This past Friday, I attended a Flora’s Film Friday in which we watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. While it was fun to see the US walk in and the personalities of some of the other countries, the story of the games revolves around the host country, Korea. North and South Korea made the controversial decision to compete under one joint flag, despite being two very different countries for half a decade. South Korea is the true host country and is one of the leaders in technological advances and has a rich culture under a free, democratic government. North Korea is a dictatorship in which its citizens are essentially slaves to their government. This makes the decision of the unification trickier, as the Kim regime in North Korea is one of the deadliest in the world. However, the risk of resisting for the Olympics is the lives of every athlete present.

Despite the unification for the two weeks, the opening ceremonies featured the culture of South Korea in the limelight and it created a great experience. There was a unique combination of cultural dances that are centuries old with technology on the forefront of modern capacities. There are few countries who could produce a performance tying new and old so effectively and the Koreans did a great job with it. If the opening ceremonies are any indication, despite controversies, the Olympics will be a fantastic event and the closing ceremonies will be spectacular.