Youth Olympic Games- Part 1

Ok- I can admit it. I like the Olympic games more than most people.From a very young age I loved them, I have always thought they were magical to watch... and while, given my limited athletic prowess, it was fairly certain from an early age that I was never going to be a participant in the games (don't count me out yet- I think I could be good at the skiing and shooting thing or maybe speed walking =)), I have watched every single summer and winter games of my lifetime with rapt attention. And have loooongggggeeed to go to a games. When I was in elementary school, some of my Mom's good friends went to the Barcelona games, and I have forever been jealous. When I was in later Barcelona myself in college, I dragged my poor friend across the city to see the highlights of the Olympic venues. I watched every possible second of the games in Salt Lake, Athens, Turin, Beijing and Vancouver and I have vivid memories of watching Barcelona, Lilihammer Nagano, Sydney and Atlanta in my younger years. In fact I have some dreadful pictures (which will not be posted. ever.) which demonstrate that I was so inspired by the women's gymnastics during the Barcelona games that I temporarily lost my mind and forget that I had been an utter and complete failure in baby-gymnastics and spent endless hours of my 9-year old life at my paternal grandparent's house in Arkansas practicing somersaults and cartwheels which I would ceremoniously end with a hands-over-the-head-chest-stuck out dismount pose, just like the real deal. Luckily for all involved it was a short-lived phase.

This all brings me to the present. Singapore is playing host to the very first Youth Olympic Games and having lived here for the past five months, it would have been nearly impossible to ignore the massive advertising campaign to drum up some interest in the games. And who can resist cuddly cartoon mascots and cheerfully colored propaganda. So I was sold (didn't take much) and thus began our mission to get tickets to the Opening Ceremonies. Luckily, Singaporeans are very enterprising and with little effort we were able to procure tickets via craigslist from a Chinese fellow with a strong sense of capitalism who gladly sold us the tickets he had won in the lottery process for a profit.  God bless the power of the dollar. So a few weeks later  we found ourselves pumped up and headed to the floating stadium at Marina Bay for some baby olympic spirit.

And the opening ceremonies were AWESOME. Really, really great. We were so glad we went, even given the minor annoyances suffered (more on that later). So naturally I took about 100000 pictures, and some of they are cute, and I want to share lots- so please bare with me through a few posts and lots of pictures of the night.

One the way in!