The Expo

The day finally arrived. Today I went to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China with Tom, Fanny, and Thomas.

Before I even arrived at the Expo, my day was off to a flying start. We had planned to extend our stay at our hostel for a few more days, but we found out that no twin rooms were available. Our plan was to meet up with Fanny and Thomas at 8am, which meant we had to pack up our room fast.

We hastily packed our room and set out to Fanny's hotel where we would leave our bags all day. One step out of the door and one of the receptionists at the hostel calls out to ask us if we've found a place to stay yet, just as she hangs up a telephone. It turns out somebody just canceled a reservation and we could continue staying in our room for one night. Back we went, dropped off the bags and headed to meet our friends, if only fifteen minutes late.

As it stands, we do not know where we'll be staying tomorrow night and are hoping that something clears up by morning. There are dormitory spaces available, but Tom prefers the twin, so the search will continue.


On to the Expo! Before the 35 degree weather got to us, we managed to enter the following five pavilions:

• Australia - was recommended by others, and had an awesome theatre, but awful content
• Belgium - free chocolate!
• Italy - the favourite by far; simply gorgeous; really awesome vertical orchestra.
• Canada - the bike-driven video was neat, and so was the reactive pond, but the gloomy closing video was in poor taste. Oh, and there were these men wearing very strange costumes running around, which was surprising.
• North Korea - hide your children, hide your wife

It seemed for the most part the pavilions were more interesting from the outside.








Anyway, it was a good day. I've been inundated with activity for the past few, however, and I really could use some rest, so I'm just taking it easy tonight. Perhaps tomorrow will include a visit to the Bund.