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For those ready for your next big heaping spoonful of media spectacle, the countdown has reached 16 days, 10 hours, and 43 minutes to the start of the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games in London.
Shoot. Now it’s 42 minutes. I need to write fast.
To see a countdown clock, try the London 2012 site. It keeps the clock ticking at the top of the page. Furiously ticking.
10 hours, 41 minutes. And I haven’t even edited this thing yet. It can take a long time to embed a link when you’re in a hurry …
Just to add, briskly: You know, the games don’t actually begin with the Opening Ceremony. Sure, it’s the ritualistic start, but the first competition comes two days sooner — so subtract another 2 days, 05 hours and no minutes if you want to count down to the start of the games.
The two teams squaring off in that first match will be — uh oh. I need to look this up. More time. Gonna kill me. Wait. Right back.
And the answer is Women’s Soccer, First Round, Group E, 4 p.m. start at Millennium Stadium, wherever that is. Well, it’s in Cardiff. Another quick click, and we learn it’s along the banks of the River Taff in Wales. This website tells us everything, as long as we have time to click.
Millennium. Had to double-check that one. 34 minutes.
Match will be Great Britain vs. New Zealand. Good, the host team leads off the games. As it should be. Probably favored over those nimble Kiwis. Well, I looked them up. Another word might be improving. Watch out for those Football Ferns, as the team is called in New Zealand. Captain Rebecca Smith, who is quite excellent, says this about the lead-off match against the Brits:
“To play Great Britain in the opening game of the entire Olympics, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
16 days, 10 hours, 31 minutes.
Let me just hedge her bet a bit here and remark that, if Captain Smith scores a couple of flashy goals (which is always possible) to lead her Football Ferns to an upset win, it actually will get a lot better. This is the danger of using cliches. But she is being humble and sporting, so we’ll cheer her for that. No telling how many sound-alike questions she’s had to field about this in the past 2 months, 20 days and too many minutes. Plus, she must be nervous about now. The whole world will be watching.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Did you know that at the Beijing games in 2008, during any average one minute of the broadcasts going around the world, 160 million people were watching Olympic events on TV. (I found this in an IOC report compiling audience statistics on television and online use during Beijing Olympic broadcasts. Took awhile, though.)
When the Football Ferns play, theirs will be the only event. Gulp.
Let me admit the truth now. We’re down to 10 hours, 06 minutes. This is embarrassing, but the facts are right. The story is done. Kind of. I can always add more later.
I’m not setting any Olympic speed records today. Maybe later. I’m in training, like the Ferns. Anything can happen. Cue the anthem.
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Just a little wheel longer: Kevin will be sitting on this bus for a short two more days before Okinawa Christian School International finishes for its school year.
We live quite a distance from the school, so he has been riding an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon most of the time. I’m not sure he’ll miss the bus so much, but he has declared several times that he’s sorry to see the school year end.
He has made good friends, enjoyed his teachers (as well as the small class sizes) and done very well academically. I could brag more, but that’s enough.
OCSI operates on an American-type school schedule because, I suppose, so many of the parents are affiliated or retired from the U.S. military activities here on the island. The schedule fits those who must connect with American schools, including other Department of Defense sponsored schools around the world.
Lots of fathers of Kevin’s classmates are retired, but they’ve stayed here either with civilian jobs or because of family connections. The one point almost all OCSI students share is this: Their moms are Japanese.
Thus, OCSI is an international school with an interesting (and logical) thread of homogeneity.
Meanwhile, my university chugs along on the normal, Japanese schedule. We’re moving into Week No. 10 of a total of 17 weeks. Final exams end in the second week of August.
Evidence about Okinawa: This rear-view photo may not astonish, but it tells a lot about what we are experiencing in our part of the island. To wit:
— In this typhoon-famous location, concrete is the answer. Most every structure is built to endure lashing winds. Here we see a new home going up, with another interesting concrete design behind it. And a ubiquitous concrete-block fence and power poles, too.
— As residential roads go, this is relatively wide. It’s also new, hence new construction. Not so long ago, the hilltop that used to be here was, well, lopped off in favor of new housing. We’re in a developing neighborhood.
— Where no buildings rise, grass and weeds do. I think that says it all.
— For those monitoring our 13-year-old’s progress, you can note that he is now much taller than his mom. They were the same height when we arrived 10 months ago.
— The ocean is never far. That light blue on the horizon is Nakagusuku Bay.
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