YOG- Part 3

OK- I promise at some point in these posts I will actual cover the ceremonies, but there was just so much else going on, and really top-notch people watching.

LOVE these guys. One our walk to locate the ever-so-important souvigner tent and snack bar, we ran into these guys. And if you think I had any shame in pushing past gleeful toddlers to get this picture (hello Christmas card photo!) you would be wrong. 

Back to the people watching, one of my favourite pasttimes- the audience and the participants provided a wealth of good entertainment. Like these guys, the Australian super-fan family:

Not to be out done, of course there was also a USA Super fan in our section:

But the real treat was watching the official delegations come in to sit in the section in front of us. My favourite part of the Opening Ceremonies is the march of the participants, and the one here left a lot to be desired, but I was totally in to watching the delegations come in wearing amazing national dress outfits and other hilarious fashion choices. 

Members of the Marshall Islands delegation.

Not sure where these guys were from, but they mist have been DYING in full slacks, a full dress over their slacks and a wool blazer, in humid 95 degree weather. 

Team Colombia in some pretty cool hats. 

And finally, after much anticipation, it was time for the main show to start. 

And there were the first of MANY fireworks displays- which are pretty spectacular with the crazy Singapore skyline in the background. 

And this was followed by the first of many of our crowd interaction moments where we were asked, and guided by an awkward Chinese pre-teen as our section cheerleader, to make the crowd look cool on tv, participate in the action. I am sincerely hoping that this particular crowd activity looked cooler on the broadcast though:

Like I said, to lead us in to these exceptionally challenging feats of crowd participation, we were skilfully guided by a rhythmically (and one can assume, socially) challenged pre-teen girl. Here is a little video of our dear friend. 

The entrance of the participants was a little bit lack luster. They basically just played some music and the kiddos walked across stage to their seats, no flag parade, no announcement of the countries, nothing. I know this part takes the longest, but its so cool to get to see where everyone is from! They did redeem themselves a little bit by having a parade of just the flags as they announced the participating nations later and we had our chance to cheer wildly for the US of A.