When you’re a kid, you have a bunch of childhood dreams. Some are ridiculous, some are unattainable, some you talk yourself out of, and some you outgrow. But when you’re a kid, you don’t know that yet.
One of my dreams as a kid was to attend an Olympics, in particular, a winter Olympics. As I grew older, many of my childhood dreams — becoming an astronaut, dancing for the New York City ballet — fell by the wayside when I realized that some dreams aren’t just meant to be. And that’s okay, because letting go of old dreams made way for new ones.
And yet, after all this time, I still held onto my dream of going to Olympics.
Last week, I got to check that off my list.
^^happiness^^
In retrospect, maybe going to the Olympics was a simple, stupid dream – the kind that seems bigger than life when you’re a kid but just a matter of time and money when you’re an adult. And yet, as we made our way to watch our first Olympic event, I felt a surge of emotions. The 10-year old in me, who refused to let go of this dream for so long, gave adult me an ecstatic, giddy, high five. I kept thinking to myself, “HOLY CRAP I AM AT THE OLYMPICS!” over and over again. If I were a super emotional person I might have cried, but instead I asked Sly every five minutes, “Can you believe we are actually at the Olympics?”
The answer: no, we could not.
After all this time, we were here.
At the Olympics.
Holy crap.
We spent a few days last week in PyeongChang watching snowboarding, short track speed skating, and just enjoying being at the Olympics. After a brief hiatus, we’re heading back this afternoon to watch our last event – Women’s Figure Skating Finals! If you’re interested in following along in real time, I’ll be trying my best to update my Instagram stories feed. If you want to catch up on last week’s Olympic feed, you can click on the “Olympics” highlight button below my Instagram profile on the IG app. Otherwise, I’m sure I’ll have a million blog posts on the Olympics coming soon!
Kevin
February 23, 2018 at 11:27 amI’ll go ahead and ask this…were the foods of the world well represented?
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Keeping Good Thoughts…
veronika
February 23, 2018 at 11:11 pmActually, no. Maybe at the athletes’ villages and for media, but the public dining was a mix of mostly Korean food with a few “Western” items like pizza, sandwiches, and hot dogs. It kind of made sense considering most people in attendance were Korean. Afterward, we found an international food pavilion close to Olympic park. It wasn’t technically run by the Olympics though. Oh and there was one McDonald’s — and the line to get in was probably 1-2 hrs long…
Funnelcloud Rachel
February 27, 2018 at 4:28 amSo awesome! And I love your USA flair!
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I’ve been a huge Olympic nerd since childhood, too, and have always had going to the Olympics in person on my bucket list. Though a few years ago I started wondering if it would be disappointing to attend in person since you get such a better view on television than you would in the nosebleed seats? But witnessing the Olympic energy in person would be hard to beat! What did you think? Would you go again? If you stay in Korea for 2 more years, you could pop over to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo!
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I must admit that I found the Pyeongchang Olympics a little disappointing in comparison to other years. A big part of it was because NBC’s televised coverage seemed to suck this year. Since I have the luxury of watching the Olympics all day, I was used to getting to see all the heats and qualifying rounds of different sports that aren’t usually shown during prime time, but this year, all they seemed to show was hours and hours of curling. My fav sport to watch is snowboard cross, and I only saw the last two rounds of the women’s competition. Did they even televise the men’s? And I never saw any men’s downhill skiing? Did they not show it because the USA didn’t have any medal contenders? It was weird. Also, NBC showed almost nothing about Korea – usually there are some interesting stories about the culture, history, and food of the host country, but this year – nothing! In one late night discussion Mike Tirico and Dale Earnhardt, Jr (WHY is he a commentator?!) said they had gone out to dinner and “we didn’t know what we were eating!” “Yeah, the food situation sure is *interesting*!” Seriously?! Way to sound like idiot Americans!
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But I also felt like the Pyeongchang Olympics seemed to be missing something. It seemed a lot less picturesque than some of the other venues – I think part of it was because of the lack of snow, but there also seemed to be a lack of interesting architecture. Beijing had the cube and the bird nest, but Pyeongchang seemed to lack the usual showstopping architectural design. It does make me sad that they’re going to tear down the Olympic Stadium (what a waste!) and it also makes me understand why a lot of cities don’t want to host the Olympics anymore. It seems like a tremendous waste of money. 🙁
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That being said (boy, do I sound like a Debbie Downer – wasn’t trying to! I just can’t help analyzing!), I cannot wait to hear more about your Olympic experience! Bring on the million blog posts! And I’m so envious that you got to see the halfpipe finals!
veronika
February 27, 2018 at 10:16 amI was so excited to attend the Olympics, and have been wanting to go for so damn long, that I was certain it couldn’t live up to expectation. It was seriously awesome though and exceeded my expectations! The Olympic village stuff was not as grandiose as I expected. And while I loved watching women’s figure skating AT THE OLYMPICS live, I know that it would have been a much different experience if I were a kid when I was absolutely obsessed with figure skating. But I would say those aspects were more different than disappointing. I would absolutely go again because it was a shared dream with my sister and she was supposed to come out and watch the Olympics with us this year (long story, mostly involving twins). but at the same time, I always approach trips and things like this with the mentality that this is my one and only once-in-a-lifetime shot, so I best enjoy the shit out of it while I can.
