I love the Olympics. I love the unity they bring to countries all over the world. Two weeks events and good sportsmanship. Every time the Olympics start since 2002 I have a flood of memories of when they were in Salt Lake City for the Winter Olympics. Kev volunteered and got to watch bobsled and luge as he helped the photographers out on the platform. He even got to use his Japanese a bit which was fun for him. I remember the feeling when the torch passed through our little town of Eagle Mountain where we were living at the time. I bundled up little Madi who was only six months old and we went out early to watch as they reenacted the Pony Express carrying the torch down the old trail. Such fun memories!!It has been a bit strange watching the preparation for the games in another country. I am so used to hearing biographies of U.S. athletes - not this time around. Now I know more about the Aussies though which is nice. I am also not sure who to cheer on - I want both the U.S. and Australia to do well in the games.
It has been fun to see so much of Beijing on TV as of late - it was just two years ago that Kevin and I stood at Tienaman Square and walked through the Summer Palace, as well as the Emperor's palace. We shopped at the dirt market and the silk market ,and bargained with the best of them. They were already making preparations at that time for the summer games to come to their country. My favorite memory of all time is when we walked on the Great Wall of China - a memory I will cherish always. What a remarkable wonder of the world! 
I will be watching with the rest of the world for the next two weeks to see the best athletes in the world compete in a search for gold!
5 comments:
It's exciting isn't it! So much to see when it only happend once every 4 years.
I must be one of the few people who don't get excited about the olympics :-) I saw them on TV at work and said: "Oh, they've started already, have they?". The olympics might be only every 4 years, but then there's all kinds of other games going on constantly. During the spring there was the world championship of soccer and someone at work was listening to the final game and I was like: "When will this end?". I guess I'm not that into watching sports. Doing it yourself is much more fun!
Oh there's one curious thing about the olympics this year. Why does the media keep calling the city "Beijing" even though the name of the city in finnish is "Peking"? Are we an english speaking country all of a sudden???
Olympics AND China! It is 24/7 for the next 2 weeks at our house! I even had to use an Olympic theme today in Primary (I'm the singing lady). Kevin W just humors me from the back of the primary room. I'm sure he is wishing he were home watching an Olympic soccer match, or just about anything else at that point!
Love
Kim
We have loved watching the Olympics but it was a little hard to find the pole vaulting. Had to watch it afterwards online. Just thought I would say you forgot to mention the awesome tour guide you had in Beijing who took those pictures you posted. Just another old guy that was hanging around.
Carl
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