Olimpiadi

Mmm.. I see that my old post didn't have a lot of success. :) So, I'll go back to more normal posts :)

Did you watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics? I obviously did, how could I miss Turin on American TV?
So, here are my thougths about it:
1) SOOOBBBBB :( :( - I got so homesick when I watched it! I don't realize I miss it so much until I really see it.
2) Turin is really pretty. They put up some wonderful lights, too.
3) AARGHH.. they showed some cafes, and the hot chocolate, and il bicerin.. I was still craving it the morning after.
4) American pronunciation is funny :) -probably as mine in English, though :)
5) As for the ceremony: some parts were really cool. I liked in particular the skier made by a lot of people who were moving around on the stage! Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video of it :(
I only found a video of the 'heart of passion'. Let me know if you find a video of the skier!!
6) The worst part were the commercials.. I think American TV is even worse than the Italian one for this aspect. They interrupt the show every five minutes with two minute of commercials...

In general, I like that we are hosting the Olympics.
I must point out, though, that in Italy there have been lots of protests about it. The main points were environment related. It looks like instead of using some pre-existing structures, they built a lot of huge new ones, destroying some precious landscapes. Obviously, some of these will never be used again by normal people (not many people do luge and similar..). Also, some of these constructions seemed to be not only ugly but also dangerous for the hydrogeology of the places.
Other points were more political: many of the fundings came by companies supporting war and builduing weapons, or doing immoral actions against their worker (such as Coca Cola). Obviously, this is against the spirit of the Olympics..
At last, some of the protests occurred to show disagreements with the people who arrived: many protesters showed up against Laura Bush, for example, to show disagreement with Bush's politics.

These protests were so strong (or scary to the organizers..) that the Olympic torch arrived to the stadium through a path that was different from the one that was decided at the beginning, just to avoid them.

I think they have some good points, although, I wouldn't like it if they interfered too much with the Olympics... It's still a nice event, with such a long history behind.