of flying trams and smoky scenes

ah, the commonwealth games. twelve days of horrendously packed trains, people wearing whiteturquoisefluroorange tops and huge identification tags.

i was one of the few thousand people who got the opportunity of being right there with all the fireworks, the flying tram and a duck. and the atmosphere is so amazingly different than watching it on tv. mexican waves went round the stadium at least twice nonstop, the second loudest cheers for the countries that had the smalles amount of people (the loudes went to the home team, of course!), standing ovations for the australian contingent, everyone singing the national anthem with such gusto, the oohs and ahhs...there's so much more. being there definitely was an opportunity of a lifetime. i can finally cross it off my list.

i don't think they broadcasted the preceremony entertainment, but there was a carpeted cricket pitch with wheelie bins for wickets. some old and notsoold cricketeers played a friendly backyard match. then we had the rehearsals we had to do like the countdown, when to stand for the national anthem and the turning on of the starlights we were given (they were free!!! oh, i'm so asian...) and we could actually hear the orchestrated cheering from the crowd on the yarra!

the night felt shorter than the time that passed and pretty soon, were were walking out the doors of the mcg and into the cool night. we had the option of either taking a tram to flinders st station, walking to richmond station or walking to jolimont station. we were going in the direction of the trams when we saw how packed it was trying to get in...so we ended up walking all the way to flinders street station (a good 20minutes). i'm glad we did because by the time we reached richmond station, the streets outside the station were packed with people trying to get onto the already crowded platforms. wow. i'm glad we walked the extra 10minutes.

what a night. by the time i got to bed it was 1am. and i looked like this picture on the right.