London 2012 Olympics has proven to be a morale booster for me as an American. With the Aurora Movie Theater shootings splashing the headlines for the past week, it’s nice to have something positive happening in the world. For the first time, I am watching games in the 30th Olympics that I have never watched or even knew of before.

      The Opening Ceremonies were spectacular under the direction of Academy Award winner, Danny Boyle. London’s history being displayed throughout the years was very well choreographed. The only downside was the terrible narration from NBC’s Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer. Someone needed to give them better notes of what they were actually seeing. For example, Vieira mentioned the red poppy as a symbol of the veterans from London and Canada. She didn’t mention the veterans from the United States. I buy handmade poppies from local veteran groups every chance I get.

      I think she totally lost control when she started to sing. Lauer said that he couldn’t believe she went there. It took every ounce of concentration to drown out the two. Here I thought they are just terrible when it came to the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. Boy was I wrong.

      On Saturday, I watched a new sport for the first time, women’s handball. I never heard of it before. My husband and I tried to guess what we were watching. I said it looks like indoor rugby. My husband said it looked like hand soccer. It took some investigation on our end to figure out that it was handball. We watched it for a while because we were being entertained, plus trying to figure out the rules.

     We also enjoyed swimming, rowing, gymnastics and volleyball on Saturday. The rules of volleyball have changed since I was in middle school. I have always watched swimming, gymnastics, and track and field during prime time hours, so it was a first that I was watching other games during the daytime hours.

      Sunday was a whole different story. I watched women’s team archery replay streaming online at nbcolympics.com on my laptop, while I had my television on beach volleyball, table tennis, and water polo. I have never watched archery before in my life, but technology of the internet has changed my viewing habits forever. Even though I was watching a replay of women’s team archery, I didn’t know who won the medals. I acted like I was watching it live, so not to ruin the ending by jumping ahead in the stream. I learned that South Korea has won the gold since 1988 when the game was introduced. I quickly figured out the rules and the games were a nail biter. I kept screaming to my husband “10!” when each arrow hit within the bulls eye value. It is the highest score an arrow can get. This game was amazing to watch. The women even had to play in spurts of rain fall.

     I kept telling my husband that I couldn’t believe I was so into the Olympics this time around. I mean I have watched swimming, gymnastics, and track and field that are highlighted in prime time, but for me to watch so many different sports for the first time was something so new and foreign to me. My husband and I came to the conclusion that we needed something positive in our lives. Not just ours, but everyone, everywhere needs positivity. We need something to show that we are united as humans on this small planet, called Earth. The Olympics prove that people can come together no matter their country of origin.

      Wouldn’t it be nice if life was more like the Olympics? To see athletes from all over the world come together in one place and compete with their athletic talent instead of using bombs or guns gives me a sense of peace and hope for a better world. No matter who takes home the medals, I look forward to some more Olympic games.

     What do you think of the games so far?  Let me know below in the comment section.

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