Monday, August 16, 2004

Some How, Some Way, Athens Got It Done

I've been watching the Olympics every evening since they began. It's interesting to see it all happen, having spent the last year watching the Greeks attempt to pull it all together. So far, I'm impressed. It's pretty miraculous to be honest. I only left Greece a little over a month ago, and at that point, I couldn't imagine them being ready. But in some way that I don't fully understand, the Greeks are charmed. And while you still couldn't pay me to be there in the middle of it all, I am enjoying watching it. Here are some of my observations so far.

*The Greeks obviously paid off the cameramen. Everything on the television makes Athens look sparkling. But really, it's not. I'd love to see the outside of the stadiums, because I know they are not at all landscaped and instead look eerily like alien landscapes. Also, I have yet to see a stray dog, although there is definitely a 1:1 ratio of people to dogs in Athens. And finally, the run-down and abandoned buildings surrounding the new Olympic Stadium have not once made it onto the television.

*I can tell you what the Greeks spent the past month doing. First, they took the scaffolding off the Parthenon and hid it. Then they went to work on Syntagma Square turning it from a dusty construction zone into a little garden oasis. Next they rounded up all the stray dogs and took them to a farm of sorts where they will be kept until the Games are over. (They will then be returned to the streets...I am not kidding.) Then they blocked off all of the roads so the millions of cars that jam them everyday disappear into side streets that aren't shown on television. Then they got rid of the gypsy camp surrounding the new stadium. And finally, they sent almost all Athenians packing to the islands. All this in one month...really I think it's more than I saw them do during the whole year I lived there.

*Has anyone else noticed that the stands are seriously empty? Where have all the people gone? The announcers the other day tried to tell me that the gymnastics event was empty because it was the Feast of the Assumption, and all the Greeks were busy with religious stuff. Riiiight. I was there on religious holidays before, and they never kept people from doing anything else. The Greeks are, as a whole, fairly religious people, but the Greek Orthodox Church suffers from the same dwindling attendance problems common to many other religions.

*Could the commentators please ask a local person how to pronounce the Greek words they have to say? I'll be the first to admit that for living in Greece in a year, I know pathetically little Greek, but I can pronounce the name of the main sites around the city and country. Lykavatos is not pronounced Lick-A-Vat-Os and Patras is not pronounced like Pat-Ross. Really, it's not that hard. It's not like they're asking them to read the Greek alphabet.

*I lived about a mile from the new stadium. If you see a big yellow building with a red roof, that's Athens College. Nike has taken it over for the duration of the Games, so maybe I'll get to see it on TV.

*It must be pretty cool to win an event and know that there is no one in the world better than you at that event.

*It's really sad that the Iranian guy withdrew rather than have an Israeli opponent. Kind of goes against the whole Olympic spirit.

*Iraq's soccer team seems to be the feel-good story of the Olympics. You can't help but cheer for them.

*The Olympics brings out the patriot in all of us...at least in me. Whether you mean to or not, you find yourself wanting the US to win every event you watched. I was watching swimming yesterday, not feeling any particular attachment to it, but as the race neared the end, I found myself yelling "Swim Faster! Swim Faster!" to the American.

So if you haven't watched yet, get to it...and let your inner patriot out for a little while.

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