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I love my country
The Opening Ceremony was awesome.
For over a month I've been dreading it, because it's not often that the world is watching Canada. A lot of the time it feels like we get overlooked. When a celebrity comes out of Canada, I often get the feeling that people assume they're from the US since they're involved in the US entertainment industry.
So all I could really think about leading up to tonight was "Please don't screw up". Especially since China did such a great job two years ago.
But they didn't screw up (okay, there was one blip towards the end but I'll get to that in a minute). I thought it was great how they started it with the video of the snowboarder going down the mountain while they listed off the other host cities and then they had him to appear in the stadium to jump through the Olympic rings!
Really glad they started with the First Nation groups welcoming the world; that was pretty cool.
I was also glad that they had the 'Parade of Athletes' so early because they often miss most of the opening since they usually come in so late. They're the stars of the Olympics, the ones people tune in to see, so I'm happy they were able to enjoy the majority of the opening.
I'm really happy that Georgia got a standing ovation when they came out. My heart goes out to them and to the family of the deceased. I also liked that they held a moment of silence later on.
The special effects during the 'cultural section' I thought were amazing. Those whales looked real! And they had that huge spirit bear puppet. I really enjoyed the fiddler part too with all the maple leaves and that one fiddler was lowered from the ceiling in a canoe with a full moon in the background. And the part with the mountain! Where all the snowboarders and skiers werhttp://www.livejournal.com/update.bmle lowered from the ceiling and they showed some of the sports on the mountain! And then the speed skaters came in and they turned the lights down so all the costumes lit up! So cool!
And then there was the lighting of the torch. I definitely approved of the athletes that they chose but then there was all that waiting and suddenly the announcement that something wasn't working right.
I laughed; it's how I cope. The most important part of the entire thing and they can't get the damn cauldron to rise up. That was worst moment for something to go wrong.
They never did get it working right since only four of the five pillars rose. I like how they had all the athletes light it though.
And then Wayne Gretzky ran outside where he was taken to the location of the outdoor cauldron to light it. My heart stopped for a minute because I was worried that there would be more problems but it lit fine.
I'll be watching the next two weeks with great interest. Canada has never won the gold on Canadian soil so I'm really hoping it happens this time.
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