I Love The Olympics !

The 2012 London Summer Olympics have started - don't you love it ?

I love the Olympics, my kids and husband love the Olympics....when we had dogs they loved the Olympics!

Since our kids were small, from opening ceremony to closing ceremony we would stay huddled in our home for three weeks, glued to every moment of coverage, every event that we could catch. We never cared to watch water polo, synchronized swimming or archery any other time of the year, but during the Olympics, any sport played during the three weeks of coverage we watched, we become instant fans.

We are Olympic junkies - we talk about the athletes, cry over the heart wrenching stories, cry with the athletes when they win, cry with them when they lose and even cry when they hug their mom's. And when our national anthem is played, well we better have the tissues available, more tears. We cannot get enough of the games, even late into the night watching the late, late night coverage until the broadcaster signs off. When the closing ceremony is over and the games are done, we have withdrawals, sad to say goodbye and hope that the next two years go fast until the next Olympic Games return.

This time the Olympics are different for me. I am on the other side of the world, not watching from the comfort of my United States home, but in a foreign country in the Middle East, observing and watching the games from their perspective, their point of view. This time I am not seeing just Americans compete, the focus here is not on one country, it is much more global.

Some of these countries are so proud just to be at the Olympics and having one of their countrymen or women participating. Some of these countries know it is a long shot that they will win, even place, but they are at the games, proudly representing their countries. There are heart wrenching stories about even getting the athletes to the games, trying to scrape together uniforms. Qatar, Brunei, Saudi Arabia allowed for the first time, some of their women athletes to participate in these 2012 summer games - that this huge and how awesome for those women. Several of these small countries finished dead last in their heats, like swimming, but still broke their countries records doing it. How amazing is that !
Being here, in a foreign country has been a good reminder for me that winning is not everything, sometimes the victory is simply getting there.

In the United Arab Emirates, they don't have the broadcasting and coverage that is being done in the United States, but I do have 10 channels, all but four of them being broadcast in different languages other than English. I get it all... Arabic, German, Japanese, etc, but you can hear the excitement, still see the tears and fell the pride just like I experience when I watch my own home country, the Americans.

The games have made me especially homesick for my kids. The Olympics are rich with family time and I love it, cherish it. One of my daughters and her husband hosted an opening ceremony party at my home in states to kick off  the games - you go, keep the traditions alive.

 But how awesome it is to be here in the United Arab Emirates and experience the games with different eyes, in a different country on the other side of the world.