Going to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, By Qandagha Faryad

During summer holidays I received a phone call from my school: they wanted to give me a ticket for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games because they said I am a good student.  At the beginning I was scared because my friend showed me a movie on Youtube about bomb threats during the Olympics.  My cousin told me that I was very lucky to have the chance to go and if I was not going, I should give the ticket to him.  He advised me to go.  Moreover, the college told me I could not give the ticket to another person, so I decided to go.

On Friday, 27 July 2012, I went to the Olympic Stadium.  When I was there and watched all around, I was really impressed to see all those flowers, lights and many people performing.  The Olympic village was also very beautiful.  I saw a lot of police and a lot of people.  There was no space to sit and I stood for more than 4 hours near the mountain with all the flags of the countries.  Somebody passed me an Olympic flag and I waved it.  I also saw a lot of fireworks and, inside the stadium, a lot of artists performing with costumes.  Among them there were also some children acting and I wondered about how they could manage to do that with so many people watching and without being confused!

Despite being there and enjoying the show, after a while I did not know what to do because I was alone.  After the ceremony finished I decided to go home.  I tried to go home by bus but it was full of people so I walked home.  I enjoyed going there and I think I was really lucky to see the ceremony because many of my friends did not have the chance to go.

Qandagha is originally from Afghanistan and has lived in London for four years, since he was 14.  He lives in Stratford and attends Newham College - Stratford.