Winter Olympics!

Сочи

I love the Olympics. Whether it’s summer or winter, Europe or Canada, Olympic or Paralympic, I will be watching and downloading 500 apps on my phone to stay constantly updated on every event throughout the games. I am glued to the games from the opening to the closing ceremonies. I love watching the parade of nations, the medal ceremonies, and the crazy celebrations of the host nations. The Sochi games have been extra exciting because I started taking Russian in my sophomore year. While I ended up only taking 3 semesters (studying abroad and finishing my degree have gotten in the way!), I quickly fell in love with the language and still use little phrases every day. Listening to the announcements in French, English, and Russian is my ultimate trifecta: “speaking” all three languages. I feel like the modern language department at William & Mary has prepared me specifically to fully appreciate these Olympics.

Ultimately, while I like both the summer and winter Olympics, I’m all about the Winter Games for one reason: hockey. I love hockey more than I love the Olympics. Coming from Boston, it’s not particularly surprising that hockey is my favorite sport, but the Olympics are a tough time for NHL fans. As a Bruins fan, there were 5 Bruins players playing on 5 different teams, and then I was also cheering for Team USA. That’s 6 of the 12 teams that I was cheering for. While I’m all about Gold for Team USA, I definitely wanted the Bruins players to do well and come back to the States with some Olympic hardware. USA! É-U! США!

– Kate Fitzgerald