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I would love to go to Tokyo for the summer Olympics, but we’ll be leaving in Jan 2020 at the latest. Also, I feel like an Olympics in Tokyo would be a huge cluster f*ck. The great thing about having the Olympics here is that it wasn’t too far from us, we were able to get tickets to all the events we wanted at face value, and we eventually found inexpensive lodging. Logistically, it was really easy and somewhat affordable. Tokyo…dude, I don’t know. And Beijing in 4 years? F to the no.
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We had an opposite experience of the Olympics than you did, for us, this was THE BEST OLYMPICS EVER. Obviously, a huge part of that was because we felt really connected to the “Olympic spirit” and energy (or whatever) and also because we watched everything in real time online. It did suck that NBC didn’t really do much background research on what makes Pyeongchang/Korea so unique. A lot of the stuff I read was about Seoul, not Pyeongchang! PC is pretty rad because not only does it have mountains, but it’s 1 hr away from the ocean (Gangneung – where all the ice stuff was).
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In general, I think most people don’t know the difference between Korean culture and any other Asian culture (because it’s all the same, right?), and because of that, they usually default to thinking Korea is either like Japan or China. I read about the announcer’s comments in the opening ceremony – things like “yin/yang” (Chinese) or even worse, “Korea was occupied by Japan for many years but they respect Japan because they are so technologically advanced.” Something to that extent. UMMMMMMMMMMMM. What? How is that okay to say? Also, do some research before you open your mouth. Obviously, this touches a nerve because I get tired of people responding or reporting about the same old cliches. Like how “interesting” the food is. Or how “funny” people talk when they speak English/Konglish. EYE ROLL. Embarrassing. I kept thinking how it would be different if they were in a country that they “understood” like somewhere in Europe, where all we would see/hear about is the quaint, picture perfect ski villas and things like how delicious fondue is.
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Anyway…hope you’re ready to be blasted by a million Olympic posts!!!! Gotta get this all done before the babes pop out. EEEEEK.
veronika
February 27, 2018 at 10:55 amPS: Did you follow Leslie Jones’ twitter feed at all during the Olympics? She’s a big time Olympic nerd too and her feed was hilarious. She came to Korea for a couple days and I feel like she would have been such a good, though not conventional, reporter for the Olympics.
Funnelcloud Rachel
February 27, 2018 at 1:51 pmOh, I’m so glad to hear that the Olympics exceeded your expectations in person! And I loved your pictures and stories – they showed so much that NBC didn’t! Shame on NBC for their crappy disappointing coverage. But I’m still a HUGE Olympics fan and I still watched round-the-clock (even if I got a little sick of curling and biathlon!)
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I had the same thought about the Olympics being in Tokyo. That would be totally nuts! I mean, I guess if any city is prepared to efficiently transport millions of people at once, Tokyo has it down pat, but bringing more people and infrastructure into an already crazy place just boggles my mind. I haven’t looked into where the Olympic venues will be located, but it sure should be “interesting” (ha!) to watch in 2020.
veronika
February 28, 2018 at 1:21 amI enjoyed this Olympics so much I even got into curling and biathlon! We contemplated seeing both since the tix were some of the cheapest and they were still available day of. After shivering in the cold for two days we decided there’s no way in hell we could do a night alpine event (thank god we didn’t get ski jump tix). I was pretty content watching it in the warmth of the indoors. On the other hand, I could not get into skiing at all. I think it’s bc every four years NBC tries to push Lindsey Vonn on us and I’m sick of her.
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I wonder if the Olympics will be held in Tokyo proper or somewhere in the burbs. It’s true that public transpo is widely available but it’s not like it’s supee quick since you have to factor in getting to the subway, going to the right level, dealing w/a crowded car… And imagine if the events are spread around? (In PC the events were in 3 different locations. They had shuttles but still getting from A to B to C took longer than we expected.) The thing that makes me shudder about Beijing 2022 is (among other things) that the actual events are going to be held like 1.5 hrs from the city AND even better – there’s typically not any snow? As in its not alpine. No no no no no. I can’t wait to see how “interesting” Dale Earnhardt, the authority on “interesting” Asian culture, will find Beijing. Srsly how did he get that job?
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The next summer Olympics after JP is in LA, right? Even though it’s in the States, the thought of scalped tix, driving in LA traffic, and paying $30-40 for parking is enough to make me say hell no.
Funnelcloud Rachel
March 1, 2018 at 2:16 amThe 2024 Summer Olympics are in Paris! (and 2028 in L.A.) Let’s take Pickle and the twins! Afterwards we can tool around Paris and stuff our faces with pain au chocolat and crepes. Then we can take NRATH through the French Alps with our kiddie band and placenta trail mix! Deal?
veronika
March 1, 2018 at 5:23 amPlacenta au chocolat? Can we wear matching engraved breast milk necklaces too? After NRATH, we can relax in a cabin and sip on placenta cocktails.
Kevin
March 1, 2018 at 11:44 amMake sure to have lemon. Placenta goes best with lemon.
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Keeping Good Thoughts…
veronika
March 1, 2018 at 11:57 am:-S