Our spirits glow.

The Olympics are always bringing the spirit out of us, in together unite us as a whole to celebrate the games and to show our support. That was very evidently clear yesterday night when some of the StudentsLive reporters got to attend the FIRST VICTORY CEREMONY of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Everyone was in full out spirit, whether you were wearing your Canada flag as a cape (Tanya Shum did, go check out her blog at http://tanyastudentslive.blogspot.com/ as she is also StudentsLive reporter) or waving your flag wildly to the cheers of the crowd. The victory ceremony we went to was "BC Night" and was held in BC Place. It was my first time going to BC Place and I must tell you, the stadium is AMAZING! Here are some pictures of outside the stadium and the inside:

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Game flags, consisting of pictures of the sports.

Lineups for security screening before entering BC Place.

A picture with the Olympic rings :)


The flag of the nations participating in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games :)

Mass amounts of seating for mass amounts of fans!

After we all got in our seats, Tamara Taggart and Ben Mulroney hosted the Victory Ceremonies and got the crowd very pumped! Following that, a first nation performance was on and it was spectacular! I've never seen something like that in my whole life and the sound of the chanting and drum beats just felt so down to earth. Several performances followed that, such as fiddlers with Irish dancers, ballet dancers from Goh Ballet, models showing off gorgeous unique outfits, drummers, martial artists doing some capoeria, Bollywood dancers and MUCH MORE!

What I love about the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games is that it brings culture. It has brought out the flavours of our unique vibrant city and I think it's a great thing to show the world. We're showing the world our roots with the fantastic first nation arts and performances and we're expressing our love for culture with all the different ethnic shows around the city.

First Nation Performance!

White confetti = Snow :)

But what made the night even more amazing was watching the athletes receiving their medals. The sound of the gold medalists national anthem, the uproar of cheering and the sight of the flags being raised was the best. You could just imagine how loud the cheering was when Kristina Groves received her bronze medal for Speed Skating - Ladies' 3000m and when Jennifer Heil received her silver medal in Freestyle Skiing - Ladies' Moguls. Now when Tamara Taggart had announced to us that Alexandre Bilodeau won the FIRST GOLD MEDAL FOR CANADA in Freestyle Skiing- Men's Moguls, the CROWD WENT WILD! Canada flags were waved, cheering was at its loudest and plenty of people were jumping for joy! Not only the athletes that were receiving their medals teary eyed, but there fans in the crowd also holding back tears.

To finish the night, Grammy award winning Nelly Furtado performed and it was fabulous. The crowd sang with her and it was also my first concert ever. I love the fact that on the very first ceremony (BC Night) , they got Nelly Furtado to come and sing. What I found surprising was after 2 or 3 songs, there were people who started leaving. I would of thought that everyone would stay for the concert. Anyways, I'm hoping that everyone is having just as much fun as I am during these 27 days because their are plenty of great activities you can do around town and if you're not going out, you can always cheer on your favourite team at home!

-xoxo Lorie