Olympic Festivities

You probably know that last week the Olympic International Committee met in Copenhagen to decide where the 2016 Olympics will be held. Obama, Oprah, Michael Jordan and a whole bunch of other famous people made their way over to Denmark to make their case for Chicago being the home to the 2016 Olympics. Sadly, Chicago did not win (actually I kind of wanted Rio to win anyway, just to give South America their first Olympics) but the days surrounding the decision were still amazingly fun. Copenhagen put on some really amazing festivities.
The first excitement related to the Olympics happened as I was biking home on the Wednesday before the announcement. We were about to bike past the American embassy when we realized that the road/bike lane next to the embassy was closed off and we had to cross the road. There was a huge crowd gathered around the embassy, with reporters and tons and tons of police and security. We asked one of the reporters what everyone was waiting for and he told us Michelle Obama was about to arrive. So we decided to wait with the crowd for her to arrive. We didn't actually get to see her, but we did see her entire motorcade, which consisted of probably a dozen black SUVs and cars and a whole bunch of Danish police cars. So that was pretty cool. I saw Michelle Obama's car!

A sign inviting Obama to a free lunch at a local cafe

And if the security we saw for Michelle Obama was intense, the security for Barack was even crazier. They basically shut down half the city for his arrival. Roads were closed. Even the bridge to Sweden was shut down! All during class on Friday, we could hear helicopters overhead, which made it very hard to focus on doing schoolwork, what with the constant reminder of the excitement going on outside.
Class eventually ended for the day and I made my way to city hall plaza, where there was all sorts of excitement. A stage was set up, where various athletic events were taking place. There were gymnastics performances, karate performances, rowing machine races and much more through the whole afternoon. Off-stage, there was a handball court set up. I'd seen handball on TV before, but never actually seen it played in person, so that was definitely really neat. It was kind of like soccer, but with throwing the ball instead of kicking it. Then there was BMX biking, where kids biked around on a dirt track that had been set up for the day. Some of the kids could definitely jump pretty high on their bikes!

Kid jumping on his bike

It was really crowded there, especially with people from Japan, Brazil, and Spain all rooting for their respective cities to win the Olympics. The Spain fans kept singing Spanish songs and the Japanese fans were dressed up in totally awesome costumes. Some of them wore white wigs with a red dot in the middle. Others wore Pikachu costumes. I never realized how into the Olympics some people are that they would come all the way to Copenhagen just to root for their city of choice to win the Olympics.

Tokyo supporters, the Pikachus among them

As night started falling, the live music started. I got a really sweet spot in the crowd, right at the very front, literally against the barrier that stops people from getting to close to the stage. I could not have been any better! Throughout the night, there was Danish rap, which is kind of bizarre. When I think of rap, Denmark is not the place that first comes to mind, but it was still pretty cool. After a couple more bands, the highlight of the night came on stage: AQUA!!! Aqua, the band who did the song barbie girl, is apparently Danish and they gave a live performance. I'll be honest, when I came to Copenhagen, one of the last things I imagined was that I would see a live performance of Barbie Girl, but it was amazing and so much fun! Aqua was really fun to watch. They were not what I pictured. There were about ten of them in the band, which was larger than I expected and the lead male singer wore a skirt. Not what I pictured at all.

Lead female singer of Aqua

More Aqua

After Aqua, the announcement of the winning city was made. They brought a group of kids from each of the four candidate cities on stage and showed video of the announcement on a large TV screen. When they announced that Rio had won, the Brazilian kids seemed really excited, which was cool. It seemed very Danish of the announcer when he said, that it wasn't really about winning, though, that it was more about participation and all of these cities were winners. I don't think they would say that in America!

Kids onstage from each city

Brazilian children after the announcement

After the announcement, the live music continued. One of the bands that stood out in my mind was D.A.D. The guitarist had a really sweet guitar shaped like a rocket ship and there was fire on the stage, which is always fun.

Fire on stage

Rocket guitar, from behind

D.A.D.