The Olympic Spirit in SF

Boy was the spirit of the Olympics ever-present at the Torch run protests today! Everyone showed strong team participation and competitiveness. Check it:

Team China:

Team Tibet:

Team Burma:

Team Darfur (represented by the green balloons):

Team Vietnamese Fisherman:

Team Friendlies (yes, that’s what the Mascots are called):

Team Lion Dancing:

Team Fudan (represented by the blue flag-i have to give a shoutout to the university where I was last summer):

and my favorite, Team Athletes:

Where did all these people come from? How did they start “cheering” on their respective teams? Where were they before all this? Are they JUST starting to protest now? I felt a little left out, like I should have been holding a sign or something.

Here’s my chat with Melissa after we left:

Me: I just bought sek lau jup (guava juice from a store in chinatown)
Melissa: I just bought a mocha
Me: guess that means I’m pro-China and you’re pro-America.

Can I just be pro-people?

Side notes: My pictures are pretty horrible here. For better pictures, see Scott Beale’s post and Rockbandit’s flickr set.

This was also the first event that I used Twitter. With the torch route so unpredictable, it was awesome to get real time info/updates from folks all around the city, especially @laughingsquid.