Opening Ceremonies

Did you watch them? I never managed to watch the whole thing but this seemed like the year to do it. After class all morning and then a Latin mid-term, I managed to get downtown by about 4:30. Then a bunch of us went out to walk around a bit and check out the atmosphere. A lot of people were out; nearly everyone seemed to have the red Canada mittens (I lust after these but the stores seem to be sold out) or some kind of Canada gear. Or at the very least, they were wearing red. The always patriotic look of tying a flag around your neck like a cape was popular.
Naturally, it started raining and so we stopped in at a cafe to stay dry and grab some beers. We were near Robson Square and the countdown clock so about 5 minutes before 6, when the ceremonies started, we went to watch the clock. There was a New Year's atmosphere; a crowd gathered round the clock and counted down. My friends started singing "Oh Canada" after it hit zero and I tried to make up the words as I went along. It got a little awkward for me when a TV camera started filming us. I mean, it's not my national anthem and I clearly didn't know the words. But we were on CTV news later in the evening. I haven't seen it but I'm sure it's a gem of a clip.
Then we all went back to a friend's apartment to watch the ceremonies. It was a lot of fun being with a group of Canadians because they could answer most of my cultural questions throughout the ceremony. I learned some Canadian history and things like the east coast of Canada has a fiddling tradition. Who knew? Also, Canadians call a knit cap a 'tuque', rhymes with duke. Weird, right? And so many famous people are Canadian! I thought k.d. lang's and Sarah Mclachlan's performances were the best. And here comes the sentimentality again, but I felt a kind of pride as I watched the ceremonies. I'm not from Vancouver or even Canada but I was proud of all it. And happy. So there was a slight mishap with the torch lighting but that's ok. And naturally Gretzky got to light the external torch. He is Canada.
After the ceremonies ended, we headed out on to the streets to yell and cheer. In Robson Square they had some fireworks and laser light shows and giant fireballs which was unexpected but cool. Betsy, my fellow American, had a small flag to wave around and some people scoffed at us. But the vast majority of people were just happy to have so many people celebrating together. And we just reminded the more negative folks that the U.S. and Canada are friendly neighbors. That seemed to make everything ok. We walked all the way down to the waterfront to see the lit torch but you can't get close to it at all and there's a great deal of chain-link fencing keeping people back. But I've seen it in real life now! Finally, we ended up at Steamworks where we finished our night with beers and dancing with Olympic volunteers. A very successful night.
I have a lot more I could say about what I've done today but that'll have to wait until tomorrow!

Reminder: You can see pictures at gilliangrady.com.