My apologies for this super late update, but posterous has been giving me such hell with the uploading of pictures. So I've decided to just heck it for now and update my blog without pictures for the time being. I'll resize the pictures in my spare time and try uploading them again. For now, just bear with me and my wordy posts!

In this update, I'll be talking to you guys about the fantastic experience we had at the opening ceremony!

It was with great excitement when the other SMEs and myself left the hotel for the the YOG opening ceremony. The first thrill of the day was using our opening ceremony tickets as an ezlink card. There was much skepticism amongst us with us all being typical Singaporeans asking doubtfully,"Really will work meh?" To my delight, the card beeped successfully when I tapped it against the reader. It certainly is an interesting twist, as the opening ceremony ticket triples up as a Visa card as well as an ezlink card. Amazing!

When we arrived at Marina Square, we were greeted by a massive queue to enter the roads leading to the Floating Platform. What's the hold up? Intensive security checks. Security certainly was not taken lightly at the ceremony yesterday as numerous metal detectors and scanners were set up. After we finally got past the security checks and collected our audience interactive packs, we hurried to the entrance for the light blue sector.

Finding ourselves the best seats possible, we sat down and prepared ourselves for the start of the ceremony. The hosts came out after a few minutes to brief the audience about their interactive packs. We had two torches to use, one in the shape of a heart and the other was a dove. These beautiful torches look great lit up! It was an amazing sight when the audience switched on their torches together and waved them around.

Soon thereafter, the show began! It was a blur of colorful costumes, good music, lights flashing and plenty of fireworks. There were many different acts, from modern and traditional dances, to drum acts, to singing acts and even a scene where they fought against a giant monster. Throughout the show, performers came and danced amongst the audience. Stage crew even walked along the aisles carrying giant puppets which were really adorable. 

Then came the presentation of all 204 participating countries' flags. When a country was presented, there was always cheers from the audience. However the biggest support of all of course came when the Singapore flag was  presented. When the flag was brought out, the entire audience leaped to their feet frantically waving their flags and roaring their approval.

For me, the highlight of the show was when the Youth Olympic Flame arrived at the ceremony. The flame arrived in a dragon boat carried by the Singaporean swimmer Amanda Lim. This brought gasps and cheers from the audience as they spied the boat approaching the platform from afar. The flame was then passed on to several other Singaporean youth athletes and finally Singaporean sailor Darran Choy lit the cauldron to deafening cheers from the audience. The audience watched in awe as the flame travelled up in a spiral towards the cauldron finally ending up in a vortex flame at the top of the tower. I have to say, I felt unspeakably proud as I watched the flame burning in the tower. Watching the flame reach the cauldron was all the more special for me as I was one of 2,400 torchbearers in the Singapore leg of the JYOF.

All too soon, the ceremony came to a close after Singapore's president SR Nathan declared the YOG open. Though the show was a spectacular one, what really struck me was the pride and joy that all Singaporeans had for their country today. Hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games is such a big honor for Singapore and our pride was really apparent in the cheers and enthusiasm of the audience. I hope that over the next few days, all the games would run smoothly and that this YOG will be a successful one.

I'll be watching Taekwondo tomorrow, it is my first time watching the sport and I'm quite excited to see what it'll be like!