wow....what a show!

[smittenbyu]

I got home a bit late to catch the beginning of the opening ceremonies. But of what I watched, it was absolutely spectacular! Who thinks up of all these creative ideas? I was mesmerized. And as in any lavish show I watch, part of me thinks, is spending so much money when there are so many problems we have to deal with, justified? Literally millions of dollars went up in smoke last night. But the best part was not all the fun shown used by technology but the performers' performances. wow. How much practice must have gone into that one night.

Another thing I enjoy about the opening ceremonies is that it's a great geography lesson. A refresher and learn about new places. The US commentators were good. It seems they had been contacted by some Malaysians to let the world know where they were in the planet. The request came from one of the Malaysian athletes walking that night. He had studied in the US and found many didn't know where his country was and had a tough time explaining it. This is so very true. The commentators tried so hard, "it's in South East Asia, bordering the Northwest Islands of Borneo." huh? How many people know where Borneo is? I always said, "they are north of Singapore" and that usually clicked. I remember one Malaysian friend in college would get so annoyed that people would know where the speck (Singapore) is located but not a country that is bigger than that. he he he he...

Comments

[voyageofdreams.livejournal.com]

Mark and I also had a "huh???" moment when they did that explanation of where Malaysia was.

Yeah I often explain its directly north west of Singapore which for some reason people seem to know approx where that country is.

[aliki.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed that too last night. I turned to B and said "nortwest island of Borneo"?!? What kind of statement is that?

I normally say to Americans unfamiliar with geography that to locate Malaysia, if you find the landmass that China and Russia sits on (most of them know where that is) and follow the coastline southwards to where it ends up looking like the Florida peninsular?

That's Malaysia.