Yay for the Olympics, Yay!

I am so, SO excited right now. I am seeing my first Winter 2006 Olympic event (it only took me until Day 13) and I finally figured out how to find BBC2 on my landlady's TV in time to catch the final Women's Figureskating.

I was having a real problem with England because the Olympics had been on for days and days and my only hint was that Google had cool Olympic graphics on. The only people I eventually heard talking about it were other expats, like my Finnish and Chinese friends. So finally I decided to take this up with the Brits, on account of how they were the ones who lobbied so hard to get the Olympics in their own country and now they're completely ignoring that it's even on. I mean, seriously, what kind of attitude is that? Possibly people who don't appreciate the Olympics don't actually deserve to host the Olympics.

Only then I called them on it and everything became clear.

Brit Friend: Nah, we're just not that interested in the Olympics, really.

Me: But you're hosting them soon!

Brit Friend #2: Yeah, the Summer Olympics.

Brit Friend: Yeah, we don't care about the Winter Olympics. We don't win anything in those.

Brit Friend #3: Exactly. Since Torville and Dean, it's been like, 'Why bother?'

Brit Friend: But, now, Summer Olympics we're great at. We get into the Summer Olympics.

Brit Friend #2: And the World Cup.

So. Now we know. And now it's on and it's live and I'm watching little Emily Hughes skate and just learned that she only got called up to compete 10 days ago when Michelle Kwan backed out.

So go USA, where we watch both the Summer and Winter Olympics because we win medals at both!!!

[later]

Only ps. I won't give anything away for the people who want to watch this themselves, but I'm thinking a bunch of these skaters will be going home and calling this "The Winter Olympics I Spent Sliding on My Butt."

Posted in: England