2010 Winter Olympics

As I sit here watching the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics I'm surprised at how entertaining I found them.  I'm not a puff and fluff type of guy when watching any type of ceremonial programming.  I prefer to watch the meat of the program, however I was pleasantly surprised while watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.  The set up and execution of the acts, choreograph, music, and stage was exceptional.  The projection onto the stage was especially well done.  The detail and interaction of the scenery projected onto the stage with the people was very well choreographed.  It was so well done there were times my kids asked it some of it was real such as when they made the stage look like water and had whales swim through as they blew from their blowholes.
One thing that I found interestingly notable, when they were having the athletes come into the stadium most received a warm welcome, however, when the United States athletes came in the reception was substantially louder in approval.  Funny, I thought we were not very well liked outside our own country.  Apparently we are more popular than many news organizations and politicians would have you believe.  It was heartwarming to hear the emphatic applause that went up upon our athletes entrance.  It was nice to hear that we are not as loathed as we are led to believe.  Perhaps we need to redefine our perceptions of what other countries really think of us?  We may find we are amongst friends more than we know.