Viva la Mexico! Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame
Can’t believe that after months and months of work on the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, I’m finally here in Mexico City for the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame! And its OVER already 
But nonetheless, it was a blast!!
I didn’t get off to a great start at the start of my journey though… I flew United Airlines, and was appalled, first of all, that they don’t have personal entertainment screens even for long-haul flights!! Anyway it didn’t really matter coz I slept through 90% of the journey anyway, from Singapore to Tokyo and from there to San Francisco. When I got to the San Fran airport, I had an hour to make it from one flight to another, so when I saw the queue at Customs, I was so scared I wouldn’t make it.
And when I told an officer I only had an hour till my next flight, all he said was, it’s ok, they’ll put you on another one – WTH!! So anyway I made it through customs in about 45min, barely in time for my next flight. Then I went to the gate only to find that the flight had been delayed by 4 hours So I bought a book, sat around and read till it was time. At the time of boarding (no earlier, mind you), UA made an announcement saying the crew had was nearing their quote of hours of work in a day according to US labour laws, so the flight was postponed till the next morning!
Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco
Obviously there was a lot of complaining, fighting, whatever… and eventually they got us all accommodation near the hotel for the night. I was completely uncontactable coz my mobile phone and laptop battery were both dying, with all my chargers and adapters in my luggage at the airport. It wasn’t all bad though, I made some Mexican friends, with whom I shared a cab down to Fisherman’s Wharf. They went on a tour, but I decided to take a walk, get a Ghirardelli Quake Shake – which is awesome, by the way!! I had a chocolate, peanut butter shake, that’s made from real Ghirardelli chocolate, and the milkshake’s nice and chunky!
So anyway I just took a walk and bought some clothes for the next morning and headed back to the hotel. Good thing my layover was in San Fran, not in some unsafe place where I wouldn’t be able to go out on my own 
I eventually got to Mexico City a day late, and by the time, I think I had been traveling for 48 hours. Then the next day I sat through the longest meeting I’ve ever had in my life – but it was an experience! Then Luis, my colleague from Ogilvy PR, and a couple of other people from Mexico took me out to dinner after.
We went to 50 Friends, an Italian restaurant at a really high-end shopping mall, whose name I can’t remember. Dinner was nice, I had some Mexican wine which was pretty good! Then we headed out partying, not sure where either, which was good fun! It was a mix of pop and spanish music, and again I believe that all Spanish guys can dance salsa like gods. I’m good at it at all, but they do it so well, you feel like you actually know how to dance!
And then, my favourite part of the night – I had tacos out of the back of a van!! The tacos were alright, I had to have just a cheese quesadilla, coz everything else was beef, but just the idea of it was so exciting!
The next few days are a blur of activity, as we prepared for the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame in Mexico City. I went to the Ogilvy Mexico office several times, which is gorgeous! That’s a picture of me, Luis, Marta and Miguel at the lobby
At the lobby of the Ogilvy Mexico office
I even went on some site recces, including a visit to Hidalgo Gardens at Coyoacan, which is gorgeous! We made a quick pit stop into the St John Baptise Church as well, which is worth seeing! Coyoacan is one of the areas of the city in which the colonial legacy can really be appreciated; some decades ago it used to be located on the outskirts of the city and it is now located entirely in it, but it still conserves its traditional Mexican character, which in addition to its beautiful plazas, streets and houses, has attracted a great number of artists, and has given it a pleasant intellectual atmosphere.
At Hidalgo Gardens, Coyoacan
Inside the St John Baptist Church
And then finally all the preparations were done, and the Flame arrived in Mexico City. It’s first stop was the Universidad Iberamericana (UIA), which is a very important private university in Mexico. It hosts many large scale events, and has even hosted Michelle and Barrack Obama before, apparently. Some pictures from the event and press conference:
Preparing for the arrival of the Flame
The main event area - taekwondo demonstration
That's me with the young Mexican athletes coming to Singapore 2010!
The atmosphere at the event was brilliant, as you can see from the video!
The crowd proper, when the event began
At the press conference
Inez, our gorgeous presenter
That night we were invited to the Mexican Olympic Committee (MOC) for a very fancy dinner!
That's me and Wai Leng with Merly and Lyo, the Singapore 2010 mascots - aren't they adorable?
There were these weird, fancy stilt-walkers at the dinner...
And some very fancy table centrepieces
And that's the Ogilvy PR team at the dinner... Luis and Marta from Mexico, and Stephanie and me from Singapore
The next morning, the Flame went to several iconic sites in Mexico City, and while I wasn’t there myself, I’ve included some pictures that the team took…
SYOGOC chairman (Mr Ng Ser Miang), the Coyoacan mayor with the athletes hold up the torch and the safety lantern
The Coyoacan mayor holds up the torch with a bunch of enthusiastic Mexican kids
Cutting a cake that says "Bienvenidos" which means "Welcome" at the Angel of Independence
Mariachi players at the Angel of Independence as the cake was being cut
After the Angel of Independence, the Flame headed to Zocalo, a historic square in Mexico City. Unfortunately at the time, it was raining pretty heavily, and none of us were sure that the City Celebrations at Zocalo were even happening. The Flame had to be re-routed to the Government Palace of Mexico City, which was really grand – unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a nice shot.
After a while though, the rain stopped, and we were able to proceed with the celebrations at Zocalo, and I’m glad we did, because it was fantastic! The pictures speak for themselves…
City Celebrations Stage
Crowds clamouring for Singapore 2010 merchandise like wristbands and tattoos
They liked the tattoos so much people were putting them on there itself!
The Flame on stage, with a young athlete and Merly & Lyo
She then proceeded to light the cauldron...
That's when the fireworks began!
I managed to catch a segment of the fireworks display, as well as the last 20seconds, take a look!
Following that was the Singapore Showcase, as well as performances by some Mexican bands. All in all, a great celebration!
The next day, which is today, I spent the earlier part of the day at the Pyramids in Teotihuacan with Chairman, CEO and some of the team. And tomorrow I’m headed to Six Flags with Luis! I’ll post about the Pyramids and Six Flags again soon, so keep a lookout!
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That’s so awesome! I really do envy your job
. All I ever get to see overseas are power plants and oil rigs (and angry customers). Looking forward to your next post!
The Angel of Independence is a hella cool name for a monument btw.
Hahah! Well there was a TON of work that went along with all of that… sleep had to be sacrificed, but its all worth it for Mexico City! And I have yet to post about the fun part, keep a lookout, but it’ll probably only come once I’m back in Singapore