A moment of Patriotism

This past Friday, we got the opportunity to hold the Olympic Torch (not on fire) at Dan's work. Some lady, did a presentation about her experience as a torchbearer. It was a neat experience and pumped us up for the opening ceremonies later that evening.

We sat together on the couch, in awe of what we saw on our television. In a moment of patriotism, we stood in our living room as the national anthem was sung. We watched the many nations come out, guessing which country they were from, as the French name was pronounced first. We proudly watched the Georgian team walk by to a standing ovation to a crowd at BC Place, in honour of their fallen comrade. We also stood for the Olympic anthem, which was a bit disappointing as we only understood a few of the operatic lines that were sung. We enjoyed the theatrical element of the opening ceremonies. Although, true to prairie fashion, their segment was repetitive, long and boring (in a phrase, describing the prairies to a tee). We laughed at the hydraulic failure during the most important part of the ceremony; the lighting of the cauldron. We were impressed by the choices that the Olympic committee made for flag bearers and Torch lighters. We loved the Aboriginal elements, and were impressed that those dancers kept on dancing for over an hour as the countries marched by. Three and a half hours later, we finally turned off the TV, after enjoying a free night of exciting Olympic coverage.