China should be proud!!! What an incredible opening ceremony. The part where the Olympic rings come up from the ground and float in the air - amazing, all the drummers - WOW, bringing the old and new together to create one was magnificent, all the shots of the crowd, the athletes coming in at the end and China's team - their smiles, their enthusiasm, the speech from the President of the Olympic Committee - superb, the incredible feeling I got when, not only Bahrain, but many of the Arab countries came onto the field - I felt such pride and joy for these teams (which is a first :) ), and then to see the American team come onto the field and President Bush - I felt such happiness... gets me every time.
I'm not sure what it is, but every 4 yrs, I completely abandon all else to sit and watch every possible piece of the Olympics... I just love the summer games. And to think, Bahrain has a 16 yr old competing ... in swimming. I'm thrilled. What an accomplishment... this young man should be proud.
The one thing that was disappointing is that Bahrain didn't have anyone there representing. What's up w/ that? Did no one go to back the team? Or did they not show the ppl in the stands?
I got tears in my eyes when Iraq came in... having been told by the commentator that they made it just in time.... how proud they must be.
I can't wait to start watching. Some of my favorites are gymnastics, long distance running, track and field, swimming, diving.... hmmmm... and sometimes I love to watch the rowing competitions. aaahhhh... I'm just thrilled that it's on Dubai Sports and in English!!! :)
11 comments:
I didn't get to see the opening ceremony yet. It will be on tonight and I am looking forward to it.
We have a 18 year old female swimmer from my town that you should root for. She's got great promise. Her name is Allison Schmitt she went to school with my children since middle school.
i will root for her... :) i love the swimmers... i'm looking forward to seeing the 41 yr old that came back this year to compete. haven't kept track of any athletes this time around, so it'll all be fresh and new to me, which is fine...
i hope you enjoy the show... it's wonderful. come back and let me know what you thought. :) gave me a whole different view of china, that's for sure.
I just finished watching the opening ceremony. All I can say is WOW! I just love seeing all the different nations all coming
together with their different cultural dress and sharing such excitement together.
I too, have a whole different view of China. I was very impressed. I gave off a very friendly and welcoming feel. Not something I expect coming from China.
so glad you liked it!! i watched a part of the opening ceremony again just a bit ago and was blown away by all the drummers. weren't they amazing! and yeah, i agree... i loved watching all the nations come in w/ their national dress. always brings tears to my eyes.
Wow, the opening ceremony highlights (?) is on Dubai Sports just now. Amazing.
I feel the same way about the Iraqi olympic team. I wish them success.
I seldom watch TV but it happened to be on when I flicked on the news to see coverage of the memorial service of the soldier I know who was just killed. I agree, the opening ceremony was awesome. It did my heart good to see so many people gathered in one place to celebrate a happy event. A wonderful change from all the negativity we've gotten so used to seeing. Yeah, I cried too, in a good way :-)
So much for that welcoming feeling. I woke up this morning to the news that an American was stabbed to death at the Olympics. I hope the athletes don't hear about it.
But yeah, I get choked up watching the athletes as they march in as well. Reminded me of going to the Nationals with my daughter in the marching band when they would all come together in the end for the awards. It's the camaraderie between competitors that impresses me. Did you notice them taking pictures with each other as they were lined up? Each one of them is so excited just to have made it there!
I just pray that there is nothing that will mar this experience for any of them.
And oh! Those drummers! Unbelievable! Matt Lauer was saying that the drummers were told to smile to make themselves less intimidating. They were also impressed by the fact that they never saw any conductors for any of the presentations and boy did they have some impressive presentations. So many people and they all were on their marks.
Ugh. I totally missed it. Argh.
We watched it for three hours after my birthday party dinner at a little pub. One of my rellies though didn't like the discipline of all those people doing the same thing together. We in Oz value individualism so much that the sight of thousands of people/ clones/ soldiers/ dancers/ drummers doing the exact same thing is rather scary. Of course I am glad it all worked and there were some lovely moments. But not much humour though.
The whole spectacle didn't have much to do with athletics which is what it's really about anyway. Bah humbug - okay I'm a wowser.
w.
wendy, from the things i heard, china was wanting to make a statement about us all being as one. i think that's why the presentation wasn't what you thought it would be. i loved it. i thought all those drummers doing it together was incredible... incredible that so many ppl could be in rhythm like that!!! the months of practice, the dedication... :)
l_oman, it was great... maybe you'll catch pieces of it because they show bits and pieces on dubai sports... but not sure if you get that there. i like the fact that they're showing so many pieces of it over and over... just love that, so i hope you catch it!
queen, yeah, i heard about the stabbing. the guy then killed himself. it wasn't at the stadium... far off some place. they've never had such an attach before. it's a shame really... shame that ppl feel the need to commit such violent crimes and for what purpose!?
one wink, sorry to hear about the soldier. and you are right, it's nice to see such things on tv when there's so much negativity nowadays! i'm watching men's swimming now... and just love it. waiting to see if i see this bahraini guy, but have yet to see him. just saw pres. bush in the stands. he didn't know the camera was on him and he was waving his flag like crazy... actually made me smile and gave me a chill.
Hello again from Wendy,
Okay, we are one, yes, but as an Ozzie, we like to subvert things and it would have been good to see a clown or two doing the wrong thing, making some fun out of it. I dislike soldiers marching, people all doing the same thing, even drumming together. Okay?
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