My Thoughts on the Opening Ceremony

I'm in the middle of watching the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics on a beautiful HD television with my family and there are not many words that could describe what I wish I were seeing in person:

Wow

$300 million was spent (as you've heard the commentators say multiple times) and I don't think that any Chinese person regrets their country having spent that amount to create such a beautiful show. Numbers show that 4 billion people tuned in to watch the Olympic opening ceremony and I would bet a lot of money that about one-fourth of those were Chinese viewers (China's population is 1.3 billion).

Anyway, as I begin to doze watching the "parade of nations" (so long!) I thought I'd give a few comments:

• I was disappointed to wake up this morning in America and find that nobody on TV, radio, or around me even knew that the opening ceremony was occurring that morning! I know I was one of the few, but I've been looking forward to this opening ceremony and was itching to see how it was going. I had to search on the internet to find any news on how it was progressing.
• This has nothing to do with whether I am a Republican or Democrat, but I am proud that President Bush didn't boycott the Olympics. As I have said before, it would have done more damage than good for relations between China and the US.
  
• Those who don't live in China won't catch this, but why did they have to choose CCTV 9's Ji Xiaojun to announce in English in the Bird's Nest stadium? He hosts the Culture Express TV show and I can't explain why, but he is the only Chinese person whose English actually annoys me. I know I'm probably the only person who feels this way, but so it is.
  
• The drummers smiling? It looked unnatural, to be honest. Aside from that, those drums were AWESOME!
  
• We had a debate whether that Chinese type press was mechanical or human run. My parents were convinced that such a show would be impossible without computers. Tiff and I knew better: what many countries would program computers to do, Chinese just grabbed a thousand of its citizens and taught them to jump up and down in an artsy way. One of my favorite parts of the show, hands down.
  
• The timing and straight lines by all these performers is absolutely incredible. I see ear buds in their ears that are probably giving them timing directions, but that doesn't explain the perfect circles and straight lines formed on a floor without very few visible markings. Amazing.
• During the parade of nations, did you see the cheerleaders giving the cheers I talked about? I was impressed that they cheered for a whole 2 1/2 hours during this parade. I was tired just sitting down.
• Finally, great torch lighting! In Athens it was a flaming arrow, in China they decided to make an athlete the flaming arrow.
  

As the Games begin, we pray that these Olympics are safe for all spectators and athletes. I have to admit that I feel a sense of pride having called China home for the last 2 years and I look forward to the next year of life in Xinjiang, China. I hope that the Americans get more medals, but other than that...中国加油！(Go China!)