Opening Ceremonies - A guest commentary

Being that I was working the opening ceremonies last night and couldn’t enjoy the spectacle I asked my fellow co-worker (and friend) Mary Ciecek to write a guest blog entry. I know going to the opening ceremonies would be one of the biggest thrills of her life so I wanted to she what she thought about the experience. Here it is plus pictures she took.



By Mary Ciecek
A dream of mine came true last night. During this, my third Olympics, I finally got to attend the Opening Ceremony. After getting my hopes up in Athens only to spend the Opening Ceremony running all over Athens trying to catch a cab, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will probably work during the Opening and I will get to watch it like all of you, on TV, only with Chinese commentary. So the plan last night was to watch the ceremony in the office and then run out to the Olympic Green to watch the many fireworks displays. About 2 hours before the start of the ceremony, a ticket arrived and with all the photographers and editors in place and working, the ticket was offered to the sponsor’s team and I was the lucky winner as the veteran of the group. It all happened so fast that it wasn’t until the Bird’s Nest came out of the “fog” and appeared before me that I really got excited about what I was about to experience. My ticket did not have a specific seat assignment so I went to where the other Getty editors were working inside the Bird’s Nest and looked for an open seat in that area. I found one near my good friends Garrett and Jesse from the NBA and had only a few minutes to go before the big countdown. As the fireworks went off counting down from 10 to 1, the lights in the Bird’s Nest went down and….I began to cry. (I still get misty thinking about it.) I love the Olympics. I love the traditions, the rituals and the symbolism that surround the Opening Ceremony and I couldn’t believe that I was actually there and actually experiencing this once in a lifetime event. I loved it all from the beginning drum display, the acrobats, the ever changing scroll that evolved throughout the ceremony, the fireworks and I even loved the 2 plus hours of the parade of nations. My favorite part was the lighting of the flame. At the time, I could not tell you why Li Ning is so important to the Chinese people, but I again got teary when he began his lap around the upper portion of the stadium to the giant cauldron that had slowly unfurled itself during the parade of nations. The lighting of the flame was exactly as it should be, a spectacular surprise with the flame racing up the scroll to where it will reside for the next 16 days. To know that so many Olympics have started in this same way with a flame being lit and I was there to see it, was very special to me and something that will stay with me for a long time.