched the opening ceremonies on Friday night with someone who asked me why I love the Olympics so much. And I realized it's because this is one of the few times I have hope that humans will make it. That maybe if we can learn to leave the guns and missiles and threats and move toward healthy means of settling disputes (either intellectually or athletically) there's a chance we don't destroy ourselves.
This will end in 2 weeks and I'll go back to being fairly sure we'll self-destruct in some dramatic way. But for two weeks every 2 years I get to dream a little dream.