Opening Ceremonies Dress Rehearsal

First of all, let me say that I do not intend to reveal any secrets from the ceremonies.

This evening was the second and final dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies on Friday, February 12th. All of the volunteers were given a free ticket and we were able to purchase a second ticket. Unfortunately, a lot of volunteers had to work this evening but I was lucky enough to have the day off. Debbie and I went downtown to partake in the activities.

We took the Skytrain into the city and got off at the Stadium stop. It was a short walk over to BC Place. Before going in to the stadium, we walked past a few police officers, one of them from the OPP. I stopped and asked him where he was from and her replied Ottawa. When I said that I was from Stittsville, he said that he was too. It turns out that he lives just the other side of Poole Creek from me!

Upon entering the stadium, Debbie and I found my friend Raina. Raina and I met in Ottawa when we were assisting with the interviewing and we had arranged to meet in the venue. She is working at the Richmond Oval and is just beginning her shifts. We then went and found Sonja and her cousin. It was really nice to meet up with all of those friends.

After chatting with both of those friends, we headed to our own seats and waited for the beginning of the show. We were actually treated to a pre-show which lasted close to an hour. Then the real show began. At the first rehearsal on Monday, some of the performers were not available so they used stand-ins but we were informed that we would be seeing the real thing. However, there would be stand-ins for the athletes and dignitaries.

The parade of athletes was really quite amusing because the volunteers who were acting as the stand-ins were clearly having a lot of fun, some of them dancing and some even doing cartwheels as they entered! The parade also led to some questions about how countries are placed in alphabetical order. For instance, the People's Republic of China was in the C's but the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was in the D's. I will have to try to figure out why this is!

I can't really say much else about the show because, in the words of one of the speakers, this is a big gift from Canada to the World and we do not want to unwrap it until the 12th. I will tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed it and that I can't wait to watch it on tv on Friday. You really must watch the whole thing!

After the show, about 30,000 people all left at the same time. Debbie and I hung back a bit after watching the sea of people outside. After about 10 minutes, we decided to head out. There were still large crowds outside but we headed back to Stadium Station to catch the Skytrain. We were somewhat concerned about how long it would take us to get on a train. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the wait was not long at all and we were back on the train and on our way home.

Enjoy the ceremonies!