Parade of Nations

I love the Parade of Nations. I know it sounds geeky, but when I can, I watch the whole thing. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. I love the athletes taking pictures of the crowd, while the crowd is taking their pictures. I love the wait until the letter "T" to cheer for my home team, Turkey. I love to see the giants of the Olympics; USA, Russia and Germany. And, of course, I love the smallish countries with a single flag-bearer, saying "Here we are!" and I love the roar they get from the crowd. To me the Parade of Nations symbolizes the core message of the Olympics.


In case you are not as sentimental as I am and need to be incentivized, here is a drinking game:


Drink and cheer for:


- Your home country,
- Your parents' home country, if not same as your own,
- Your grandparents' home country, if not same as your own (and so on and so forth. If you like genealogy, this is your game!),
- Your significant other's home country,
- The country your significant other lives in if not same as yours (add two bonus drinks since you are in an international long-distance relationship, three if different continent),
- Your significant other's parents', grandparents'... you know the drill.
- Your best friend's home country,
- Your coworkers' home countries (do a double for the boss's country),
- Every country you have been to (layovers don't count),
and last but not least
- Any country that has less than 4 athletes.


If you are not drunk at the end of this, you may need to diversify a bit. I will be playing the game with Gatorade tonight, since I have a long run tomorrow.

World map from Free World Maps.