Expo part 1

Last night, the Europeans and I went to check out the Expo, since there are discounted tickets starting at 4 PM. Anna and Werner wanted to see a Swedish band playing at the Europe Square and I just wanted to see the buildings.

The site is absolutely huge. We entered from the corporate side and were impressed by two things: the size, and the lack of people. After hearing reports of the chaos at the Expo, it seems like attendance is not going how the planners expected. We went to the GM pavilion where we watched a truly magical 4D film. We waited an hour for it, but it was worth it for all the surprises. Watching Chinese people frantically push their way into the theater even though there are enough seats was also amusing...and irritating. Afterwards we took the ferry over to the Pudong side where all the country pavilions are. Again, all the Chinese people made a mad dash for the boat as soon as the gate opened, shouting "Hurry run!" as if the boat would leave without them.

We only had time to walk around the European Square, which had much more people than the corporate pavilions. As expected, all the bigger countries had fancy pavilions: Spain and its giant wicker basket, Germany and its hulking steel mass (supposedly the program is really interesting), France with its lit-up lattice facade. The smaller countries, like Belarus, were basically just painted boxy warehouses. Romania had a surprisingly interesting pavilion, which is like a giant green apple with a bite taken out of it.

The Dutch Happy Street totally exceeded my expectations. I had to transcribe/translate an interview with John Kormeling, the architect, and his description of his design just sounded unorganized and crazy. Yesterday I got to see that it is definitely unorganized and crazy but in a good Alice in Wonderland meets futuristic carnival sort of way. There are no lines, since people can walk freely through the figure-eight street. The "buildings" showcased Dutch designers' work and there were plastic sheep sculptures you can move around at the bottom. Everywhere around are colored lights and somewhere bells are tinkling creepily. I think it showed many aspects of Dutch culture and design and was incredibly fun to walk through. But not all of the "nice" pavilions had cool programs. Austria's pavilion was pretty boring; they're trying to simulate Austria's beautiful nature, so you get to throw "snowballs" and walk through projected forests and ponds but the effect doesn't match up to the description.

The concert started at 8, with modern Swedish folk music. The band we came to see, Those Dancing Days, was after and they were a lot of fun. Five girls, dressed like they're from the 80's, playing indie-pop. At the end, some crazy American guy got into the seated area and managed to get the entire audience up and dancing. The volunteers who were blocking the entrance were helplessly pushed aside as Chinese guys excitedly ran in (of course, no Chinese girls dance.) It was one giant party.

I am looking forward to going back to the Expo this Friday when some friends come to visit...lots of pavilions on my list.