shanghai expo 2010

Okay guys. It's the post you've all been waiting for...the Shanghai World Expo 2010 post! Get excited! Go on, go make your popcorn and settle into your favorite chair because this is gonna be a beaut.

I left Nanjing on the 6:30 am train (yes, that means I got up at 4:30, showered, finished packing and left the dorm at 5:30) with Garbo, Delphine and Laura (all of the British persuasion, but we love them anyway :D) and arrived in Shanghai at around 9:30 am. On Saturday, we managed to snag Guest passes into the Asian X Games where we hung out for most of the morning, watching people roll down ramps in giant hamster balls the color of Mountain Dew (in other words, one of the best days ever).

After seeing hundreds of different flips one can do on a skateboard, Jazza (British) and Lee (Canadian, so I had at least one fellow North American with me to argue that it's not "aluminium" it's aluminum :) ) and I went wandering around Shanghai (read: walked around Shanghai and made snarky comments). It was while wandering that I found the best bakery in all of China:

















After wandering around, we all met back up and ate a vegetarian restaurant, aka a restaurant where the chefs make meat-like foods out of veggies. The food is really good, which surprises a lot of people.

We made our way over to the Bund, which I think I mentioned in a much earlier post (around February). It's the old European section of Shanghai, so all the buildings are very old-school European architecture. Anyway, Garbo, Delph and Laura and I were beginning to fade since we had been up since 4:30ish so we all hopped in a 黑车, which is basically an unmarked cab that takes you to your destination for a set price. It was very sketchy and I was convinced that we were all about to go on an Albanian adventure like in the movie Taken, but I was so exhausted I didn't care.

Sunday was EXPO DAY! (It's in all caps because it was awe.some.) Woke up at 5:30 to take our bags to the train station and then head to the Expo (the train station and the Expo park are on opposite sides of town and we wanted to get in the entry line at least an hour before it opened). So we rushed to train station, dumped our bags and rushed to the Expo park where we encountered this mass of people:

















The line moved fairly fast, so we got into the Expo at about 9:15 and immediately headed to the ferry to cross the river over to the country pavilions.

First on our list was the UK pavilion because it was supposed to look like a giant pincushion. And it did not disappoint:

The inside was just as cool because the "needles" had plastic handles with different kinds of seeds found in Britain in them:

After the UK pavilion, we wandered into the Africa pavilion where there was traditional, live African dancing going on:

After Africa, Garbo and I split off to head to the USA! Where I took an obscene amount of pictures.

Yes, a rando Chinese popped into my pic. Oh well.

I may or may not have bought an "I <3 USA Pavilion" t shirt. And a USA Pavilion hat. It may have come with an obnoxious American flag bag that I adore. You can hate me now, it's cool. I'm kind of disgusted with myself.

After the US pavilion, Garbo and I headed to Ireland, the home of my ancestors! They had many a pic of Bono, Westlife, Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy, as well as castle pictures. We bobbed in and out of various pavilions but the one I really want to tell y'all about was the North Korea pavilion.

Yep. North Korea had a pavilion. The question most asked of me about the North Korean pavilion is, "Is there a nuke in it?" No. But there was grainy footage from the 80s/mid 90s showing smiling and healthy North Koreans dancing around with ribbons. And it was sunny. We all know the sun doesn't shine in North Korea, who are they fooling?

We spent literally 11 hours wandering around the Expo, and towards the end, after not having waited in line for more than 15 minutes the entire day, we decided to venture into China. (PS-after incorrectly assuming that Starbucks would be by the American pavilion--because seriously, who loves Starbucks more than Americans??--we found it by China. Sneaky ninjas.)

And then my camera battery died. So you'll just have to take my word for it that China was amazing. They had split the space by province so it was like traveling from one province to another and it was just fantastic.

So, with my feet despising me with every step I took, we headed off to the train station at midnight. And after a grueling 4 hour train ride with various poultry chirping desperately to be let out, we arrived in Nanjing, where I promptly went to my bed and passed out for 12 hours. Expo for the win!

Much love!