Expo part 2: All day, everyday...

I have become a huge Expo nerd. I read about it on blogs, follow Expo news, and this whole past week at the magazine office, I've been researching the Asian/Middle Eastern pavilions for our next issue. I know all sorts of random facts about the buildings, architects and about Haibao (the official story is actually a lie, I met a close friend of the designer of the mascot who told me about the original design). I see the event as just a huge branding opportunity for countries, while their talk of "sustainability" and "better life" is mostly just talk. Still, the buildings and designs are why I have spent 20+ hours there already.

My two lovely flagship friends from Nanjing were in town this weekend, so we went to the Expo on Friday. The weather was terrible--grey skies and constant drizzling--but it was perfect for Expo visiting since the crowds weren't too terrible (only 382,100 people!) We were naive enough to think that we could visit the China pavilion...but upon arrival we learned that reservation tickets start at 7 AM and are always out by the time the gates open at 9. We had to be satisfied with taking photos of the enormous red structure from afar.

To avoid the long lines and the inevitable queue rage, we visited not so popular pavilions, like New Zealand, Cambodia, Columbia, and the Caribbean joint pavilions. While none of those were particularly exciting, it was still nice to catch a glimpse of what those countries are about...that is, if you look past the 3D movie hype and ubiquitous claims about sustainability.

We did wait in fairly long lines for Spain, Denmark, and Mexico. We didn't wait at all for Peru, since we told the guard we wanted to eat the restaurant and he just let us right in (expensive food but so delicious). At night, Kamla and Melody went off to see the US pavilion, while Michael and I did France, Switzerland and Australia in record time.

Some photos:
China.

Denmark. The Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen.

Spain. We waited more than an hour for this one and it was worth it for the giant robot baby that cried bubbles and smiled. Uncanny valley, seriously.

Trash in the French line... trash everywhere.

Switzerland. Michael got us in, because il est Suiss. He couldn't stop laughing at this guy though, because he's apparently so typical Swiss.

Australia. The best Expo movie experience, I highly recommend it.

Japanese corporate pavilion. "Hello, we have Hello Kitty for sale!"

We were so beat by the time we finally got home. And I had to get up early the next day...to go back to the Expo for work.